Thread: Brewer, Obama discuss her book at Ariz. airport

kgun9.com
By The Associated Press
CREATED 4:16 PM

MESA, Ariz. (AP) Gov. Jan Brewer says President Barack Obama discussed her book with her and that he didn't give it a good review.

Brewer was at the Mesa airport Wednesday, among several state and local officials greeting Obama after he got off Air Force One.

Brewer was observed giving Obama an envelope and speaking with the president for a few minutes.

A news reporter said in a White House press pool report that Brewer later said Obama told her he didn't feel her book treated him cordially.

She says she invited Obama to go to the U.S.-Mexico border with her and to also discuss Arizona's economic comeback.

Brewer's book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," described a tense White House meeting last year between her and Obama on border and illegal immigration issues.

Brewer, Obama discuss her book at Ariz. airport - Home

peninsulaclarion.com
JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press
01/25/12



MESA, Ariz. — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer came to greet President Barack Obama upon his arrival outside Phoenix Wednesday. What she got was a critique. Of her book.

The two leaders could be seen engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One's steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time.

Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: "He was a little disturbed about my book."

Brewer recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir of her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona's controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes.

Obama was objecting to Brewer's description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. In an interview in November Brewer described two tense meetings. The first took place before his commencement address at Arizona State University. "He did blow me off at ASU," she said in the television interview in November.

She also described meeting the president at the White House in 2010 to talk about immigration. "I felt a little bit like I was being lectured to, and I was a little kid in a classroom, if you will, and he was this wise professor and I was this little kid, and this little kid knows what the problem is and I felt minimized to say the least."

On the tarmac Wednesday, Brewer handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border.

"I said to him, you know, I have always respected the office of the president and that the book is what the book is," she told reporters Wednesday. She said Obama complained that she described him as not treating her cordially.

"I said that I was sorry that he felt that way. Anyway, we're glad he's here, and we'll regroup."

A White House official said Brewer handed Obama a letter and said she was inviting him to meet with her. The official said Obama told her he would be glad to meet with her again. The official said Obama did note that at their last meeting, which the official described as a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation between the president and the governor.

Peninsula Clarion | The Newspaper of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula

oooh! I love that picture!

W

Don't you love these little ladie's standing up to the "Beast from the East" where the hell is Boehner, and the so called men in our congress?

Doubt he will take her up on dinner and a border tour. Come to think of it, has he ever been to the U.S.-Mexico border? Can't recall ever hearing of it.

Maybe she was asking him to pull her finger to find out how she felt about him?

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

oooh! I love that picture!

W

Ditto! My first thought upon seeing it was:

OH, what a beautiful picture!

Obama getting dressed down by a little lady who has more kahunas than most of the politicians...

missoulian.com
Associated Press
Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012 2:51 pm

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer says she meant no disrespect when she pointed a finger at President Barack Obama during an intense discussion on an airport tarmac. But the Republican governor says the Democratic president showed disrespect for her by abruptly ending their conversation.

The brief encounter _ out of earshot of observers but captured on camera _ was a highly visible demonstration of the verbal and legal skirmishing that has regularly occurred between Brewer and Obama's administration over illegal immigration and other issues.

Airport arrivals for presidents normally involve mere pleasantries between those involved, but Brewer and Obama have a history. And part of that history is what apparently got things going, according to accounts provided by Brewer and the White House.

Brewer said that during their talk, she invited Obama to visit Arizona to hear about her administration's achievements and to visit the U.S.-Mexico border, which has been a point of friction between the two because of illegal immigration issue.

Obama then said Brewer's recently published book mischaracterized a 2011 White House meeting between them.

Brewer said in an interview Thursday, at another Phoenix-area airport, that she talks a lot with her hands and that her pointing a finger at Obama during their conversation wasn't disrespectful.

"I respect the office of the president," she said. "I was there to welcome him."

She said she was grateful for the visit and intended to talk to him about the state's accomplishments. But she said she was "taken aback by his comments" when he said he wasn't happy with how her book described their White House meeting.

Immediately after the meeting Brewer had said it was cordial, but her book said Obama lectured Brewer in the Oval Office and that she felt he was condescending toward her.

"It is what it is. I proceeded to say that to him, and he chose to walk away from me," she said Thursday.

Asked whether she regarded that as disrespectful, she replied: "Well, I would never have walked away from anybody having a conversation. And, of course, that is what it is. It is disrespectful for me."

Their relationship covers disagreements on "most of his policies," she said. "That doesn't mean we can't be cordial to one another."

The encounter was notable because it was rare case of an unscripted and tense moment between the president and a public official in view of reporters.

White House press secretary Jay Carney chided reporters Thursday, saying the encounter with Brewer was getting too much attention from the White House press corps and overshadowing Obama's message of the day on energy.

Obama appreciated that Brewer was on hand to welcome him, but he noted that her book's description of Oval Office meeting "was not accurate," Carney told reporters traveling on Air Force One on a flight from Nevada to Colorado.

Carney was questioned about Brewer's statement Thursday that Obama cut her short by walking away.

"You guys are giving this incident far too much importance, Carney said. He added, "I really assume you guys have more important issues to cover than this."

Brewer is among the Republican governors who oppose the federal health care overhaul, but the illegal immigration issue has been a particular sore point between Obama and Brewer.

The U.S. Justice Department has challenged Arizona's controversial 2010 immigration enforcement law in court, while the administration and Brewer are at odds over whether the federal government has done enough to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Thursday, Brewer drew support from callers to conservative-oriented talk shows, but the incident left others in the state shaking their heads.

The Arizona Republic, the state's largest newspaper, editorialized that the image of Brewer wagging a scolding finger at the visiting president "now pretty much defines this state's relationship with Washington, D.C., to the world."

Bruce Merrill, a longtime Arizona pollster and a professor emeritus at Arizona State University, said there are two sides to the encounter, so it's hard to fully analyze what happened and why.

But the incident follows past incidents in which Arizona for a time balked at declaring a state holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr., and Arizona State University refused to award Obama an honorary degree, Merrill noted.

"It reinforces the image of Arizona being kind of a cowboy state that doesn't show a lot of respect," he said of the airport encounter.

The two mayors who stood next to Brewer during the airport encounter were not available for interviews Thursday, their offices said.

"He doesn't want to get involved," said Melissa Randazzo, spokeswoman for Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, a Republican.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton's office said his schedule had no time for an interview. Stanton is a Democrat.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report from aboard Air Force One.

Read more: Obama-Brewer friction on display on tarmac tiff

RED ALERT FOR COLORADO!

http://www.alipac.us/f9/red-alert-co...espond-249284/

Maybe we should start a Poll to see who can get the date (If Any) when he will actually go to the Border and visit her?