"I Think It's Patently Obvious That the President is Focused on the Economy"

If it's so patently obvious, then why did Jake Tapper bother asking the question?

TAPPER: In recent weeks, Republicans have been attacking President Obama for, in their view, seeming to be out of touch over the economic woes of Americans, whether it's a Mitt Romney issue -- issuing a -- videos featuring unemployed Americans saying they're not speed bumps. Senator Mitch McConnell on the floor of the Senate yesterday suggested that President Obama was joking about the stimulus not working and that jobs and competitive council event in North Carolina, when he talked about "shovel-ready" is not as "shovel-ready" as they'd anticipated. Do you guys have any response? Does the White House have any response to this charge?

CARNEY: I think it's patently obvious that the president is focused on the economy, that he takes enormously seriously the hardship that Americans continue to endure as we emerge from the worst recession most of us have ever seen in our lifetimes.

He -- one of the reasons why he asked his office to cull 10 letters a day for him from the 40,000 that are received by this White House addressed to him every day is because he wanted to, in their own words, read about the travails that some Americans are going through and especially if you've met -- you know, when he's initiated this practice back in the early part of his administration when we were in an economic free fall.

Right. Obama actually reads 10 letters a day from struggling Americans. You buyin' that?

I'm not. Carney might as well just tell us Obama reads all 40,000 letters. It's all bullcrap. We're talking about the same guy who's about to head out for round number 73 this weekend. Obama has now spent the equivalent of nine work weeks out on the course during his time in office.

Yeah, he's focused like a laser. On the economy. Or something.


Video here.