Michelle Malkin » Revisiting Ann Compton’s stupid question

Revisiting Ann Compton’s stupid question

By Michelle Malkin • March 25, 2009 03:24 PM

I mentioned it in the POTUS/TOTUS press conference liveblog last night, but I’m still marveling at the stupidity of it.

“It” being the bone-headed question on race from ABC News reporter Ann Compton:

The question was so ill-conceived and softball that even President Obama seemed embarrassed. Transcript:

Ann Compton? Hey, Ann. You sound surprised.

Q: I am surprised. Could I ask you about race?

OBAMA: You may.

Q: Yours is a rather historic presidency. And I’m just wondering whether, in any of the policy debates that you’ve had within the White House, the issue of race has come up or whether it has in the way you feel you’ve been perceived by other leaders or by the American people? Or has the last 64 days been a relatively colorblind time?

OBAMA: I, I think that the last 64 days has been dominated by me trying to figure out how we’re going to fix the economy, and that affects black, brown and white.

And, you know, obviously, at the inauguration, I think that there was justifiable pride on the part of the country that we had taken a step to move us beyond some of the searing legacies of racial discrimination in this country, but that lasted about a day.

And, and, you know, right now, the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged. And that is: Are we taking the steps to improve liquidity in the financial markets, create jobs, get businesses to reopen, keep America safe? And that’s what I’ve been spending my time thinking about.

Notice the meek way in which Compton asked the Obamessiah for permission before she proceeded:

COMPTON: Could I ask you about race?

OBAMA: You may.

What a self-parody.

Mind you, Ann Compton isn’t a rookie reporter. She’s a veteran ABC News journalist and is president of the White House Correspondents’ Association. Seats in the White House press briefing room are scarce and coveted. If this is the best she can come up with when she’s called on unexpectedly, Compton should seriously think about giving up her seat to someone who deserves it.

***

Anthony Bradley, World Magazine:

It is possible that Compton was not expecting to ask a question last night as President Obama even noted that she seemed surprised when called upon. Perhaps Compton had no question in mind so the best she could think of, on the spot, was a race-related question. After all, she was looking at a black man who must obviously think only along racial lines when thinking of new ways to grow the government. Other than race-related questions, what else would one ask America’s first black president?

At least Compton did not ask about the president’s dogs or where his wife buys her shoes. Given the pressure of possibly being taken off guard, I imagine that I could have offered a series of strange questions as well like “Mr. President, have you read F.A. Hayek’s book The Road to Serfdom?” Or “Mr. President, do you think you’ll make a Clemson football game in the fall? They have a new head coach. Go Tigers!” Or “Mr. President, what is your favorite snack food during meetings?” These are the kinds of questions Americans want to know the answers to during an economic crisis, right?

Actually, reading Hayek now would be very helpful in Washington these days.

I do feel sorry for Ms. Compton because she will probably spend the next few weeks being ridiculed. A few folks have already posted complaints about her question at ABC News.com. “Tonight’s question by Ann Compton to the president of the United States was the lamest, worst conceived I could have imagined,” one critic posted. In the end, here’s the moral of the story: If you’re at a White House press conference, always have a good question ready to ask even if you do not believe you’ll be called on to speak. Always.

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#101

On March 26th, 2009 at 10:15 am, jbh45 said:

On March 25th, 2009 at 5:31 pm, lgm said:
We’ve got a good ~~President~~ communist.

Now, I think the quote is about right….
#103

On March 26th, 2009 at 11:12 am, MtsEdge said:

On March 25th, 2009 at 3:31 pm, ahraley said:
It was a stupid quesiton. I still can’t believe she asked it with so many other questions of relevance to be asked. However, I guess she did prove Eric Holder right. She had to ask for permission to discuss it. She is a Coward.

And she revealed on whose mind(s?) race is always so prominent…

Meanwhile, in the real world, the rest of us are concerned with issues of substance re this farce of a presidency, e.g.:

I know that I (and I am sure most conservatives would agree with me) never considered the “One’s” race as a disqualifying factor for his becoming President, but instead it was his Marxist/statist political views.

For me, it boiled down to good old fashion LACK OF ANY QUALIFYING EXPERIENCE!

Don’t forget the LACK OF CITIZENSHIP CREDENTIALS. Still not displayed, to this day, despite evidence that he is NOT a natural-born U.S. citizen.
#104

On March 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm, Ilovemycountry said:

Imagine if any of you folks had of asked BO a question about race it would gone like this:

Why are black people so dumb?

How come you hate America?

Are you the anti-christ?
#105

On March 26th, 2009 at 6:18 pm, MacEamonn said:

On March 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm, Ilovemycountry said:
Imagine if any of you folks had of asked BO a question about race it would gone like this:

Why are black people so dumb?

How come you hate America?

Are you the anti-christ?

First I’d like the say that, being part African myself, I resent question #1 and assume is actually the attitude of the poster.

So what exactly is wrong with questions 2 and 3 other than we would never expect to get a straight answer?
#106

On March 27th, 2009 at 12:50 pm, FirstSkirt said:

Why do liberals so fixate on race? On Inauguration Day, every newscast carried the fact that Obama was the first black president. Just spare me – this is ANOTHER example of their never-ending hypocrisy.
#107

On March 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm, FirstSkirt said:

Oops, forgot to mention MBuck #91, jangar #92, and MacEamonn #93 & #99 for their excellent response to LGM (PUTZ) and I hate my country…Another example of these two kool-aid drinking liberals (lgm and IHMC)posting snarky comments with NO facts, just crap.
#109

On March 30th, 2009 at 10:38 pm, yohannbiimu said:

Does anyone know if Ms. Compton genulfected as she asked for permission to ask this insipid question? It is no wonder that the “news” media is going out of business. It will come to the point where the socialist federal government will print a few trillion dollars to hand out to the press and electronic media, to where they will officially become the propaganda arm of the statists.