Ed Schultz, Sam Stein, and the Obama White House

Bill Sammon offers an informative analysis of Barack Obama's appeal to the Left during his press conference last night.

He seated a left-wing radio host in the coveted front row. He called on a liberal blogger from the Huffington Post. He even brought far-left columnist Helen Thomas out of the wilderness and let her ruminate about "so-called terrorists."

Clearly, President Obama was making a point of showing deference to the Left at his first prime-time press conference, which was broadcast to millions from the stately East Room of the White House on Monday.

Longtime members of the White House press corps who are accustomed to sitting in the front row of presidential press conferences were surprised to find their prime real estate occupied by Ed Schulz, a strident liberal who hosts a nationally syndicated radio program originally based in Fargo, N.D., but of late broadcasting from the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.

During last year's presidential campaign, Schultz warmed up the audience for Obama at a Democratic fundraiser in Fargo by denouncing Republican opponent John McCain as a "warmonger." When Obama took the podium, he thanked Schulz and called him "the voice of progressive radio," although the campaign was later pressured into distancing itself from Schultz's inflammatory remarks.

...On Monday, Schultz was seated next to Thomas, who was once the doyenne of the White House press corps. During President George W. Bush's tenure, Thomas went from correspondent to columnist, thereby losing her front row perch in East Room press conferences. In her speeches, Thomas has branded Bush the "worst president in American history."

On Monday, Obama returned Thomas to the front row and made her one of 13 people given the opportunity to question him.

"All right, Helen -- this is my inaugural moment here," Obama said with exaggerated reverence. "I'm really excited."

Thomas asked a rambling question about "maintaining the safe havens in Afghanistan for these so-called terrorists."

Obama also called on Sam Stein of the Huffington Post, a hard-left Web site that has never before been recognized by a president. Stein asked whether Obama would pursue "prosecution of Bush administration officials."

Critics pointed out that Bush never showcased right-wing bloggers or columnists at press conferences. And he certainly never allowed right-wing radio hosts to sit in the front row.

"What if Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh were up front at Bush's press conferences in the East Room?" asks media critic Michael Calderone of Politico.

During Bush's press conferences, reporters aggressively tried to ask numerous follow-up questions. But on Monday night, aside from Thomas and Major Garrett of FOX News, most reporters refrained from asking follow-ups, even when their initial questions went largely unanswered.

Who runs the Democrat Party?

Left-wing radio personalities and bloggers?

Clearly, the self-proclaimed post-partisan Obama is cozying up to the radical Left.

Say hello to change.

More on Ed Schulz, from Politico:

"I end up with a front row seat in the first prime-time press conference, and all of a sudden it's all over the blogosphere," Schultz said.

Schultz called Politico's Jonathan Martin a "punk" and a "nitwit" for asking if it was an assigned seat.

"I have earned that seat," the veteran radio host said on the air.

Schultz claimed that conservative hosts had access to the Oval Office during the Bush years, and that wasn't noted by the press. However, I think it's safe to say that if McCain were elected, and Limbaugh had a spot right up front, the media would call attention to it.

By seating him in the front row, taking a question from the Huffington Post, and calling on Helen Thomas, Schultz said it's evident that the White House is "listening outside the mainstream media."

I disagree with Schultz. I don't think it's evident that the White House is "listening outside the mainstream media."

I think it's evident that the Obama White House is pandering to the Left-wing extremists and the radicals and the nuts.