happening right there. the pentagon press briefing room. reporter: president obama was roundly criticized before giving a sunday evening oval office address on the war against isis and not providing anything new and not much new today either, at least out of the president or any military officials. this was pretty much getting an update. you know, reviewing the bidding on when s working, when s not working, what can be accelerated. although just a week ago, before the senate armed services committee, less than a week ago, secretary ash carter told that committee when asked if there was anything new that the u.s. military or he was looking at to accelerate the progress there against the war against isis, in the war against isis, he said, look, if i had anything new i would be doing it. so i think it was an attempt by the president to once again try to assure the american public as commander in chief he is sitting
president obama and secretary of defense leon panetta moving forward, a nation at war for ten years and the fiscal drain that it s had had on the economy of this country. i have mike viqueira at the white house and i have colonel jack jacobs here on set with me. i want to talk to you you mike, this is a presidential election year and we are tipping off the new year a few days fresh into this, talking about the economy and the president reminding us of foreign policy, obviously highlighting the fact that al qaeda has been diminished, osama bin laden has been captured and killed, moammar gadhafi has been killed, afghanistan is making progress. i mean, it s boom, boom, boom, one, two, three after the other, obviously now trying to highlight where he can shake things up when it comes to the fiscal responsibility, the economy and this government. clearly, you have to look at everything through a political prince prism once we head into a presidential election year and it was an unusual if
across the aisle but now i m going to govern. wouldn t this be considered loophole government because if george w. bush had done this, liberals whofb hitting the room? sure. there s no question that part of what happens when a president flexes authority is that the other branches of government push back against it. that s pretty standard. when you re going into an election year, the point of the president is whether or not his supporters will buy the congressional version of this story or whether or not they buy his version. either way it looks like it s moving forward. i said we don t have a name, right? no name yet. we should start a twitter hash tag, name melissa s show. msnbc host, always a pleasure. if you want to follow the good professor, her thoughts, log onto the nation.com. she s also on twitter. send her a note.
so, thank you very much. i understand this is the first time a president has done this. it is a pretty nice room. thank you, guys. that closes out the remarks by president obama explaining to all of us how they plan to make the military leernt next ten years. as he said, secretary of defense robert gates now coming up to the microphones to address the reporters in the room and we are going to listen to some of that as well. i want to remind that you we have msnbc military analyst jack jacobs on set with me and mike vak viqueira at the white house and we will double back with them after we hear brief from the defense secretary there. again, talking about the fact that the strategy going forward is not to do anything to stop the growth of our military, just to take a more strategic look at how to economically make it smarter and bolder for the future. let s listen in.
forward, a nation at war for ten years and the fiscal drain that it s had had on the economy of this country. i have mike viqueira at the white house and i have colonel jack jacobs here on set with me. i want to talk to you you mike, this is a presidential election year and we are tipping off the new year a few days fresh into this, talking about the economy and the president reminding us of foreign policy, obviously highlighting the fact that al qaeda has been diminished, osama bin laden has been captured and killed, moammar gadhafi has been killed, afghanistan is making progress. i mean, it s boom, boom, boom, one, two, three after the other, obviously now trying to highlight where he can shake things up when it comes to the fiscal responsibility, the economy and this government. clearly, you have to look at everything through a political prince prism once we head into a presidential election year and it was an unusual if not extraordinary appearance by the president down there at