OBAMA'S 100-DAY PRESS CONFERENCE

President Obama held his 100-day presser last night. My thoughts from notes taken during the press conference.

Initial remarks:

PC enforcement - swine flu is now the H1N1 virus.

I thought we elected a President, not a Nanny-in-Chief.

He wants credit card companies to reduce fees and interest rates. Is this something really worthy of presidental interest?

Now to the questions:

(1) HEALTH CARE & (2) AUTO INDUSTRY - The government has a responsibility to the American people. My goal is to ... (stay in control).

(3) TORTURE & (4) TORTURE FOLLOW-UP - did the previous Administration sanction torture? Obama waffled; didn’t answer directly. His take - we could have gotten the information other ways. England didn’t torture the Germans during WWII (but neither did Germany torture the English - however imperfectly, both followed the Geneva Convention for POWs).

(5) SECURITY OF PAKISTANI NUKES - Asked if he would guarantee the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, he turned the question to non-military aid. Did make a veiled threat about U.S. military action within Pakistani borders.

(6) IRAQ TIMETABLE - nothing new.

(7) ARLEN SPECTER - nothing of interest.

(8) FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT - Clinton-esque waffle; the usual safe, legal, and rare.

(9) SURPRISED/TROUBLED/ENCHANTED/HUMBLED - Obama used “humbled” to laud the military (they obey orders from their CinC).

(10) IMMIGRATION REFORM - A complete waffle; nothing useful said.

(11) HELP FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS - a bit of a surprise at the lack of direct pandering, but his answer could be read as “I’m helping the poor; all blacks are poor; so what are you complaining about?”

(12) STATE SECRETS - no surprise; state secrets are important when you are the state.

(13) SHAREHOLDER OF LARGE CORPORATIONS - soft fascism again; governtment control without ownership.

END NOTE: Again there were exactly 13 questions; and again the questioners were pre-selected from a list on the podium. Why did the other correspondents bother to attend?