Obama takes questions from the press

[clearvision]

USA Today:

President Obama, holding his first full-fledged East Room news conference in 10 months, is set to announce an extension of the moratorium on deep-water oil drilling. He'll also discuss plans for tougher inspections and restrictions on oil companies in the wake of the BP explosion in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20.

We're going to be blogging live in this space, so keep hitting refresh and scroll to the bottom for the latest.

USA TODAY White House correspondent Richard Wolf is at the press conference. And you can watch the video here.

Update 12:49 p.m. ET: Obama is on his way to the East Room.

12:50 p.m. ET: Obama calls oil spills a "catastrophe." He says the so-called "top kill" procedure to plug the leak offers no guarantee of success. The American people should know that "from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge" of the response. "Make no mistake, BP is operating at our direction."

12:52 p.m. ET: He calls the spill response "the largest of its kind in U.S. history." He says the government has 20,000 people in the region working "around the clock" and cites facts and figures from White House memos about the response. The government is moving ahead, he says, with a section of the barrier island Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has proposed.

12:55 p.m. ET: Obama calls on Americans to continue visiting the Gulf Coast. Notes that nearly all beaches remain open and ready for tourists.

12:56 p.m. ET: For years there has been a "scandalously close" relationship between the oil companies and the government agency that oversees them, requiring reforms. Obama also says he is suspending drilling operations on oil wells and expanding a moratorium on new drilling.

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Live updates at link.

Watching a bit of it and maybe he should not do this. He is awful in this mode.

[Pepper]

Let me load down the servers and post this again.

 

 

BP is Bush's fault!!

 

Question on Birnbaum to Obama from Chip Reed at presser, May 27, 2010

 

Chip Reed: Should other heads roll?

Chip Reed: Is is fair to blame the Bush administration?

 

 

Obama:

"When I came in, Salazar came in and started cleaning house. But there wasn't sufficient urgency about the pace about how those changes that needed to take place.

 

There is no evidence that some of the corrupt practices uhh, that took place earlier took place under, uhh, the current administration's watch."-- Obama

 

BP is Bush's fault!!

[Pepper]

Obama lying through his teeth just now. Asked why he did not know about Birnbaum being fired.

 

He found out only this morning that Birnbaum "resigned."

 

"I had a lot of other stuff going on."

[pollyannaish]

This is hard to listen to. ARGH!

[Pepper]

Argyle58! Clear has a thread on the presser.

 

Obama: The administration pushed BP to release figures of flow calculations sooner. We were misled 'cause we only used satellite imagery etc.

 

Interesting choice of words. "Misled" by definition has connotations of deception. Is he inferring that BP purposely withheld information?

 

Of course, no slick on him.

 

PS He just slammed Palin.

 

"You don't hear me say, Drill Baby Drill" -- Obama

[clearvision]

Plugged his National Guard deal.

[Pepper]

pollyannaish

 

This is not prewritten, this is not rehearsed. Repeat 10 x, then repeat again.

 

He just called on someone not in the audience. The One was clearly disappointed.

 

This is hard to listen to. ARGH!

[clearvision]

Wakes up and goes to sleep thinking about "the spill"..... sigh

[clearvision]

He grew up in Hawaii he says. Key word he did not say, but I'll leave that for others.

[clearvision]

Wow that really sucked.

[Pepper]

Pollyannaish!

 

Question on Arizona's immigration law

 

Obama: "I do not approve of the Arizona law. I think it is the wrong approach.... I understand the frustration of the peoples of Arizona....

 

Uhh, you know, I am President of the United States. I don't endorse boycotts uhh, or not endorse boycotts. That is something that the private citizens can make a decision about."

 

[Pepper]

Last Question from Major Garrett:

 

1. "Are you comfortable with the imagery of the boot on the neck of BP"

 

2. Can you tell the American public what the White House regarding the Sestak (brouha....)

 

Answer 2. "There will be an official response on the Sestak issue, shortly." Obama

I can assure the American public that nothing improper took place.

 

Answer 1. "I think Ken Salazar would be the first to admit (that metaphor is not good one) but he was emotional angry and frustrated."

 

... "This is what I wake up to in the morning and go to bed thinking about it."

 

"When I am shaving my daugher Malia asks, did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?"

 

Poor kid, her dad is gonna make it right.

[Casino67]

According to my count, he took eleven questions. Do we know any more now than at noon today? Total waste of an hour.

[Pepper]

He grew up in Hawaii he says. Key word he did not say, but I'll leave that for others.

 

He grew up in Hawaii watching oil smeared turtles and bird helping him look for his birth certificate. The anguish he suffered.

[Pepper]

I am reporting you to Axelrod and Gibbs immediately.

 

Wow that really sucked.

[Pepper]

According to my count, he took eleven questions. Do we know any more now than at noon today? Total waste of an hour.

 

Casino67!

 

If you had any doubt that despite the lax oversight on the part of the Minerals Management Service and possible influence from dreaded Big Oil on Zero's campaign, it was the evil previous Bush administration who created this mess.

 

It is not The One's fault.

 

But then, you never had doubt, so to answer your question. No, nothing new.

[clearvision]

"When I am shaving my daugher Malia asks, did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?"

Wow, he needs his teleprompter bad. That line just does not sound good. And where does the missing comma go...

 

"When I am shaving my daughter, Malia asks" or "When I am shaving, my daughter Malia asks?"

 

Hopefully this was just a Pepper quote and not what he really said.

[pollyannaish]

Well, you have to give the guy credit. He said that when he was president the ocean's would recede and the planet would begin to heal. I suppose he didn't say HOW that would be accomplished.

[Pepper]

[pollyannaish]

I still can't figure out why Obama didn't say a simple yes or no in regards to the Sestak matter.

 

 

Oh wait. Yes I can.

[Argyle58]

I still can't figure out why Obama didn't say a simple yes or no in regards to the Sestak matter.

 

 

Oh wait. Yes I can.

 

 

I'm sure we will be hearing something as epic as "It depends on what your definition of is is."

[pollyannaish]

I still can't figure out why Obama didn't say a simple yes or no in regards to the Sestak matter.

 

 

Oh wait. Yes I can.

 

 

I'm sure we will be hearing something as epic as "It depends on what your definition of is is."

 

I was thinking it would be along the lines of "Plug the damn hole."

[Pepper]

Inside the White House:

 

"Barry! Why must you always bring the children into this, my little man?" -- MEchelle.

 

"When I am shaving my daugher Malia asks, did you plug the hole yet, Daddy?"

Wow, he needs his teleprompter bad. That line just does not sound good. And where does the missing comma go...

 

"When I am shaving my daughter, Malia asks" or "When I am shaving, my daughter Malia asks?"

 

Hopefully this was just a Pepper quote and not what he really said.

 

 

ps my comma transcriber on my tele transcriber was broken think archy and mehitabel

[Guest AnneV]

Obummer is citing Ken Salazar?!?!? The ex-Senator is ineptitude personified...it's why we, the people of Colorado, were so happy to let him go!!!

[Geee]

I would so like to thank all of you for listening to that so that I didn't have to. My BP(blood pressure) was saved