York: Obama Surrendered His Agenda in Press Conference

At his news conference Tuesday night, President Obama stressed the four most important goals he hopes to accomplish this year: health care reform, energy legislation, education reform, and deficit reduction. But by the end of the hour-long session with the White House press corps, Obama had retreated on three of the four. On energy, he defined progress so far down that virtually any action would satisfy his request to Congress; on health care, he was vague and noncommittal; and on the deficit, he insisted against widespread skepticism that he can reduce the deficit despite a budget that projects a tripling of the national debt in the next decade.