The Atlantic's Heather Horn wrote, "The political story of the afternoon is President Obama's address to the House Republican retreat and the riveting Q&A session that followed. Commentators are delighted by the frank exchanges and unscripted debate that unfolded. Several are comparing it to the famous rough-and-tumble of British parliamentary politics. In fact, both liberals and conservatives want to see more, and there's a distinct bipartisan feeling that this may have been one of the president's better moves."
Here's The President's opening remarks:
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Here's the Q&A:
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Salon's Mike Madden wrote,
The whole thing [Q&A] basically went like [this]: Republican asks obnoxious question rooted in Glenn Beck-ian talking points; Obama swats it away, makes the questioner look silly, and then smiles at the end. It got so bad, in fact, that Fox News cut away from the event before it was over. Democratic operatives around Washington watching it had pretty much the same reaction: "Where the hell has this guy been?" One source said GOP aides probably wished they'd spoken to John McCain "about what happened to him in the presidential debates" before they broadcast the event. "It's quite a show," a White House official said, apparently going for the same deadpan tone the president was.
At the conference, The President reiterated his State of the Union address plea for bipartisanship on health care and other economic issues: The confernce transcript; The full video of the conference.
I suspect that the "conservatives" hoping for more of this sort of interaction between the administration and the GOP are thinking conservatives, not the
Update: Replaced the YouTube intro with CBS' original. Added Q&A from MSNBC.
Update: PolitiFact has fact-checked the Q&A and found Representative Price's assertion that there was a consensus in the administration that Republicans were trying to obstruct healthcare reform — were failing to offer ideas and solutions — was a true statement. PolitiFact did not find that the President's response to Price's initial question was false. The President truthfully answered Price's question. Essentially, after The President smacked-down Price's assertion that in his State of the Union address the President had said that Republicans hadn't offered any ideas or solutions, Price began whining about the administration's characterization of the Republicans' obstructionism during the legislative process.
Update: Andrew Sullivan asks his conservative and libertarian friends to look at the healthcare issue pragmatically rather than ideologically.
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