Barack Obama Before SF Chronicle Editorial Board - Does Well But Chron's Questions and Intent Are Suspect

Senator Barack Obama appeared before the San Francisco Chronicle's Editorial Board today and as this video shows he performed well. He answered questions in incredible detail and showed great thought on the issues of the day. Senator Obama has particularly clear command of the matter of the security industry problem and the politics behind the heath care issue as well as energy policy.

I think where he seemed to confuse SF Chronicle Chief Phil Bronstein is in the statement that he "generally uses the truth" where Obama was explaining that he's not going to say something that makes a Democratic collegue look bad.

It seeme to me that Phil was more looking for weakness in what Obama said than paying attention to context and words. For example, Obama -- on the issue of how to exact change in the health care system -- said that it was necessary to use (not his exact words) some shame, by having a more open process so that one can hear if a legislator was on the side of the insurance providers, or not.

But Bronstein seemed to focus on just the use of the term "shame" and took that out of context to apply it in a general sense but forgetting the orginal conversation. That's what ones does when they seek weakness -- they don't see that the weakness is not there because the desire to be "right" in their search overwhelms any sensible thought and consideration.

I'm also very surprised that in the Internet capital of the United States there was no question regarding technology! How the Chronicle coule miss that is beyond me.

Also, Senator Obama, after the questions were over, said "Maybe we should adress this off the record," in a conversation about "experience" but the camera kept going. That was when Phil Bronstein tried to zero in on the way that Washington is caused to change in policy response. You know, the "shame" conversation. At that point, I expected the camera to be turned off, but that didn't happen. That's not right in my view. Off the record is off the record. Period.

I'm also interested in why the SF Chronicle made the video public so that Senator Obama's opponents -- who did not go before the editorial board, yet -- can see the cast and base their responses on it. The only way to blunt this obvious development is to have a nearly totally different set of questions. Otherwise, the process is not fair at all.

Let's keep an eye on what the Chronicle does.