First of all, the press conference was designed to rally support for Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion, with a t, budget, which has frightened many members of Congress. That kind of spending could lead to bankruptcy if the economy continues to be weak.
While the president was authoritative Tuesday night, he was also dull and repetitive. Only a few times did he connect with the folks. Here's one of them:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With respect to the American people, I think folks are sacrificing left and right. You've got a lot of parents who are cutting back on everything to make sure that their kids can still go to college. You've got workers who are deciding to cut an entire day's worth of pay so that their fellow co-workers aren't laid off. I think that across the board people are making adjustments large and small to accommodate the fact that we're in very difficult times right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
But most of the time, President Obama gave long-winded answers and evaded direct questions. Here's an example of that:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE TAPPER, ABC NEWS: Will you sign a budget if it does not contain a middle class tax cut, does not contain cap and trade?
OBAMA: Well, I've emphasized repeatedly what I expect out of this budget. I expect that there are serious efforts at health care reform and that we are driving down costs for families and businesses, and ultimately for the federal and state governments that are going to be broke if we continue on the current path. I've said that we've got to have a serious energy policy that frees ourselves from dependence on foreign oil and makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Heard it all before. The president went on and on, never answering that question.
"Talking Points" suspects many Americans missed the singing on "American Idol" Tuesday night but there was some dancing as the president just demonstrated, just a little press conference levity.
All in all, pretty much the same old stuff. Important stuff, but not much new in his presentation.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
If you have kids, you know about the Australian group The Wiggles. They have teamed up with singer Kylie Minogue for a song called "Monkey Man."
Click here to watch "Pinheads & Patriots"!
The proceeds from the record will go to UNICEF and its clean water projects. So the Wiggles and Kylie are patriots.
On the pinhead front, Nadya Suleman, the octuplet mom, has fired a group of nurses who are helping her out free of charge. No surprise for this nutty woman. She says she let the nurses go because they were spying on her. Well, somebody has to, for the sake of the babies. Ms. Suleman remains a pinhead.
— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com
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