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This Morning's "Sam"*
November 02, 2008 10:49 AM
In Springfield, Mo., over the roar of the engine of O Force One. (Exclamation points convey shouting so as to be heard.)
ABC News: Senator Obama, what would you tell your Treasury Secretary do differently with the $700 billion?!
Obama: (laughs)
ABC News: It's a substantive question!
Obama: It is! But Jake, we're on a tarmac! That's a pretty good question!
ABC News: Have a press conference then!
Obama: I will! On Wednesday!
Obama walks up the stairs to his plane.
And...scene.
* "Sams" are questions shouted on airplane tarmacs at politicians who try to avoid press conferences. They are named in tribute to the legendary Sam Donaldson.
-- jpt
November 2, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (51)
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Be careful, Jake. Ask too many hard question and you may be banished from the presence of Our Blessed Obama forever and ever, world without end, amen.
Posted by: Jim C. | Nov 2, 2008 8:38:42 PM
The only questions Obama has answered lately have been explanations of why he wants to raise your taxes. Don't do this to yourself America.
Posted by: Willis | Nov 2, 2008 5:22:01 PM
Jake,
Great Question! Of course he wouldn't answer it on the tarmac, but it is great progress to get him to say he will hold a press conf. I don't necessarily see him promising even that if the question were the trivial kind.
Keep at that question, Jake, I am sure you will be the one to get the first sit-down on Wednesday, win or lose. After all, he promised the Wed date to you. And of course an Obama interview might just be more sought out on Wednesday, win or lose. I can't wait to watch that interview with you, Jake.
Posted by: Question | Nov 2, 2008 4:27:07 PM
Mara: I anticipated this lame attack on McCain but didn't bother to mention it because it is such a zombie-like follower thing to spout straight from Obama's talking points.
1. Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, Clinton Treasury officials on whom Obama relies for advice, supported it. Joe Biden voted for it, it passed the Senate with 90 votes, and President Clinton signed it in 1999, two years before Bush took office. (source govtrack). Leach, who now supports Obama, sponsored it. Tying this bill to republicans is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?
2. Clinton himself rejects that the bill created the crisis. He is a democrat and supports Obama, remember?
3. You also avoided answering the statements about tax cuts and their relation to the crisis. That's because they have nothing to do with it, and Obama's ridiculous posturing that the crisis is a product of Bush's "disastrous economic policies" is a Sesame Street level of discourse, and he is smart enough to know that.
Yep, just like Obama, just avoid the problem...laugh and scoff at everyone who dares ask a decent question...great.
Posted by: Wade | Nov 2, 2008 3:53:20 PM
YAWN
Another winner of a question, Jake. I'm sure he would have given you a lucid, detailed answer on such a simple topic walking on the tarmac to his plane. Why didn't you ask him how his entire foreign policy would be different from the last 8 years? That's another quickie I'm sure he could have answered in that space of time.
Posted by: FranklyMyDear | Nov 2, 2008 3:16:53 PM
Jake, the first to go in a Ayers/Obama socialist world is the press. You were lucky to get the shouted question in. It will probably be your last to him.
I expect that after the election George Soros to announce a new liberal network, called "Hope and Change News", the official news station of the Obama administration. All press reports will come through this channel.
Obama will also be giving weekly half-hour video chats via the internet.
MSMedia are out.
(And, Jake, with only two days left in the election, what took you so long to finally ask Obama a question? )
Posted by: Donna Whitson | Nov 2, 2008 3:07:08 PM
Wade, Obama hs never been asked what regulation or deregulation bills McCain has supported or nt supported. You are mixing him up with the potential VP of the United States, Sarah Palin. She was asked this question on CBS and said "I'll get back to you on that."
I'm not running for VP of the United States. I'm a housewife in a small rural town in a red state and I can answer your question. John McCain voted for Phil Gramm's 1999 Deregulation Bill, which is directly responsible for the final crisis we are in. John McCain also voted for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which opened the flood gates for credit default swaps. Warren Buffett, who knows a little about finance, called these swaps "Weapons of Financial Mass Destruction." They were. They are at the center of the Wall Street collapse. John McCain voted for this deregulation - a $62 trillion piece of the market that was completely without regulation. THEN he hired Phil Gramm as the cochair of his Presidential campaign. Remember Phil Gramm? He's in an undisclosed location right now, but back in the spring, he was trying to tell us that the economic crisis was a "mental crisis." He was also McCain's chief economic advisor. Feel safer now?
Posted by: Mara | Nov 2, 2008 3:01:45 PM
Hey, Jake, thank you for playing it straight this year. Hope to see you on Fox soon!
Posted by: gerry | Nov 2, 2008 2:59:12 PM
Bob, I'm wondering why Senator McCain has not held a press conference in over a month. either. WHat is up with that? And in tht press conference, he only allowed 4 questions.
I'm also wondering why Mr. Tapper is not reporting this - and why he is pretending McCain gives a press conference every day. WHy is that?
In other news you may be missing, Ms. Palin spoke on Fox News today. She thinks we are at war with IRAN too. I am not making this up. She also thinks we are winning our war with Iran.
More updates on real news as the day progresses. You won't find them here.
Posted by: Mara | Nov 2, 2008 2:50:12 PM
Tapper is an exception to an otherwise disgustingly biased MSM.
Posted by: Bill M | Nov 2, 2008 2:40:32 PM
Senator Obama, Why did your campaign kick off the plane three newspapers whose editorial boards endorse McCain?
Senator Obama, French President Sarkozy said your Iran policy is "utterly immature". Did you mistakenly think you were dealing with an imposter Sarkozy pranking you so you figured you'd play along, and that is why you said so many incredibly stupid things when the two of you met?
Senator Obama, what do you say to those who say 7oo million dollars to 170 million dollars is not a fair fight?
Seantor Obama, Sources say you running late for another GQ photo shoot. Any truth to this rumor? If it is so, my aplogies for rudely hold you up on this very important business.
Seantor Obama, Did you hear the wild thing Senator Biden said today...... No not that wild thing, Senator. That was yesterday's. I'm talking about the wild thing Senator Biden said today...... Which one? The one this morning, Senator..... Yep, the late morning one.
Thank you for your time, Senator.
Posted by: topo2005 | Nov 2, 2008 1:33:00 PM
Jake, your hair is much better than Donaldson's. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Ed Faunce | Nov 2, 2008 1:13:37 PM
Okay. Here's a sort of "Sam" for you Jake (or any of your colleagues).
Have any of you read this from the official Kenyan government web site?
The Kenyan ambassador to the US sent a letter of very sharp rebuke to Barack Obama expressing "displeasure and disappointment of the Government of Kenya, the Kenya Embassy, Washington D.C. and the majority of Kenyans with regards to your recent utterances while in Kenya."
The ambassador said that Obama's actions during his August 2006 Kenyan trip "could only poison and injure our relations."
The ambassador raised 11 specific issues. The most interesting and relevant to the US situation was this:
"6. Mr. Senator, your remarks lamentably demonstrate a naïve understanding of the challenges of skillfully managing a political transition with weak and nascent institutions of public governance, while maintaining a delicate balance, especially in an ethnically diverse country like Kenya, and also show how ridiculous it is to perfunctorily dabble in a terrain you are not familiar with."
Go to the web site. Read it for yourself.
Posted by: RLamb | Nov 2, 2008 1:09:07 PM
Good question Jake. Good luck getting straight answers. It's clear he doesn't know what he would do differently...
Obama's campaign is based on shading the truth.
He can't name one "deregulation" supported by Bush or McCain that has led to the current crisis.
He can't point to one way in which lower taxes for the wealthy have led to the economic crisis.
He can't point to one way in which higher taxes for the "rich" will help resolve the economic crisis...
He will just whine about "the faaaailed policies of the laaast eight years" just as his robotic supporters do.
Unfortunately, repetition of kindergarten level discourse seems to work well in this country.
Posted by: Wade | Nov 2, 2008 1:03:29 PM
Jake, Next time ask Obama why they are still asking for donations and saying McCain has more money left when they have already received close to a billion dollars.
Posted by: Bob | Nov 2, 2008 12:50:08 PM
I mean the Sarkozy with the Pepe Le Pew french accent that called Sarah Palin yesterday.
McCAIN = FAIL
Posted by: Ed from MA | Nov 2, 2008 12:47:35 PM
You should have told him you had Sarkozy on the line with some questions.
LOL
Posted by: Ed from MA | Nov
Do you mean the REAL Sarkozy who Jake reported as calling Obama's Iran policy, "utterly immature"???
That is no laughing matter.
Posted by: topo2005 | Nov 2, 2008 12:38:24 PM
Obama's Plan To Bankrupt New Coal Plants
This is another gem uncovered by Naked Emperor News. It's from an interview Obama gave to the San Francisco Chronicle in which he speaks of his approach to global warming and cap-and-trade systems. It's an approach I'm not sure the bitter gun clingers of Pennsylvania would appreciate
Posted by: Steave Cuozzo | Nov 2, 2008 12:37:29 PM
C'mon Jake, the guy is late for another GQ magazine photo shoot. Give him a break!
Posted by: topo2005 | Nov 2, 2008 12:32:34 PM
a communist? ru serious? is that the best you have? what a pathetic gang of fools. have you nothing better to do than babble and repeat things you read on the web? do you really think warren buffett and the ceo of google would endorse a commie? idiots.
Posted by: what | Nov 2, 2008 12:30:00 PM
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