Obama calls Americans 'lazy' during town hall overseas

Should a U.S. president ever criticize U.S. citizens?

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PRESIDENT OBAMA CALLS AMERICANS 'LAZY' DURING TOWN HALL OVERSEAS

Gina Loudon: He's really giving a socialist message here. He’s trying to say that because America is a free market, if we were more regulated by the government, we would somehow be cleaner. The big fat lie from the left is that in the actuality is that we are the freest and cleanest country in the world and he needs to get his facts straight.

Mercedes Schlapp: He's throwing a tantrum because of the fact that congress has not moved forward on his very radical environmental agenda. He's moved forward obviously on so many of these regulations, especially on the coal industry causing electricity prices to go up. So there are these big challenges for the president. I think it is very easy for him to just point the finger at Americans, saying, oh, we are not lazy or picking up after ourselves.

Jessica Tarlov: President Obama was being diplomatically lazy when he used that term. The better term would have been easy, actually. Because we have such a vast, culturally rich country in America, that sometimes Americans don't travel abroad. We know that 46 percent of Americans don't have a passport. We also know our passport is the fifth most expensive in the world and that should be dealt with. So I think if he made that point to talk about how important it is for Americans to engage with others across the world, it would have gone down a lot better.

Kristen Soltis Anderson: We'll take the cleaning metaphor where if you're a parent and you've got a kid whose room is messy, you can tell your kid, hey, you need to clean up your room. If all of a sudden you're running around the neighborhood telling everybody, my kid is so terrible, and you’re the kid, you're not going to like that, right? It's one thing to say, we need to get more creative, we should be more innovative. There are a lot of people that do things to promote clean energy, but there are 18 million layers of regulation to get through to make it happen. Let's deal with that and let people be creative instead of hand-stringing them with all kinds of regulation.

NEW QUESTIONS AFTER HILLARY CLINTON HOLDS HER FIRST PRESS CONFERENCE IN 278 DAYS

Mercedes Schlapp: I don't know if they are soft on her but they are scared of asking the tough questions. There's so much material right now to ask about. There’s the Clinton Foundation and the relationship with the state department, her convoluted response to the e-mail server and whether it's a heading or classified information. There are so many unanswered questions that I think these reporters are definitely giving her an easy pass on.

Kristen Soltis Anderson: First, off lot of folks that know this is a very guarded candidate. They don't want to miss their shot and don't want to be out of the inner circle. If you're the kind of journalist asking questions that are really annoying, do you risk losing that access that you have? And the second thing that is driving this is that a lot of the reporters are process junkies, they love stuff about who fund-raised what? What is the narrative? What is the message? Rather than asking tough policy questions.

Jessica Tarlov: First of all, she was pressed about defining her stance on no ground troops, having them in Iraq and Syria. So that was serious. The double standard one has been a pervasive one throughout this election. So I do actually think that’s the important. Seven questions, baby steps, we'll get ten next time, then 15. This is the first time Hillary Clinton has been in full view for the press.

Gina Loudon: Here's another example of where it seems like basic math is a challenge for those trying to write the narrative in the mainstream media. And that is the reality that they asked Donald Trump 16 questions, asked Hillary seven questions. If anything was uneven here, it was that Donald trump was more interrogated than Hillary Clinton. The bottom line is that Hillary doesn't want to talk about all of her lies, her scandal, her cover-up, the hammer to her phone; the list goes on and on. She isn't available to media.

INTERFAITH GROUP WANTS WORDS 'ISLAMIC TERRORISTS' REMOVED FROM 9/11 MONUMENT

Kristen Soltis Anderson: I think you shouldn't change what is already there. In the days immediately following 9/11, you had president bush very clear, we are not at war with Islam. But it is true that the terrorists attacked America because of radical Islamic beliefs. So I don't think they should change the memorial.

Gina Loudon: These are the same people that want to take God out of all the national monuments, God out of the libraries, schools, everything else. They want to make sure to protect the people that kill us. It makes no sense at all. It's too pc.

Jessica Tarlov: No, the liberal likes history and history shows they were Islamic terrorists. I have always said I want that to be the term used in conversation about this and should stay as it is, obviously.

Mercedes Schlapp: I think it is important to have the dialogue, especially with moderate Muslims in the U.S., to talk about why, for example, using the term Islamic terrorist would be insulting for them. Obviously, we know that the terrorists took Islam, radicalized it and distorted the religion, which is incredibly, obviously discouraging. But at the same time, you know, I don't think they need to change it. It is one of the few times we can all agree that it shouldn't be changed. It is what it is. It's history. It's a fact. But I do believe that part of this has to be a bigger, greater discussion with Muslims across the country.