Obama Blanked Top Papers But Took Tough Questions

President Obama bypassed reporters from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and other major papers last night, instead taking questions from Spanish-language TV station Univision and military newspaper Stars and Stripes. Yet the president faced tougher questions than at his first press conference, often in the form of sharply worded follow-ups, Howard Kurtz of the Post writes.

A CNN reporter asked Obama if he worried "that your daughters, not to mention the next president, will be inheriting an even bigger fiscal mess," and the AP reporter asked Obama whether Americans should "trust the government" to handle greater financial authority. Despite the wide range of questioners, the hour-long session focused almost exclusively on the economy and domestic policy; Obama didn't get a single question on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (More Barack Obama stories.)