At the Associated Press this afternoon, White House Correspondent Ben Feller relayed the essence of a statement by Obama administration spokesman Jay Carney about how the President believes that, in Feller's words, "it's up to New York and other municipalities to decide how much force to use in dealing with Occupy Wall Street demonstrations." Feller failed to mention both the President's previous endorsement of the goals of the Occupy protesters, and his inexcusable silence as the encampments have devolved into disease-infested swamps of criminal and antisocial behavior. How convenient.
Most of Feller's brief report follows:
It must be nice for the President can be so noncommittal now while Feller lets slide the fact that Obama was a big OWS booster in the beginning:
(Devin Dwyer at ABC News, October 18)
President Obama, who has become a target of the Occupy Wall Street protests sweeping the country, today embraced the economic frustration voiced on the streets and said in an exclusive interview with ABC News that his vision for the U.S. economic system is best suited to resolve protesters’ concerns.
“I understand the frustrations being expressed in those protests,” Obama told ABC News senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper in the interview to air this evening on ABC News “Nightline” from Jamestown, N.C.
(At the Weekly Standard's Blog, October 18)
In an interview that will be aired tonight on ABC News, President Obama continues to express his commitment to the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
“The most important thing we can do right now is those of us in leadership letting people know that we understand their struggles and we are on their side, and that we want to set up a system in which hard work, responsibility, doing what you’re supposed to do, is rewarded,” Obama tells ABC News. “And that people who are irresponsible, who are reckless, who don’t feel a sense of obligation to their communities and their companies and their workers that those folks aren’t rewarded.”
The president also compares the protesters to the Tea Party.
(At BlackAgendaReport.com, week of October 10)
Obama Endorses Wall Street Protests
Comedian and social activist Dick Gregory had a “bulletin” for the protesters at the kickoff of the occupation of Freedom Plaza, in Washington, DC, last week: “President Obama endorsed what you all are doing here!”
The final excerpt goes on to note that Gregory's audience "was skeptical, to put it mildly." But Obama said what he said, and Gregory interpreted it correctly.
A Republican or conservative who had endorsed an activist movement decaying into lawlessness would have been hounded relentlessly (and appropriately) but the press to see if he or she was still sticking with the activists. With Obama, it's just another free pass in what has been almost three interrupted years of them.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
