White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs faced pointed questions from two reporters during a briefing on Wednesday regarding President Obama’s about-face on transparency in the health care bill debate. A sampling:

Reporter: During the campaign, the president on numerous occasions said words to the effect of, quoting one, “All of this will be done on C-SPAN in front of the public.” Do you agree that the president is breaking an explicit campaign promise?

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Watching Gibbs dodge and weave with answers varying from “we covered this yesterday” to “the president wants to get a bill to his desk as quickly as possible”  is at once nauseating and fascinating. Not only did he not answer the question — what, be honest and lose his job? — but his deameanor implied that answering such questions is beneath his dignity and not worthy of the time. I’ve noticed this on more than one occasion.

Certainly it’s the press secretary’s job to make his boss look good – but it’s a reporter’s job to play devil’s advocate. Why did only two reporters in the room press Gibbs on the transparency issue? George W. Bush was constantly criticized for being too secretive – and yet here we have a direct promise of transparency being broken, and only a couple of reporters dare to ask why. Perhaps they’re worried about being denied access if they ask questions that are too probing, as happened during the campaign.

Surprisingly, Jack Cafferty unloaded on The One about this issue.


Yes, there have been MSM stories criticial of Obama, including this one that notes that his initial response to the narrowly-averted Christmas Day airline bombing “was too long in coming, too cool in delivery and too removed from the extreme gravity of the plot.” Maureen Dowd turned her renowned acid tongue on the president, whom Rush Limbaugh refers to as the “man-child.”

But it’s not exactly heartening that it took a near-catastrophic moment for the MSM to take the critical stance they failed to take during the campaign and the days and weeks immediately following. How long can we expect this renewed vigilance to last?

Commenter franksalterego at Hot Air made a hilarious, yet salient, observation: “Not only is the honeymoon with the press over with, they’re finding out the bride isn’t a virgin.”

Is the honeymoon really over? Ed Lasky notes, the American people “have started to wise up,” but have the media?  Until I see fewer stories about how poor Obama is “tired” because of his hectic schedule and more holding him accountable for his policies regarding the economy, immigration and national security, I’ll reserve judgment.