News conference

My overall reaction to President Obama's first full news conference last night: Wow !! He really does understand all this. Imagine george bush standing up there for an hour discussing the economy, fielding questions in such a way as to turn each one into a teaching opportunity, being able to explain it all. After repeating his memorized mantras "times are tough" and "tax cuts" a few times, he wouldn't have anything to say.

Obama was very clear in his answer to "what will be the measure of success of the plan?" First, job creation; second, get credit flowing again; third, the housing market; and fourth, consumer spending. We all tend to look at the stock market; that wasn't even on his list.

Again and again, I see how, where I would want to get in a dig at the opposition, he takes the high road. Not that he doesn't speak bluntly where it's necessary, like hitting back at those who complain about too much spending in the economic recovery package, when they themselves had presided over a doubling of the national debt. And those who keep insisting on policies that helped get us into the fix we're in, fiscal policies that have proven not to work.

But he differentiates those with responsible arguments based on different viewpoints from those who are just playing politics.

And he's not going to be quick to give up on building bipartisan cooperation, as I would. He says it's going to take time to break old habits. This time he got three Republicans in the Senate. It was enough to get the bill passed. He's looking down the road to health care and other hard sells that will need them and more.

Great line from last night, and a challenge: "I am the eternal optimist. I think that over time people respond to civility and rational argument."

Ralph