President Obama, even without a teleprompter, can actually talk for quite some time in a way that makes him sound reasonable and appealing — until a listener starts thinking carefully about what he's saying, or until he veers off course. In his press conference this morning, for example, he spoke of his desire to work in "a genuine spirit of compromise" on deficit and debt reduction, and of his desire to "keep taxes as simple as possible and as low as possible."
Then all of a sudden he was accusing the Republicans of wanting to maintain "tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires" while "cutting infant formula to poor kids." How does the "genuine spirit of compromise" include accusing your political opponents of trying to starve poor infants to death so the proceeds can be used for tax breaks for billionaires? What is he talking about?
The other highlight of the press conference for me was the part where the president acknowledged, "Medicare and Medicaid are huge problems. I'm prepared to work with Democrats and Republicans to start dealing with that." At that point, he seemed to suddenly remember that he had passed ObamaCare, which was supposed to have solved those problems. "We're still going to have to do more," he pronounced.
Amazing.
