press conference

Ben Bernanke's voice has been known to put humans into a trance even under the best of circumstances, and I was under the influence of a fever and some cold medications. Still, other observers reported a similar reaction to my own. The Fed Chair's press conference felt like a sensory deprivation tank, but with extra-credit math questions.

Was Mr. Bernanke calm? Put it this way: I watched the video feed for several minutes before I realized it wasn't a photograph. A lizard can stay motionless for so long, you start wondering if it's real. It was like that. Then Bernanke turned his head, and I got the same feeling you get when the lizard finally blinks.

That's the Robitussin talking, not me.

Bernanke needed to do two things today: First, he needed to avoid making a careless remark that would roil the world's markets and set off a panic. Mission accomplished. And to avoid excessive scrutiny, he needed to be as placid and boring as possible. He might have overshot the mark on that one.

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There's a lot to admire about the President's consensus-seeking style, however frustrating it can be to activists. But his press conference yesterday, and the management problems that led up to it, show the limits of that style in times of crisis. Hopefully the oil tragedy - let's not call it a "spill" when it's more like a sustained explosion - will help the Administration understand something that seems to elude them at times: You can't negotiate with disaster or compromise with danger. more »

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