Josh Lederman's report this morning at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, treats President Barack Obama's return to Chicago as a trip down memory lane: "Obama got glimpses of a simpler time when his life was for the most part, normal: the unpaid bills on his desk, the volunteers who pitched in on his first Senate campaign, the day he marched in seven Fourth of July parades."
The reference to "unpaid bills" is from the President's remarks at a DNC event at a private home in Chicago. But the speech transcript now posted at the White House web site has scrubbed the related passage, as Daniel Halper at the Weekly Standard noted early this morning. There may have been an additional development since that post appeared.
Here are excerpts from Halper's post (spelling error in original corrected):
White House Deletes Obama's 'Unpaid Bills' Admission from Transcript
Last night at a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago, President Obama mentioned that there are some "unpaid bills" on his desk in Chicago--which he left when moved to the White House after winning the presidential election in 2008. Here's what he said:
One of the nice things about being home is actually that it's a little bit like a time capsule. Because Michelle and I and the kids, we left so quickly that there’s still junk on my desk, including some unpaid bills (laughter) -- I think eventually they got paid -- but they're sort of stacked up. And messages, newspapers and all kinds of stuff."
But that transcript is different than the official White House version, which deletes the "unpaid bills" part:
"there’s still junk on my desk, including some -- newspapers and all kinds of stuff."
The discrepancy was noticed by the White House pool reporters, and the correct transcript disseminated by them.
Halper didn't specifically mention that the White House transcript currently pretends that what Obama said about "unpaid bills" couldn't be understood:
But it was so "inaudible" that, as Halper noted, "The discrepancy was noticed by the White House pool reporters."
The "inaudible" gambit may be a reaction either to what the Weekly Standard scribe wrote or to White House minders learning that pool reporters corrected it.
Bridget Johnson's post this morning at PJ Media would seem to indicate that the White House indeed added the word "inaudible" at a later point in time.
Perhaps the reference to "unpaid bills" was embarrassing because the state of Illinois, whose Democratic governor running for reelection Obama was in town to support, still has billions of dollars in delinquent amounts owed to its vendors and service providers. Progress made in reducing those amounts during the past few years appears to be on the road to being reversed.
Or maybe, Obama didn't want to give opponents a chance to remind the nation that the $7.3 trillion added to the national debt on his watch, bringing the total to $17.903 trillion as of Friday, makes his personal unpaid bills the least of our concerns.
The question now is whether the press, which clearly knows about the White House's airbrushing, will report that it has taken place — and if so, how.
An early indication of how it will be treated if mentioned comes from USA Today: "White House transcript omits Obama joke."
Imagine the furor which would have arisen by now if a Republican or conservative White House had done all of this.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
