Obama Honeymoon is Over After Press Conference

President Barack Obama It took just 64 days, but it can be declared that the Obama Honeymoon with the Washington press corp is over.

President Obama's second nationally televised press conference was marked by skeptical and repeated questioning from the gathered reporters over concerns that increased federal spending to lift the economy now will create budget deficits down the road. ...

More than once during the hour long press conference, Obama said that the job of fixing the economy was job number one and that he couldn't mortgage America's present to protect its future.

Obama added that while his proposed budget has been criticized by Republicans for being too large, his opposition hasn't proposed its own budget for comparison.

While questions at his last press conference six weeks ago were mild, reporters were far more aggressive Tuesday evening. The more pointed queries forced Obama to provides more detailed and ponderous answers than usual.

In response to estimates that the budget deficit would grow after the first five years of his spending plan, Obama said "If this were easy, we all would have had it done, would have voted on it and everyone would have gone home. This is hard."

Another reporter suggested that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has provided more leadership on the AIG bonus scandal than the president. He followed that question by asking why Obama waited more than a day to say he was angry that AIG executives received bonuses with taxpayer funds.

"I like to know what I'm talking about talking about before I speak," was Obama's terse response.

The nationally televised press conference is the latest appearance by Obama in a major publicity blitz. In the last week, Obama has appeared on the Tonight Show, was the subject of a 60 Minutes profile and penned an op-ed in major newspapers around the world ahead of the upcoming G-20 economic summit in London.

For the record, I believe it is good to see reporters press the administration for more details to his plans to move the country out of its financial malaise. The more pointed questioning of the president from both friends and foes should create a better result in the end.