in their own words
 |
|
|
|
 Dammit, You Guys - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 3/26/09 — Thursday, March 26, 2009 —  MR. GIBBS: Mark.Q Robert, in the online town meeting, when the President said he doesn't think legalizing marijuana would give the economy a boost, was he giving a political answer or an economic answer? Does he have economic numbers to back that up? MR. GIBBS: I'm unaware of a CEA analysis -- (laughter) -- regarding that. I think the -- Q Will you let us know if there is one? (Laughter.) MR. GIBBS: I think you've heard the President talk about getting us on a path toward sustained economic growth. I don't think he believes that that is a part of that plan. Q What about medicinal marijuana? MR. GIBBS: I think the -- I'd point you to the Justice Department on developments on that. The President asked people to ask their questions. Obviously interests aligned with certain viewpoints did so, and the President wanted to answer the question that, no, it was not -- he did not think a good economic strategy. Q Did that question get the most votes of any? MR. GIBBS: I will ask Macon and those guys. It is interesting when -- I think several of those topics were in things like financial stability or -- Q Green jobs. MR. GIBBS: Green jobs, right. (Laughter.) It's unclear what leap of faith one has to make to ask that question in some of the -- some of those -- right, some of those -- some of those topics. Q Why did he even bring it up? Why did he even bring it up? I mean, no one asked it online and no one asked it -- MR. GIBBS: No, people -- people asked it online – Q I mean, no, I know they voted for it, they voted for it. But he brought it up on his own. This is what I'm saying. Why did he even bring -- MR. GIBBS: April, the concept of the virtual town hall meeting was to have people -- Q Transparency? MR. GIBBS: No, no, let me -- you can ask and I'll answer -- (laughter) -- that the President asked people to go to the web site, ask questions of the administration, vote on which questions they wanted to have the President answer, and that he would do so. And as I said and as Ann said and -- maybe we should have said "clean-energy jobs" -- that would have -- Q You said "green." MR. GIBBS: Yes, I know. That in some topics -- you know, this is not the first time that an interest group gets on a web site and votes many times for their question to be answered, and the President thought he should answer it and I think he did. Q But, Robert, he didn't take on the serious issue. He made a joke out of it. I mean, there were a lot of questions about legalization of marijuana, not as a job creation program, but just as a serious policy issue. And with what's happening in Mexico -- MR. GIBBS: It poses the legal -- I'll do this for the President -- I didn't -- I neither emailed my question in, nor voted for it, but the President opposes the legalization of marijuana, and I'd -- I'll say I did that without even the slightest hint of laughter. Q Can you say why? Q Robert, while you're on this same subject can we follow up? MR. GIBBS: Hold on one sec. Hold on. Q What did the President learn in this? A lot of the questions were things he talks about all the time. Q Annie, there was a question pending on why -- why he feels that way about legalizing marijuana. MR. GIBBS: He does not think that that is -- he opposes it. He doesn't think that's the right plan for America. Q But a follow-up on the process, on the -- MR. GIBBS: Hold on, let me -- I've lost control. (Laughter.) Hold on, what are you -- dammit, you guys don't get to Google this stuff and send in your questions. Hold on, hold on, hold on, let me -- Democracy | Economy | Open Government | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | War on Drugs | White House Press Corps Labels: Democracy, Economy, Open Government, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, War on Drugs, White House Press Corps
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 7:50 PM
|
|
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
< whpc home