It was simply amazing. The fog the mainstream media’s infatuation with President Obama is obviously beginning to wear off.

At today’s press conference, reporters finally asked Obama some tough questions. Obama was taken aback by the change in tone. As a result, we did not see the smooth articulate teleprompter-reader we normally see. Obama was on the defensive as soon as his opening remarks were done and the questions began.

Obama took questions from 13 reporters. Six questions concerned the aftermath of the Iranian election, two concerned health care reform, two concerned the economy and the other three questions concerned Obama’s smoking, Latin America and financial regulation reform.

Despite Obama’s assertions to the contrary, his answers about Iran, were not consistent with what he has said previously.

Obama’s performance was not terrible, but was clearly his worst effort so far. Next time Obama should do more preparation. The honeymoon is ending.

Question: What do these two stories have in common?

Iran Unrest Reveals Split In U.S. on Its Role Abroad

[snip]

Obama’s approach to Iran, including his assertion that the unrest there represents a debate among Iranians unrelated to the United States, is an acknowledgment that a U.S. president’s words have a limited ability to alter foreign events in real time and could do more harm than good. But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republic’s Islamic authority in its 30-year history.

[Via The Campaign Spot]

US says hot dog diplomacy still on with Iran

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters.

President Barack Obama’s administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

[Via Weasel Zippers, via Hot Air]

Answer: Both demonstrate that the administration’s only real focus on any issue is its effect on domestic policy.

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Calvin Woodward fact checked Obama’s second presidential press conference and concluded Obama is trying to have it both ways on the economy — Obama asked for patience for the economy to turn around, but his budget is based on the bullish assumptions of solid growth next year after a mild, further decline this year:

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Wow. I have to say, I expected far better than this tonight, from a man that I don’t have a very high opinion, or very high expectations, of.

What we saw tonight in President Obama was a man who, flailing about for words and faiing to form cohesive sentences and responses, turned in a stumbling, meandering performance worthy of the most extreme caricature of George W. Bush.

It’s no secret that I am no fan of President Obama; however, this press conference was incredibly painful to watch all the same. Behind the podium tonight, Mr. Obama displayed an apparent inability to issue even the slightest semblance of an answer to the questions asked by the reporters on hand, despite meandering responses often in excess of ten minutes per query (he couldn’t even give a straight answer to the yes-or-no question about whether he would allow media outlets to resume their perverted publishing of flag-draped coffin photographs, and had to construct the utterly ridiculous straw man that Republicans think “government has no role in energy policy” in order to knock down something even somewhat successfully).

What he did not display was anything remotely resembling a strong argument for the trillion-dollar “stimulus” package (Health care is failing because doctors have poor handwriting? Schools built in the antebellum South are still being used, but teaching has to be “stopped for a while” when trains go by? The list goes on, and it doesn’t get any better).

Contra his reputation as a smooth speaker and Reaganesque “Great Communicator,” the President Obama we saw tonight looked out of place, unprepared, and unable to coherently respond to any questions the White House press corps put to him, whether it be on the “stimulus” or on foreign policy (Iran, Afghanistan), a topic on which Mr. Obama appeared even more hopelessly lost than the rest.