New York Times’ ‘enchanted’ question wasted 1/7 of Obama news conference

New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny’s question about what has most “surprised,” “enchanted,” “humbled” and “troubled” President Obama consumed one-seventh of last night’s prime-time press conference — time that could have been spent on two substantive questions. Topics that weren’t raised: health care reform, gay marriage, credit-card usury, labor rights, Wall Street regulation and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. What question (or two) would you have asked?

(Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin offers this AWOL interrogative: “He could have, I dunno, pressed Obama for details about how and why his administration spooked and freaked out countless New Yorkers this week for the sake of an alleged photo op update.”)

The question in question:

During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office, enchanted you the most about serving in this office, humbled you the most and troubled you the most?

Obama took out a pen and asked Zeleny to repeat the question’s key words, drawing laughter especially with this raised-eyebrow comment: “‘Enchanted.’ Nice.”

Zeleny’s query and Obama’s response clocked in at more than six-and-a-half minutes — more time than was spent on two questions about torture. The other questions reporters asked, including followups and Obama’s replies, required only about three-and-a-half minutes each, on average.

But Zeleny’s own estimate of the value of his question’s value apparently exceeds even its disproportionate claim on the president’s and the national television audience’s attention. More than one-sixth of his story on the press conference (co-written with Helene Cooper) is devoted to Obama being surprised, troubled, enchanted, humbled.

Zeleny “can get away with stuff like this,” writes the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, because he has been reporting on Obama since his early political career in Chicago.

Ambinder heard a White House aide console a reporter who didn’t get to ask a question: “Well, if it hadn’t been for one of your colleagues.”

Video is below, but first here’s the “enchanted” exchange from the Times’ own transcript (the newspaper also has an interactive transcript-video feature on the press conference).

OBAMA: Okay. Jeff Zeleny.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office, enchanted you the most about serving in this office, humbled you the most and troubled you the most?

MR. OBAMA: Let me write this down. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Surprised.

MR. OBAMA: All right. I’ve got –

QUESTION: Troubled.

MR. OBAMA: I’ve got — what was the first one?

QUESTION: Surprised.

MR. OBAMA: Surprised.

QUESTION: Troubled.

MR. OBAMA: Troubled.

QUESTION: Enchanted.

MR. OBAMA: Enchanted. Nice. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: And humbled.

MR. OBAMA: And what was the last one, humbled?

QUESTION: Humbled.

Thank you, sir.

MR. OBAMA: All right. (Laughter.) Okay. (Laughter.)

Surprised. I am surprised, compared to where I started, when we first announced for this race, by the number of critical issues that appear to be coming to a head all at the same time.

You know, when I first started this race, Iraq was a central issue. But the economy appeared on the surface to still be relatively strong.

There were underlying problems that I was seeing with health care for families and our education system and college affordability and so forth, but obviously, I didn’t anticipate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

And so, you know, the typical president, I think, has two or three big problems; we’ve got seven or eight big problems. And so we’ve had to move very quickly. And I’m very proud of my team for the fact that we’ve been able to keep our commitments to the American people to bring about change, while at the same time managing a whole host of issues that had come up that weren’t necessarily envisioned a year and a half ago.

Troubled? I’d say less troubled but, you know, sobered by the fact that change in Washington comes slow. That there is still a certain quotient of political posturing and bickering that takes place even when we’re in the middle of really big crises.

I would like to think that everybody would say, you know what, let’s take a timeout on some of the political games, focus our attention for at least this year, and then we can start running for something next year. And that hasn’t happened as much as I would have liked.

Enchanted? (Laughter.) Enchanted. I — I will — I will tell you that, when I — when I meet our servicemen and -women, enchanted’s probably not the word I would use. (Laughter.)

But — but — but I — but I am — I am so profoundly impressed and grateful to them for what they do. They’re really good at their job. They are willing to make extraordinary sacrifices on our behalf. They do so without complaint. They are fiercely loyal to this country.

You know the more that I interact with our servicemen and -women, from the top brass down to the lowliest private, I’m just, I’m grateful to them.

Humbled by the — humbled by the fact that the presidency is extraordinarily powerful, but we are just part of a much broader tapestry of American life and there are a lot of different power centers. And so I can’t just press a button and suddenly have the bankers do exactly what I want — (laughter) — or — (chuckles) — or, you know, turn on a switch and suddenly, you know, Congress falls in line. And so, you know, what you do is to make your best arguments, listen hard to what other people have to say and coax folks in the right direction.

This metaphor has been used before, but this — the ship of state is an ocean liner; it’s not a speed boat. And so the way we are constantly thinking about this issue of how to bring about the changes that the American people need is to — is to say, if we can move this big battleship a few degrees in a different direction, we may not see all the consequences of that change a week from now or three months from now, but 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, our kids will be able to look back and say that was when we started getting serious about clean energy, that’s when health care started to become more efficient and affordable, that’s when we became serious about raising our standards in education.

And — and so — I — I have a much longer time horizon than I think you do when you’re a candidate or if you’re listening, I think, to the media reportage on a day-to-day basis.

And I’m — I’m humbled, last, by the American people who have shown extraordinary patience and, I think, a recognition that we’re not going to solve all these problems overnight.

Okay?