“We can debate whether we should be spending money on energy policy, but don’t tell me it’s wasteful.”

Um… we can debate, as long as I don’t disagree with you? Wow, THANKS, President Obama!

8:28 update: “Overspending isn’t what got us into this mess…” “…spending $30 when they had $1 is what caused the problem.” I realize that he’s talking about leveraging vs. Overspending, but the principle’s kind of the same — we, as a society, have been overleveraging ourselves, and we have to stop. Getting back to spending more within our means is going to be painful, and putting trillions more “above our means” dollars into the economy now is just going to make the pain worse in the future.

Plus, if the banks were giving loans to people who were too big a risk, doesn’t that mean the recipients of the loans, were, I dunno, overspending?

8:32 Update: So, we should keep acting as dumb as we have been and save “later?” The time to get your financial house in order is now. Putting it off is never a good idea (I speak from experience).

8:34 Update: Why didn’t he just give a speech? He has a list of the people he’s going to call on (and, presumably, the questions they’re going to ask) — why the charade?

8:36 Update: Jake Tapper: “How will we know if your solution is working?” Obama: “If we have at least 4 million jobs left in the economy, then I’ve succeeded.” (That’s the only way I can interpret the promise to save 4 million jobs, anyway.)

8:37 Update: “The problem in Indiana was that RVs aren’t selling.” Um… isn’t Obama an environmentalist? Shouldn’t he be thrilled that RVs aren’t selling?

8:44 Update: “Credit must flow — how will you guarantee that the next bank bailout will ensure that?” Answer: “My Tax-cheat-in-chief will answer that tomorrow.”

8:45 Update: “If you’re going to be wrong 30% of the time (per VP Biden), how do we know this isn’t one of the things?” “Because there’s lots of stuff in this bill. Some of the spaghetti will stick! I hope!”

8:47 Update: “Here, sir, have a softball. How do you feel about Alex Rodiguez and steroids?” What the heck are we wasting time with this for? We only have 13 minutes to Heroes. Talk about important questions, or get off my TV!

8:49 Update: Helen Thomas: “So-called Terrorists…” “Does anyone have nuclear weapons in the Middle East?” Obama: “There are definitely some terrorists in Pakistan. We want Pakistan to realize that they are as in-danger as we are from those people, who will kill innocents.” “I don’t want to speculate about nuclear weapons, but, man, that would suck. We’ll work with Russia.” Helen attempts to ask a follow-up question, but, obviously, that wasn’t on the script.

8:52 Update: “Will you rule out a prosecution of the Bush Administration, right here and now?” “My administration is going to operate in a way that leaves no doubt that we do not torture…” Does that have anything to do with the question?

8:57 Update: Did he just compare what mainstream Democrats believe (“Throw money at it!”) to what the most far right “conservatives”^[a] think? He’s trying to make the “conservatives” sound crazier… even though the Democratic answer is the one that’s been tried over and over and has never worked.

8:59 Update: “‘This is a spending bill, not a stimulus bill.’ But, by definition, stimulus must include spending.” This is the same thing we heard earlier today, and it’s still a strawman. The issue isn’t that there’s spending period, but that the spending is on unnecessary (and useless) things, and/or won’t come for at least one or two years (so much for timely, eh?).

9:01 Update: Bull crap. I have to listen to talking heads analyze what the President just said? Isn’t there an NBC executive to override these people so I can watch Heroes?

1. I would’ve said Libertarians, but whatever [↩]