Yesterday I poked fun at President Obama for apparently acquescing to the press' demand for a more emotive president by saying he had a lot of experts around him because he needed to know "which ass to kick." I stand by my point that people won't be satisfied with the government's response to the BP oil spill until BP faces proper consequences, the oil is cleaned up and measures are put in place to prevent this from ever happening again, but it's now clear that the president wasn't trying to be tough so much as he was responding to the question that was phrased to him. From Steve Benen:
LAUER: Critics are now talking about your style, which is the first time I've heard that in a long time. They're saying here is a guy who likes to be known as cool and calm and collected, and this isn't the time for cool, calm and collected. This is not the time to meet with experts and advisers; this is a time to spend more time in the Gulf and -- I never thought I'd say this to a president -- but kick some butt. And I don't mean it to be funny.
OBAMA: No, and I understand. And here's what -- I'm going to push back hard on this. Because I think that this is a -- just an idea that got in folks heads, and the media's run with it. I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf. A month ago I was meeting with fishermen down there, standing in the rain talking about what a potential crisis this could be. And I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick.
Yeah so apparently NBC released the latter half of that exchange trying to get the exact reaction that they got from me. Frankly it's my fault for taking the bait before waiting for the full context of the interview, but that's the kind of deliberate contextual manipulation you don't expect from a non-FOX news organization.
-- A. Serwer
