Obama Press Conference opened with a seven-minute pitch for his economic-stimulus program, then took 13 questions spanning another 51 minutes. Obama pressured lawmakers to urgently approve a massive recovery bill to jump-start the economy: "If there's anyone out there who still doesn't believe this constitutes a full-blown crisis, I suggest speaking to one of the millions of Americans whose lives have been turned upside-down because they don't know where their next paycheck is coming from."Obama said he hopes his overtures to Republicans will pay off in the long term, and he will keep engaging the other party. But he criticized Republicans who have balked at the legislation and said some of his critics have little credibility after presiding over a doubling of the national debt. He said when he hears criticism of pork in the emerging legislation, "then you get a feeling that maybe we're playing politics instead of actually trying to solve problems for the American people."
Obama would not put a timetable on how long troops would be there, though deployment of U.S. troops is expected to double to 60,000. He said the U.S. is in for challenging times. "I do not have a timetable for how long that's going to take," Obama said. "What I know is I'm not going to allow al-Qaida and (Osama) bin Laden to operate with impunity, planning attacks on the U.S. homeland."
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