Press Treats Obama Tougher

The Elite Press is a little miffed that Obama didn't call on them at the press conference, but they were impressed at the questions:

Breaking with tradition and using a prepared list, Obama did not recognize journalists with The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal or USA Today -- the last four of which were not picked at last month's news conference, either. Instead, he called on reporters for Ebony magazine, Stars and Stripes, Univision, and Agence France-Presse.

Obama's selection process last night did not result in softball inquiries.

Virtually every correspondent was granted a follow-up question, which was often more sharply worded than the first.

Followups - one of the best ways that you can hold a politician to account. After all, it's significantly harder to give a non-responsive answer when aggressive followups are allowed.  It looks like stonewalling, or incompetence.  

Notably, George W. Bush generally refused to allow followups. But at least he didn't use a teleprompter (quite) as much, right? What a brilliant intellect that GWB was.