Parts of President Obama's press conference held Tuesday night:
We've already seen a jump in refinancing s of mortgages as homeowners take advantage of lower rates. And every American should know that up to 40 percent of all mortgages are now eligible for refinancing. This is the equivalent of another tax cut, and we're also beginning to see signs of increased sales and stabilizing home prices for the first time in a very long time...
That whole philosophy of persistence, by the way, is one that I'm going to be emphasizing again and again in the months and years to come, as long as I am in this office. I'm a big believer in persistence. I think that when it comes to domestic affairs, if we keep on working at it, if we acknowledge that we make mistakes sometimes and that we don't always have the right answer, and we're inheriting very knotty problems, that we can pass health care, we can find better solutions to our energy challenges, we can teach our children more effectively, we can deal with a very real budget crisis that is not fully dealt with in my -- in my budget at this point, but makes progress.
I think when it comes to the banking system, you know, it was just a few days ago or weeks ago where people were certain that Secretary Geithner couldn't deliver a plan. Today, the headlines all look like, well, all right, there's a plan.
And I'm sure there'll be more criticism and we'll have to make more adjustments, but we're moving in the right direction.
When it comes to Iran, you know, we did a video sending a message to the Iranian people and the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran. And some people said, "Well, they did not immediately say they were eliminating nuclear weapons and stop funding terrorism." Well, we didn't expect that. We expect that we're going to make steady progress on this front.
We haven't immediately eliminated the influence of lobbyists in Washington. We have not immediately eliminated wasteful pork projects. And we're not immediately going to get Middle East peace. We've been in office now a little over 60 days.
What I am confident about is that we're moving in the right direction, and that the decisions we're making are based on, how are we going to get this economy moving? How are we going to put Americans back to work? How are we going to make sure that our people are safe? And how are we going to create not just prosperity here but work with other countries for global peace and prosperity?
And we are going to stay with it as long as I'm in this office, and I think that -- you look back four years from now, I think, hopefully, people will judge that body of work and say, "This is a big ocean liner. It's not a speedboat. It doesn't turn around immediately. But we're in a better -- better place because of the decisions that we made."
Quotes I noted most:
"This budget is inseparable from this recovery because it is what lays the foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity,"
"This is a big ocean liner. It's not a speedboat. It doesn't turn around immediately. But we're in a better -- better place because of the decisions that we made."
"we can't ... sacrifice long-term growth"
"Folks are sacrificing left and right,"
The most telling of his comments were when he was asked why he was initially slow to respond to the AIG bonus controversy, Obama quickly answered: "It took us a couple days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."
This answer could almost be used for every question asked tonight about how critics are responding to President Obama's administration's actions or plans. Either they speak too soon or without all the facts.
President Obama was able to continue tying almost all of today's issues into just two areas. The economy and his budget. When asked about the homeless children for example, he talked about fixing the economy and getting the parents jobs back, he ended up talking about the homeless veterans and how his plans will hopefully prevent that from happening.
Basically what I got out of Obama's press conference is, do you just want to borrow money to pay the bills right now or do you want to borrow money and invest it in all the things that need fixing (health care, energy and education) so that we never have to borrow money again?
It's kind of like a person getting the credit card over extended, borrowing money from mom and dad to pay the past due monthly statements, then going out the next day and buying more stuff on the same credit card. A never ending cycle. Washington has been through this wash cycle before. Put a patch on it -- pass the worry onto the next generation.
Obama wants to STOP THE CYCLE.