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WHY DID THE NEW YORK TIMES WANT TO INTERVIEW OBAMA?
For months, the New York Times has been complaining that they've been stiffed by Barack Obama. Tradition has it that the president sits with them for a pre-inauguration interview. Obama didn't. And nor did he give them a quick post-inauguration interview. But he gave them 35 minutes this week. Finally. At long last. The Paper of Record gets a crack at the young president. They asked:
"The first six weeks have given people a glimpse of your spending priorities. Are you a socialist as some people have suggested?"
Obama said no. But these are serious journalists. So they followed up.
"Is there anything wrong with saying yes?"
And then: "So to people who suggested that you are more liberal than you suggested on the campaign, you say, what?"
And then: "Is there one word name for your philosophy? If you’re not a socialist, are you a liberal? Are you progressive? One word?"
The economy is collapsing. The Omnibus bill is flailing in the Senate. The Treasury Department still needs a workable approach to the banks. Why is the New York Times wasting Obama's day -- and their 35 minutes of interview time -- with these gotchas? Did they really think he would slip and admit that his stimulus plan was cadged from a footnote in Das Kapital?
Sigh. In any case, I liked this response from Obama:
Q: Have you gotten a new appreciation at all, or maybe a little sympathy for what your predecessors went through in terms of a president can’t control all the events?
A: Oh, absolutely. Look, I actually appreciated that before I took office. I always felt that a president is accountable for making the best decisions, but that there are going to be a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way. And as I said recently, this is still a human enterprise and these are big, tough, complicated problems. Somebody noted to me that by the time something reaches my desk, that means it’s really hard. Because if it were easy, somebody else would have made the decision and somebody else would have solved it. So typically, if something’s in my folder, it means that you’ve got some very big, difficult, sticky, contradictory issues to be wrestled with.
COMMENTS (18)
Please note that Obama got his revenge. He called back the Times, apparently reporter Jeff Zeleny, to say he thought those were stupid questions.
It is not good for one's future at the Times for the President of the United States to express the belief you're a chump.
Posted by: JMG | March 8, 2009 1:26 PM
The article was a confused mess of topics seemingly fused together without any thought. I kept thinking that someone high/drunk had gone wild with cut and paste.
This is journalism today? Let it die, I say. They dug their grave and jumped into it.
Damn them. Fu*king children without sense or discipline.
I sure wish Obama had met their demand for a label by saying: "President of the United States of America, fuck you very much".
Posted by: JimPortlandOR | March 8, 2009 1:53 PM
or -- the buck stops here.
Posted by: patrick | March 8, 2009 3:23 PM
Oh snap! Take that, Krugman!
Posted by: anonymous | March 8, 2009 3:55 PM
Ask a stupid question, get lengthy, thoughtful, intelligent answer :-P.
Posted by: anonymous | March 8, 2009 3:57 PM
I was thinking the same thing. Though I would have been happy with "progressive", too. I don't see how the right wing could possible make "progressive" sound bad (although perhaps I misunderestimate them).
Posted by: anonymous | March 8, 2009 3:59 PM
"Those progressives are trying to destroy America!" just doesn't seem to have the same ring to it.
Posted by: anonymous | March 8, 2009 4:01 PM
The economy is collapsing. The Omnibus bill is flailing in the Senate. The Treasury Department still needs a workable approach to the banks. Why is the New York Times wasting Obama's day -- and their 35 minutes of interview time -- with these gotchas?
I know! Not one single question about Rahm's preferred topic this week- Rush Limbaugh.
Posted by: kaybeel | March 8, 2009 4:49 PM
It's similar to a quote from Eisenhower:
"No easy matters will ever come to you as President. If they are easy, they will be settled at a lower level," Eisenhower told Kennedy.
Posted by: Nick | March 8, 2009 4:49 PM
He should have spent that 35 minutes talking to the Daily Show's John Oliver instead. (Oliver actually revealed that Bill Clinton is a big fan of 24, much to his surprise and slight alarm.)
Posted by: pseudonymous in nc | March 8, 2009 6:53 PM
By the time he decides to give the Times another interview, they will be in Chapter 11.
Yes, a Daily Show interview would have been much more substantive.
Posted by: lilysmom | March 8, 2009 7:28 PM
Has Brad DeLong already posted a 'why, oh why, can't we have a better press' comment?
I'll go check.
Posted by: Tim | March 8, 2009 8:17 PM
Apparently this very post tipped him off, but ge used a different title, "This Week in Journamalism"
Posted by: Tim | March 8, 2009 8:19 PM
The "Obama is a socialist" meme is quite prevalent among many Americans. It really casts Obama as "the enemy". To many people, it's right to want Obama to fail, since if he succeeds, he will have turned the US into a socialist dictatorship. They see everything Obama does, no matter how innocuous, as a fig leaf to further the imposition of socialism.
SOme may say that this is "par for the ocurse" for partisan rhetoric, but I'm not sure I remember another time when a President was so openly regarded as an enemy.
Posted by: Ming | March 8, 2009 9:31 PM
" ... I'm not sure I remember another time when a President was so openly regarded as an enemy.
I'm assuming you weren't around for Nixon. Sample grafitti from a late '70's student rental at George Washington University: "Avoid needle drugs, the only dope worth shooting is Nixon."
Posted by: spot check billy | March 8, 2009 9:39 PM
Q: "Is there one word name for your philosophy? If you’re not a socialist, are you a liberal? Are you progressive? One word?"
A: Chillthef*ckoutigotthis.
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