Obama's Pressers: No Comment -- and NoDoz

The president-elect -- all smiles amid the snores? (Associated Press)

Still, it often seems as though Obama is choosing his words in a way that will make them the least interesting. Asked about his earlier disparagement of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama replied that "this is fun for the press to try to stir up whatever quotes were generated during the course of the campaign" -- as if the words came from a rogue word processor rather than from Obama's mouth. Asked about the Blagojevich affair on Monday, Obama again retreated deep into the passive voice: "There is nothing in the review that was presented to me that in any way contradicted my earlier statements that this appalling set of circumstances that we've seen arise had nothing to do with my office."

Yesterday, the president-elect began with opening-statement platitudes: "If we want to outcompete the world tomorrow, then we're going to have to outeducate the world today. . . . We need a new vision for the 21st-century education system."

Obama followed that by allowing the vice president-elect to deliver one of his trademark meanders: "My mom has an expression -- and you all are tired of hearing me say this all through the last couple years -- that children tend to become that which you expect of them. . . . These kids, Mr. President, are the kite strings that lift our national ambitions aloft."

Next up in Obama's insomnia treatment was an acceptance speech by the previously unknown nominee, followed by the president-elect's own blend of convoluted and passive answers to questions: "We're going to have to work through a lot of these difficulties, these structural difficulties that built up over many decades, some of it having to do with the financial industry and the huge amounts of leverage, the huge amounts of debt that were taken on, the speculation and the risk that was occurring, the lack of financial regulation, some of it having to do with our housing market, stabilizing that."

The whole thing might have ended in snores if McCormick hadn't piped up about Blagojevich. After upbraiding the reporter for his first two attempts at a question, Obama dispatched McCormick's third try -- whether there should be a special election to fill Obama's Senate seat -- with a no-comment. "I'm going to let the state legislature make a determination," he said.

McCormick tried something more to the president-elect's liking. "Do you or Duncan have a better jump shot?" he inquired.

"Duncan -- much better," Obama replied readily. "That one's an easy one."