by Replacing Robert Gibbs in the position of White House Spokesman is Jay Carey, who was due to begin his tenure today. But as President Obama explained to the journalist on hand,”I figured that I’d give Jay one more taste of freedom before we lock him in a room with all of you,” Obama told reporters, “so I’m here to do a little down-field blocking for him.”And some expert blocking the President did indeed. Joking and deferring was the order of the day as Obama dished out a few less than straightforward answers to a few relatively mild questions. For instance Obama did not hesitate to criticize the general state of journalistic impatience with the slow movement of government.”Part of the challenge here is that this town — let’s face it, you guys are pretty impatient,” Obama said. “If something doesn’t happen today, then the assumption is it’s just not going to happen. Right? “He then poked a little fun at some individual reporters, such as Chip Reid of CBS News, who needed to put on a pair of glasses to read some small numbers from the proposed Obama budget.”That’s a bad sign there, Chip.”Reid’s comeback was clever when he said, “A little fine print in the budget, Mr. President.”New York Times correspondent Jackie Calmes ruffled Obama’s feathers with her mult-part question, inspiring this response from the President:”I should have written all this down, Jackie — I’m running out of room here in my brain.”Calmes retort was a pleasant “I’m happy to repeat my question.”Jay Carey’s debut with the press is scheduled for later today.
