Press Conference

How concerned is President Obama? From his news conference last night:
About the new flu: “deep concern”
About Pakistan, overall: “gravely concerned”
About Pakistan’s government: “more concerned” (than nuclear threat)
About Iraq bombings: “legitimate cause of concern”
About Fiat-Chrysler merger: “ongoing concern” (in the sense of a business)

It’s a president’s prerogative to preempt network TV programming for prime-time press conferences, and President Obama has done it twice already. But his rhetoric at last night’s event was mostly re-runs: Eighteen times, Obama cited something he’s said before. If your drinking-game phrase was “As I’ve said” or “What I’ve said is,” you’re lucky to [...]

The Al Franken for Senate campaign is asking Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie to instruct all counties to redouble their efforts to find missing ballots. “There are votes in Minnesota that aren’t even being accounted for, much less being counted,” spokesman Andy Barr told reporters at a press conference at Franken headquarters in St. Paul this afternoon.

Video and more after the jump.

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman broke his silence on the recount in Minnesota’s election for the seat he holds today, saying “I’m a winner” and predicting that most of the mounting number of challenged ballots — including his campaign’s apparently — will be dismissed. Of the Coleman and Al Franken campaigns’ increasingly aggressive ballot challenges, Coleman said, “There are games being played on both sides and it would be great if people put the games aside.” He disavowed personal involvement in the recount’s nitty-gritty — “I’m not involved in day-to-day recount stuff.”
Continued, with video, after the jump.

The campaign of Democrat Al Franken today trumpeted net gains during the first day of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate election recount even in Republican-leaning parts of the state. “We have reason to be optimistic,” recount attorney Marc Elias told reporters at an afternoon press conference. “We are picking up votes across the state.” The candidate himself — seldom seen locally since recount gears began turning — shared that view, according to communications director Andy Barr. “Al is cautiously optimistic,” Barr said.

At a Wednesday press conference, Al Franken for Senate attorney Marc Elias cheered today’s Ramsey County District Court ruling that the county must provide the campaign with information about whose absentees ballots were rejected in the election earlier this month. Brief video highlight clip after the jump.

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign staff ejected a Minnesota Independent reporter from a press conference at campaign headquarters Wednesday afternoon. The MnIndy reporter made it as far as the inside of a small press conference room at a drab office park in St. Paul when a staffer asked who he represented and on that basis said the reporter would have to leave. In response to protests that MnIndy is a news outlet like others in the room, the staffer replied, “Right, and it’s funded by George Soros,” and escorted the reporter out. It’s the fourth time the senator’s campaign has denied access to local independent media at a media availability. Video (think “Blair Witch Project,” set in a boring office interior) after the jump. Spoiler alert: Norm’s door is extremely squeaky.

Charges are flying that post-election lawsuits, press releases, talking points, and media (un)availabilities are smearing — or worse, interfering in — Minnesota’s election process, and sliming — or worse, intentionally intimidating — the state’s election officials. Setting aside for the moment the current and serious question of whether intimidation tactics are in play, it’s worth hearing out two Minnesota Independent commenters, self-identified election judges both, who say they don’t feel slimed by basic calls for review, recount and investigation.

“The odds are that something went wrong with respect to counting.”

That’s what Democrat Al Franken’s campaign counsel, David Lillehaug, said this morning about the prospect of a pending statewide recount in yesterday’s U.S. Senate election in Minnesota. “We want to make sure that each ballot that was cast is counted appropriately,” he said.

An Oct. 9 press release from campaign staffer Tom Erickson said that Sen. Norm Coleman would “hold a media availability” Friday morning. But when I arrived, Chuck Olsen of the citizen-videoblogging group The Uptake had already been refused entry. When I tried to enter, Erickson barred me entry, stating that the event, held in Coleman’s campaign office was for “credentialed” media only. When I asked how one gets such credentials, he said that only “legitimate” media were welcome. As journalists from local media filed past — Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman, MinnPost reporter Joe Kimball, TPT host Eric Eskola — Coleman staffers refused to share what criteria it used to determine what makes a news operation legit.