Is Obama's second term sunk? 'Maybe I should just pack up and go home.'
On the 100th day of his second term, President Obama laughed at the suggestion he may have run out of 'juice' for his agenda and expressed optimism on immigration reform.
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“Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties; Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing,” Obama said. “But this is hard stuff.”
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Obama was responding to a question about a report that the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has ordered a broad review of all the intelligence-gathering before the April 15 attack.
The president called Mr. Clapper’s review “standard procedure,” saying that whenever there’s an incident, the government reviews all the steps taken beforehand and determines if any lessons can be learned.
“One of the dangers that we now face are self-radicalized individuals who are already here in the United States, in some cases may not be part of any kind of network, but because of whatever warped, twisted ideas they may have, may decide to carry out an attack,” Obama said. “And those are in some way more difficult to prevent.”
Still, he said, he has asked his counterterrorism team to see what more can be done to engage with “communities where there's a potential for self-radicalization of this sort.”
The president took questions for only 48 minutes, less than the usual hour he devotes to press conferences. And he only called on TV reporters, except for Antonieta Cadiz of impreMedia, a Hispanic newspaper chain. On Thursday, Obama heads to Mexico and then Costa Rica.
But he did break from his usual practice of ignoring shouted questions as he leaves the room, when he responded to one about Jason Collins, the NBA player who announced Monday that he is gay and whom Obama called to congratulate. The president returned to the podium, and delivered effusive praise for Mr. Collins.
“You know, given the importance of sports in our society,” Obama said, “for an individual who's excelled at the highest levels in one of the major sports to go ahead and say, ‘This is who I am, I'm proud of it, I'm still a great competitor, I'm still seven feet tall and can bang with Shaq and, you know, deliver a hard foul’ – and for a lot of young people out there who are gay or lesbian, who are struggling with these issues, to see a role model like that who’s unafraid, I think it’s a great thing.”
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