LiveBlog: President Bush's July 15 News Conference

Update (13:40 EDT): You can see in bold some of the questions I thought particularly biased. I've clipped Mark Smith's first question about turning the thermostat down and driving less and posted that video on EyeBlast.tv. You can find it embedded at right. [Official White House transcript available here.]

10:17 EDT: President Bush will hold a press conference in a few minutes, I'll be watching and live-blogging questions from the press corps. I'll update the blog post after the fact (assuming President Bush takes questions) with a link to the official White House transcript. If warranted, we may also post video of the most biased questions.

11:09 | President thanks reporters for their time, closes conference.

11:06 | Olivier (sp?): "Is President Karzai correct and do you think the new government in Pakistan is willing to combat terrorism?"

11:02 | Ryan: Do you think it [the economy] changes before you leave office?

10:59 | April Ryan, American Urban Radio Networks: "When in your guestimation will this country see a turnaround on the soft economy?" Also asks about what's happening in Sudan.

10:57 | Compton presses again on oil company question.

10:55 | Ann Compton, ABC Radio: "You never mention oil companies. Are you confident that American oil producers are tapping all the sources they have out there, including offshore?" Compton also asks about Iraq and what Bush will leave his successor.

10:53 | Smith of AP Radio asks if President Bush sees the "value" of a campaign to push for conservation.

10:52 | Mark Smith, AP Radio: "Mr. President, understanding what you say about energy supplies being tight and the debate over energy, which has gone on for years and will continue long through the campaign and into the next administration -- one thing nobody debates is that if Americans use less energy the current supply/demand equation would improve. Why have you not sort of called on Americans to drive less and to turn down the thermostat?"

10:50 | Roger Runningen, Bloomberg News on a second stimulus: "Is it too late to consider a second one?"

10:48 | Baier asks if Americans should expect a surge of troops in Afghanistan

10:46 | Bret Baier, Fox News asks two questions on Iraq/Afghanistan. 1) are troop levels in Iraq hurting war in Afghanistan, 2) asks for reaction from prepared remarks Sen. Obama will deliver on the war today.

10:45 | Unid'd reporter on Zimbabwe.

10:43 | reporter named Stevenly (sp?) "I wonder in light of the Supreme Court's decison what you plan on doing about Guantanamo?"

10:41 | John McKinnon, Wall Street Journal: "In the past, when oil prices have gone up a lot, they wound up going down a lot afterward," asks if Bush can predict price drop in the future

10:39 | Ed Henry, CNN: "I wonder if you felt betrayed by Scott McClellan's assessment of the war in Iraq?" Henry also asks about advice for politicians visiting Iraq, meeting with military commanders.

10:38 | De Nies asks about opening the strategic petroleum reserve

10:35 | Yunji De Nies, ABC News notes that president didn't think gas prices would reach $4 in February and that now they are "approaching five dollars," she then asked, "What is the short term advice for Americans about gas prices?"

10:35 | Plante asks if Fannie and Freddie will continue to be publicly guaranteed by the federal government

10:34 | Bill Plante, CBS News asks if rules governing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be changed so they are not as insulated from market forces as they have been

10:32 | John Yang, NBC News: "Are there other entitites in the economy" that are crucial to the economy that they require "government action to show support for them"?

10:31 | Matt Spetalnick, Reuters: "Given the latest economic data" is the president concerned about recession, would he consider a second stimulus package?

10:30 | Hunt, AP: "Do you think the [banking] system is in trouble?"

10:28 | Terence Hunt, AP asks "Are American banks in trouble?" and if more bailouts are inevitable under the theory that some financial institutions are "too big to fail"

10:28 | President Bush: "The bottom line is this we are going through a tough time" but says "we can have confidence in the long-term foundation of our economy"

10:26 | President Bush says "economy has demonstrated remarkable resilience"

10:26 | President Bush laments congressional inaction on ending ban on offshore oil drilling

10:24 | President Bush opens conference by addressing how Treasury and Fed Reserve's work to shore up mortgage lenders.