Last night on the PBS News Hour viewers were treated to a rare site; the usually staid and immemorial pundits, Shields and Brooks, almost came to psychic body blows over the alleged negative style of the the president.
David Brooks: "no, all I'm saying is that the president appears negative all the time. Every time we see him he's mentioning some other problem, whether it's the economy, jobs, Afghanistan. The people need some assurances from him that things will be OK that's all."
Mark Shields: Jim, the American people are tired of leadership that's in some kind of collective denial. Tired of a president that seems out of touch with reality. Things are serious, Jim. It would irresponsible for the president to engage in "happy talk". He knows about the American Dream and he wants to make that dream come true for as many Americans as possible. He's talking about the things he wants to do to push this country forward. Americans need to decide for themselves what they want to do. I think it's a stretch to say that the president is always down, haven't you seen that smile of his? YouTube - Obama Smile But "happy talk" no I don't think so. Honesty Jim, that's what called for. YouTube - Billy Joel - Honesty
Brooks: "Well Mark has got somethings right, happy talk, I think that's exactly what we need."
Jim Lehrer: "Gentleman we have to leave it there. You can follow this on line at PBS.org slash News Hour"
PBS later released this on line for those unfamiliar with Oscar Hammerstein or born after after 1980
White House press Secretary Robert Gibbs said this when asked, "The president has more important things to do than comment on what took place on PBS. I'll add though, he's the commander in chief, not Psycho-therapist in chief and I'm not going to comment on what the president thinks people should think. Besides the conservatives should be happy aren't they the ones who are always saying people should pull themselves up by there boot straps. Please check out our web site:
Later an unnamed source said, the president is not uncaring, we are releasing something through National Institutes of Health and the Department of Health and Human Services
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