All O, All the Time

Amusing picture from the Times as the President ducked Fox but managed to find the time for everyone else. Basically he managed to dodge an ACORN question by claiming he is too busy, (somehow he found time to intervene in the NY Governor's race) question whether sending reinforcements are needed for Afghanistan, and spout the usual platitudes about health care.

The president, appearing in interviews on five television networks, said the health care fight had been more difficult than he anticipated and conceded that he has struggled “breaking through.” He said he remained confident he would sign a health care bill into law and welcomed Republicans to the effort, but added, “I don’t count on them.”

“This isn’t a radical plan,” Mr. Obama told ABC’s “This Week.” “This isn’t grafting a single payer model onto the United States. It’s simply trying to deal with what everybody acknowledges is a big problem.”

The president also said that he had no deadline for withdrawing American forces from Afghanistan. He said before he decided whether to send more troops, he needed to determine whether the United States was pursuing the proper military strategy.“The first question is, are we doing the right thing?” Mr. Obama said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Are we pursuing the right strategy?”

The president said he disagreed with critics who suggested that the health care legislation requiring Americans to get insurance coverage would amount to a tax increase on the middle class, which he pledged last year not to do. He argued that if nothing is done on health care, the middle class would fare far worse with rising medical costs.

“For us to say that you’ve got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase,” Mr. Obama said. “What it’s saying is that we’re not going to have other people carrying your burdens for anymore.”

Of course he excoriated Clinton for this during the campaign, but I guess that went down the memory hole!

Via Right Klik: