Surreal Press Conference Analysis Moment

The most entertaining moment in the whole press conference was President Obama’s smackdown of CNN’s Ed Henry, who asked why Obama didn’t react sooner to the AIG bonus brouhaha. Obama said, “I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.” The crowd chuckled and Henry got pwned.

So I watched CNN’s analysis afterward and Anderson Cooper clearly understands that CNN’s man got dissed on national TV.

But then came the surreal moment: Bill Bennett.

After lying about Obama’s response to Henry – Bennett actually said that Obama “gave the AIG bonuses” which is self-evidently untrue; AIG gave out the bonuses to AIG employees a year ago; Obama and Geithner may not have done enough to prevent those bonuses from being paid out, but that doesn’t mean Obama gave them the bonuses – Bennett then claimed that Obama just wanted to be outta there after that encounter.

Anybody not a GOP hack or CNN employee could see the opposite was true. Obama was clearly energized by that exchange – much more so, I’d argue, than beforehand. The energy petered out a bit by the end, but still…