Tonight President Obama held a conference to update the American people on the state of affairs on the economy. All would appear to be cruising until CNN's Ed Henry asked his question. Henry's question wasn't the problem, but rather it's intent, the energy behind it. It started off as a legitimate inquiry into the lack of an airtight contract between the government and AIG, but ended up being just another gotcha question.
This was confirmed in the follow-up on both Larry King Live, and AC360. Then the tone switched to a preoccupation with their opinion that Obama was anger at Henry's question, because it was such a great question. Even Henry expression post-mortem seem to be one of smugness. Were they lying? No. Did they exaggerate? Yes.
Now I respect Henry expertise as a pundit and as a reporter. He's no hack. I thought his question again was certainly not out of bounds. However, he blew a great opportunity to ask a question the AMERICAN PEOPLE REALLY CARED ABOUT.
Rather than ask why it took the President so long to respond with outrage post the AIG debacle, and leaving the action to New York Attorney General Cuomo; he should asked something like, "Your delay in responding with outrage to the AIG bonuses may appear to some to be because of the ineffective language in the contract, which your administration is ultimately responsible for. What are the administration's plan to correct this, and how will future contracts be designed to prevent exploitative behavior by other companies?"
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