POLITICS: PRES. OBAMA’S FIRST PRIME-TIME NEWS CONFERENCE

President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on Monday night in Washington, DC (view video). Before taking questions from the news media, Obama began his first prime time news conference by urging Congress to pass the $838 billion Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

“It is absolutely true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life.”