Obama loses cool with CNN reporter at press conference

Wednesday, March 25. In a primetime press conference at the White House yesterday, Barack Obama told America that he could see signs of economic re-growth and promised: "We will recover from this recession." The President also used the session - which meant the hugely popular American Idol show had to be pushed to a later time in US television schedules - to promote his $3.6tn budget.

"The budget I submitted to Congress will build our economic recovery on a stronger foundation, so that we do not face another crisis like this 10 or 20 years from now," said the President. And despite an analysis released on Friday by the Congressional budget office suggesting that the new budget will run up a debt of $9.3tn over the next decade, Obama continued: "We have made the tough choices necessary to cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term - even under the most pessimistic estimates."

Writing for the Guardian, Ewan MacAskill noted that Obama's legendary calm was briefly broken when CNN’s White House correspondent Ed Henry repeatedly asked Obama why he had taken so long to respond to the public anger about AIG bonuses (see video below). "The normally cool and controlled president replied sharply: 'It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak,'" reports MacAskill. "The exchange was unusual, both because it is rare to hear US journalists ask Obama hard questions and rare to see Obama in a testy mood. Much of the rest of the press conference was so carefully choreographed, with a long opening statement, it seemed at times like an extended political broadcast."

Writing in the same paper, Michael Tomasky wonders why Obama chose to give a press conference rather than a speech. "I would have thought that on this night – a pretty important night, one on which Obama needed to re-seize control of the news agenda – he'd have gone for the speech," says Tomasky. As for the snappy answer to Henry: "It was nice to hear a president express that sentiment."

For Politico, John Harris and Jonathan Martin have drawn up a guide detailing what Obama said – and what Obama meant. So when the President said that his budget was only a snapshot of what America needs right now, he meant: "Give me a break. As Keynes said, in the long run we are all dead. The country is a wreck right now. We can worry about 2020 later." And on higher taxes for the rich, Obama's message was equally simple, say Harris and Martin: "Suck it up, rich folks, and welcome to your post-Bush tax code."

Writing on his blog, Ezra Klein says that in the current economic climate, questions about any other government policies seem misplaced. "There wasn't a single question about the massive plan to risk a trillion dollars in taxpayer money to save the banking system," notes Klein.

And on the New Republic, Walter Shapiro says that while the conference was hardly comparable to FDR's fireside chats, "t is hard for anyone, even Rush-to-judgment conservative talk-radio fans, to doubt that Barack Obama is in charge."

LAST UPDATED 10:54 AM, MARCH 25, 2009