He did not make it clear it was a planned question….
highhopes on June 24, 2009 at 11:00 AM

By saying,

I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet.

isn’t Obama implicitly stating that this is planned, that he wants HuffPo to relay a question. The reporter has stated the question itself hadn’t disclosed.

Two groups of people are annoyed that the administration collaborated with the Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney on a question about Iran: seasoned pool reporters invested in the pecking order who believe Pitney jumped the line, and partisan hacks whose …

Why so many TV appearances? It’s the American equivalent to statues and paintings of the “Dear Leader” everywhere.

This has got to be the winner for the week. How does it get worse than this?

apollyonbob on June 24, 2009 at 12:19 PM

Check out the thread on weenie diplomacy.

I’m not sure what, if any, damage his poor handling of foreign policy will do to his political capital and hence undermine his domestic agenda.

ProfessorMiao on June 24, 2009 at 11:00 AM

If a North Korean missile comes anywhere even remotely near Hawaii and he’s done. Other than that, I think the biggest threat to his scorched earth domestic agenda is public outrage and the impact that has on politicians, especially during the mid-term elections.

Hail Dear Leader!

Here’s what scares me.

Obama has had a very easy six months. It is only now that he is dealing with his first unscripted international affairs issue and it is hard to imagine how he could have mis-managed it any more if he tried (despite the MSM propaganda hailing his “cool approach”). What happens if North Korea does launch something in July. Then there is the whole economy thing and Obama’s clear push to get healthcare rammed through before anybody can read the details.

Obama strikes me as a one issue at a time guy and he needs to be dealing on multiple fronts all at the same time. Which of the crucial items listed above gets dropped because of Obama’s gross incompetence? I’m hoping for healthcare but that seems to be the sacred cow in the mix.

highhopes on June 24, 2009 at 10:17 AM

I think he’s far more interested in “remaking” America than he is in foreign policy. That’s why he’s been trying to ram through so many huge changes so quickly. So he’s likely to coast along on the latter, voting present and waiting for the world to come to its senses (according to his definition) while he continues to destroy America’s economic foundation and guts the military. I’m not sure what, if any, damage his poor handling of foreign policy will do to his political capital and hence undermine his domestic agenda.

But didn’t Obama make it clear this was planned? It didn’t seem like there was any intent to hide this fact. Obama wanted a question from an Iranian and got one.

RufusW on June 24, 2009 at 10:34 AM

Then why call on a particular propagandist from the audience to “ask” the question? He could have incorporated the question into his remarks or into one of the many other questions that dealt with the fact that the filthy liar in the White House has no intention of doing anything but voting “present” concerning this issue. He did not make it clear it was a planned question and managed to step on the planned delivery.

More to the point, it is pretty damned scary that the filthy liar can’t answer the questions posed to him by the media. Why bother with pressers at all? Just put up a flag behind the desk in the oval office, preempt all media programming, and have Obama give presidential addresses to the masses the way all the other dictators of the world do it. You’d never catch Chavez, Castro, or Kim Jung Il letting the media ask questions? Why should our thug-in-chief be any different?

Nico Pitney issues a denial that question was staged.

stormin1961 on June 24, 2009 at 10:25 AM

What else could poor Nico do? Not that Huffington Post is a legitimate member of the press but it would be professional suicide to admit that you went along with a scheme that involved planted questions.

Nico Pitney issues a denial that question was staged.

stormin1961 on June 24, 2009 at 10:25 AM

A word from Nico Pitney is not necessarily the word from her handlers. Bigger players pull those strings. Obviously, Obama knew what was to be asked because he had a highly prepared setup ready and used it.