At the end of a joint press conference between President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Wenesday, CBS White House correspondent Chip Reid attempted to ask Obama a question about Tuesday's electoral results but was given the brush off for the second time in a week.
Later that afternoon, Reid described the incident on CBSNews.com's Political Hotsheet blog: "As he [Obama] and President Calderon turned to walk back toward the Oval Office I asked, loudly enough for him to hear, if he had any comment on the elections. No response. I then shouted 'Do you have any plans for a real press conference?' No response, not that I expected one."
On Monday, the President refused to answer a question from Reid moments after signing the "Press Freedom Act" into law.
CBS morning and evening news broadcasts have ignored both the Monday and Wednesday snubs by Obama, with Reid only making his displeasure known online.
In his Wednesday blog post, Reid noted:
...so-called 'press conferences' with foreign leaders usually allow for only two questions from the White House press corps and two from foreign reporters. But today he [Obama] said there was time for only one from each side. And in what I suspect was a White House effort to assure that the questioning was limited to immigration and other issues of U.S.-Mexico concern, he called on the Univision reporter from the U.S. side.
Reid even indignantly declared: "So if his goal was to avoid answering any tough questions about yesterday's elections, or the oil spill in the Gulf, or financial regulation, or Iran, or Afghanistan -- he succeeded."
On Wednesday's Evening News, Reid was given the perfect opportunity to voice his grievances on air, when anchor Katie Couric asked: "Chip, how is the White House assessing or spinning yesterday's election results?" However, Reid declined, simply repeating talking points put out by Obama's press office:
Well, Katie, the spin from the White House is that this was a very good day, but they're focusing almost exclusively on that race in southwestern Pennsylvania, where the Democrat beat a Republican. They say it shows that a Democrat in a district where Obama is not very popular can win and they say that's good news for November. They may not lose as many seats as they had feared. Katie.
