Tough Question On The Stimulus

Wow, that Washington press corps is really getting to the bottom of things:

President Obama: Michael Fletcher from the Washington Post?

Question: Yes, thank you, sir. What is your reaction to Alex Rodriguez's admission that he used steroids as a member of the Texas Rangers?

Obama: You know, I think it's depressing news on top of what's been a flurry of depressing items when it comes to Major League Baseball. And if you're a fan of Major League Baseball, I think it -- it tarnishes an entire era, to some degree. And it's unfortunate, because I think there are a lot of ballplayers who played it straight.

And, you know, the thing I'm probably most concerned about is the message it sends to our kids. What I'm pleased about is Major League Baseball seems to finally be taking this seriously, to recognize how big a problem this is for the sport, and that our kids hopefully are watching and saying, "You know what? There are no shortcuts, that when you try to take shortcuts, you may end up tarnishing your entire career, and that your integrity's not worth it." That's the message I hope is communicated.

This was followed up by a foreign policy question by Helen Thomas, who should have been put out to pasture years ago. They preempted House for this?

Take Five

1. Our quasi-Republican governor (that's meant as a compliment) fights back publicly.

2. If it were possible for the federal government to fix the national economy by pumping more money into it on a constant and indiscriminate basis, don't you think that someone would have figured that out by now? If that were possible, the first political party to do it would be in power forever. Who could oppose it?

3. My hunch--and that's all it is--is that President Obama's (by the way, this blog has an editorial policy of always referring to the President of the United States as "President " upon first reference) stratagem was to sort of let the Democratic leadership in Congress gets its jollies out with the stimulus bill and then take the reins legislatively afterward. But I wonder if he thinks it's now gotten out of hand. Seriously, how could they have screwed this up? when you focus so much on the failings of the other party you tend to forget about those of your own.

4. In full agreement.

5. Over here too.