Follow this link to a video of the complete news conference that President Obama held on March 24, 2009.

The final point that the President made is critical to keep in mind.

Like a giant ocean liner, turning a country around is not easy.  When the captain of the ocean liner wants to reverse course by having the helmsman turn the wheel, he doesn’t get discouraged if the ship has not turned around in a few minutes. He knows that it takes a long time to turn around. He keeps an eye on the change in  course.  As long as the course is changing in the desired manner, he keeps at it.

After the captain has made the initial steering correction, the ship stays pretty close to the original course for a very long time. However, the change in course is detectable to the officers in charge by reading the GPS instruments even if the passengers are unable to tell that there has been a change.

Do not look for the end results to appear tomorrow on the economy.  Do look for signs that the economy’s course is changing. Try to establish some reasonable thresholds that you will use to tell if reasonable progress is not being made.

I bet that long before your thresholds are violated, the President will already have taken steps to make needed corrections. If he hasn’t done so, then he will deserve all the criticism that you can heap upon him.  Even so, it would be better to suggest what he should do than to simply chastise him for what he hasn’t done.