Obama Forceful and Angrier in First Press Conference As President

Barack Obama returned to campaign mode last night just three weeks after entering the White House the first press conference of his presidency to make a direct sales pitch to the American people for his economic rescue plan.

Obama, as president, was far more forceful - and angrier - than the candidate who swept to a convincing victory last November.

He used the primetime audience to go on the offensive against Republicans in Congress who have balked at his $800 billion plus package.

The president also used his appearance to reaffirm his readiness to open a dialogue with Iran that would lead to a situation "where we can sit across the table face to face". He reaffirmed his commitment to preventing a resurgence of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, and to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

But Obama moved relatively swiftly over issues of foreign policy, zeroing in on his main priority of getting his economic rescue plan through Congress.

At times, Obama veered close to George Bush and his legendary with us, or against us mentality. He accused Republicans who have called the package wasteful and badly targeted as ideologically blinkered and of being obstructive without offering an alternative vision.

"The question I think the American people are asking is: 'Do you want the government to do nothing, or do you want it to do something?' and if you want it to do something, then we can have a conversation," Obama said.

Last night's press conference was in many ways more a piece of theatre - with the assembled reporters as foil for Obama - than a question and answer session. It began with a campaign-style speech that Obama read out from teleprompters.

He used the questions to hammer home that economic message and to range at some length over his other goals on energy, healthcare, and education reform.

In his prepared remarks and responses, Obama returned repeatedly to the same theme - that this was a crisis that could only be solved by a massive infusion of government spending.

Conventional ideas popular with economic conservatives, like tax cuts, would not work and a failure to act could turn crisis into catastrophe.

"This is no ordinary run of the mill recession," he said.

The press conference was part of a carefully choreographed set of appearances by Obama, mainly in the hinterland, intended to use his high public approval ratings as pressure to get Republican members of Congress to pass the package by the end of the week.

A Gallup poll found 67% of Americans support Obama's rescue plan. But he has faced resistance in Congress, where Republicans have accused Obama of dangerously increasing the deficit and of fattening the plan with pet projects.

The Senate is expected to vote on the package today. A version of the rescue plan cleared the house of representatives last week. But several days of hard bargaining lie ahead as Democrats and Republicans in both house try to reach a compromise version for Obama to sign.

As that process gets under way, Obama is seeking to use his popularity to ensure that Republicans do not strip out more spending measures.

He began his day on yesterday with a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana, which because of a flood of job losses since late last year has earned the dubious distinction of being America's unemployment capital.

"If there is anyone out there who still doesn't believe this constitutes a full blown crisis, I suggest speaking to one of the millions of Americans whose lives have been turned upside down because they don't know where their next pay cheque is coming from," Obama said in prepared remarks before taking questions.

He is due to follow up the night's performance by traveling to south-western Florida on today to showcase that state's housing mortgage crisis. On Thursday Obama travels to his home state of Illinois.

The locations, though chosen to demonstrate Obama's connection to the hardships of ordinary Americans, also contain an implicit threat to Republican hold-outs against the rescue plan.

Indiana and Florida are traditionally Republican states that voted for Obama in November, and his appearance was also intended as a subtle threat that those who stand in the way of the package could face a potential backlash.

In Florida, the message was underscored by the scheduled appearance with Obama of the state's governor, Charlie Crist.

Obama did not hold back from taking a tough line against those Republican opponents, taking advantage of the primetime television audience to lay the responsibility for the economic recession squarely on George Bush and the Republicans.

"I inherited the deficit that we have right now and the economic crisis that we have right now," he said.

"The notion that I just came in here ginned up to spend $800 billion dollars - that wasn't how I envisioned beginning my presidency."