Obama picks those allowed to ask question at press conference, is pressed on state senate records

It was a technique not previously seen at press conferences for Sen. Barack Obama.

As the Illinois Democrat stood behind a podium, his Iowa communications director, Josh Earnest, selected the reporters allowed to ask questions.

Radio Iowa's O. Kay Henderson was given the first question, followed by a series of other Iowa-based reporters.

But there was this pesky woman in the front row who refused to be ignored.

"It's been a while," said Chicago Sun-Times Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet, when she was told that preference was being given to Iowa reporters.

But Obama finally gave in.

"Alright, Lynn, go ahead," he said, as the news conference was winding down.

Sweet asked where documents from his time as a state senate in Springfield are located.

"Nobody has requested specific documents," he said.

(That's not entirely true. The Tribune, as was reported in today's edition, had requested documents from his time in Springfield and never received a response.)

"I was in the state senate for eight years," Obama continued. "I had one staff person….I don't have archivists in the state senate. I don't have the Barack Obama state senate library available to me, so we had a bunch of file cabinets. I do not have a whole bunch of records from those years. Now, if there are particular documents that you are interested in, then you should let us know. But I don't have – I don't maintain – a file of eight years of work in the state senate because I didn't have the resources available to maintain those kinds of records."

Sweet pressed on: "When the office was packed up, where is the stuff."

Obama: "I'm not certain…It could have been thrown out. I haven't been in the state senate now for quite some time."

Tommy Vietor, Obama's Iowa press secretary, later said that the selection of who was allowed to ask a question was simply a matter of trying to give Iowa reporters first crack. Still, it's a balance that out-of-state and in-state reporters usually work out pretty well on their own.

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/obama_pressed_on_springfield_r.html

All the candidates do this and there's nothing wrong with it. I don't object when Clinton does it, so I'm not going to complain when someone else does it

:puke:

What could possibly measure up to the Clintons in the White House with what went on there with what Obama's records as state senator? Give me a break.

The article reference in the link said this rearding the Chicago Tribune:



Yet another out of ammo attempt by Team Clinton...

:rofl:

Ah, the managed (if not staged) press conference. The hallmark of politics as usual these days.

Note the misdirected answer to the question, also.

Regarding his lack of records or lack of knowledge, or both, about his office files, bullhockey.

He went somewhere from there, and these files would have been his goldmine of resources,contacts,issue information/background. The didn't get tossed. He didn't start afresh, with nothing, in his next incarnation.

He undoubtedly had other and more staff subsequently, during the transitional and later time frames when it would have been logical to make culling and retention decisions. During his tenure in the State Senate, while the records were active, his "one staff person" was probably one full-time staffperson (you can count or discount part-timers, volunteers, interns dependent upon your purposes).

In any event, the official records (voting, committee work, testimony, etc.) would be available in the archives of the Illinois State Senate.

Now, if you wanted to interpret this hedging negatively, perhaps they don't bear close examination.

"He added he was still committed to running a campaign that attempted to rise above the back and forth of what he has deemed “textbook” politics from Washington. But the most notable exchange in the press conference came when Obama was about to walk off stage after taking just four questions. Sweet and David Wright from ABC News protested loudly that the Senator was not making himself more available to the media.

“If transparency is a big part of the campaign, why are the availabilities so few and far between and so short?” Wright asked Obama.

Obama ignored his question, but came back to both Sweet and Wright afterward, taking questions on his Illinois state senate records and why he didn’t take more opportunities to attack Clinton. Since Sept. 10, this was the second press conference the campaign has organized that was open to all press. Obama also took questions from New Hampshire reporters after he filed for the presidency there, a tradition organized by the New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office. He has also had two other media availabilities -- one in Iowa and one in South Carolina.

In a town hall in Dover, N.H., several weeks ago, Obama said he that he would hold regular press conferences and “not just call on my four favorite reporters.”'

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/09/457959.aspx