“There’s going to be a lot of sniping,” Obama said. “That’s how this town works.”
By JULIE MASON
Examiner White House Correspondent
President Obama today, at the first-ever online White House town hall meeting, continued to gripe about Washington. It’s an emerging theme in his remarks, as the president grows increasingly frustrated at the crititicism and questioning that come with leadership.
“What matters to you and your families and what people here in Washington are focused on aren’t always one and the same thing,” Obama told the audience. “Here in Washington, politics all too often is treated like a game. There’s a lot of point scoring, a lot of talk about who’s up and who’s down, a lot of time and energy spent on whether the president is winning or losing on this particular day or at this particular hour.”
There is definitely some truth to that, but there is also a lot of substantive debate and coverage of the issues. And anyway — wasn’t he a senator? He’s really suprised by this? The Washington “game” complaint feels a little shopworn, a little Romney ’08. At any rate, Obama’s remarks in the East Room today echoed two speeches he made the night before at Democratic fundraisers. We’ll probably be hearing the “game” gripe a lot more, as the president pushes back against his critics.
