Now, the press stands for Barack Obama.
At the start of his first press conference since winning the presidential election, the press corps rose to their feet to greet him, a sight that brought a smile to his face. As his senior political adviser David Axelrod slumped against a wall on the side of the room, Obama stood on a small stage at a local Chicago Hilton, flanked by the economic advisers he had met with for the better part of the afternoon.
Obama wore a blue power tie and was at turns folksy, inquiring how Chicago Sun reporter Lynn Sweet hurt her arm (she said she shattered it running to hear his acceptance speech), talking about the difficulties of finding a hypo-allergenic shelter dog for his daughters, then calling himself a "mutt" and, oddly, saying he had only consulted living presidents since his victory because "I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Regan thing about doing any séances."
But he was also serious to the point of bleakness, talking about the country’s severe financial straits and the need to face the problem head-on. He made sure not to step too hard on President Bush’s toes, but also refrained from specifically endorsing any of the Bush proposals to deal with the economic crisis. He also carefully dodged any questions related to the confidential information from the intelligence briefings he is now privy to, and on the most difficult policy questions reminded that the country has only one president at a time, and he was not yet it. (The blue sign on the podium did, however, announce him as "President-Elect.")
Obama made opening remarks about the continued loss of American jobs and outlining proposals to a rescue plan for the middle class, to prevent the financial crisis from spreading to other sectors of the economy, helping the auto industry retool to build more fuel-efficient cars and implementing the government’s plan to stabilize the economy and protecting tax payers and homeowners. And echoed the serious and dutiful tone of his acceptance speech by saying, "It is not going to be easy to dig ourselves of the hole we are in."
Then he yielded the floor to questions.
He fielded questions about his priorities, and responded, "We are going to need to see a stimulus package, either before or after inauguration," and added, "If it does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States."
His first tough question came from ABC’s Jake Tapper, who asked if and how he had responded to the Iranian government’s letter of congratulations for his victory, and if he had started preparing for low-level talks with antagonistic leaders, as he said he would during the campaign.
"We only have one president at a time, and I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won’t be until January 20," he said. He also emphasized that Iran’s nuclear program posed a great threat to world stability and again called for more international cooperation to exert pressure on Iran.
In presenting his answers, he spoke in the halting, hyper-deliberate style that displayed during some of his less memorable debate performances against Hillary Clinton in the primaries. After answering nine questions, he thanked the press, flashed a smile and walked out of the room.
