*** 'I'm doing it because I said I was going to do it': In his press conference concluding his G-8/G-20 trip to Canada, President Obama gave this statement in response to a question about the steps his administration has taken/will take to reduce the deficit. He mentioned his call for a discretionary spending freeze, PAYGO, and his debt-reduction commission. And then he said this: "One of the interesting things that's happened over the last 18 months as president is, for some reason, people keep on being surprised when I do what I said I was going to do. So I say I'm going to reform our health care system and people think, well, gosh, that's not smart politics, maybe we should hold off. Or I say, we're going to move forward on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and somehow people say, well, why are you doing that, I'm not sure that's good politics. I'm doing it because I said I was going to do it… And people should learn that lesson about me, because next year when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits and debt step up, because I'm calling their bluff."
*** Obama on Afghanistan: Also during yesterday's press conference, Obama gave this response about Afghanistan and when the U.S. will leave: "My focus right now is how do we make sure that what we're doing there is successful, given the incredible sacrifices that our young men and women are putting in. And we have set up a mechanism whereby we are going to do a review..., and that by next year we will begin a process of transition. That doesn't mean we suddenly turn off the lights and let the door close behind us."
*** Obama on Kagan: And Obama was asked about Kagan's SCOTUS nomination. His answer: "I am absolutely confident that if you give a fair reading of Elena Kagan's record and her performance in every job that she's had, what you see is somebody with an extraordinarily powerful intellect; somebody with good judgment; somebody who understands the impact that laws have on individual Americans; somebody who is able to broker understandings between people of very difficult ideological bents… So as I examine some of the arguments that have been floated against her nomination over the last several weeks, it's pretty thin gruel. Having said that, I expect that my Republican colleagues and my Democratic colleagues should ask her tough questions, listen to her testimony, go through the record, go through all the documents that have been provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then vote their conscience."
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