March 24, 2009 — President Obama will hold his second prime-time news conference tonight where he’ll give the American people a progress report on the health of the economy and make the case for how his budget will help bring about long term economic growth. 

The president maintains spending will be required to lead the nation out of recession, but spending alone won’t make it happen. That could be part of the reason he’s wrapping up his bi-coastal media blitz with questions from the Washington press corp. 

“The president believes that a continued dialogue with the American people about where we are and where we’re going is necessary, certainly in times like this, to give people a sense of what we’re doing and a sense of where we’re going,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told us during Monday’s briefing.

During Obama’s brief remarks before opening it up for reporter questions, the president is expected to address how he plans to open up credit markets and get banks lending again, stem the tide of home foreclosures and save and create jobs.

BET’s Jeff Johnson will report live on the President’s address on a BET News special that will air live on BETJ tonight at 8 PM/ 7 C and on BET at 11 PM/10 C.

By Pamela Gentry,  Senior Political Analyst

 Feb. 9, 2008 – President Obama made the case for his economic plan during his first nationally televised news conference.  He called on his critics to “set aside” differences and work with him to get the economy back on track and the American people back to work.

“It is absolutely true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth. That is and must be the role of the private sector. But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life,” he said in his opening statement.

Questions were raised about his outreach to Republicans, repairing the banking system, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, but the majority of the questions centered on the economy.

Obama said he would judge the success of his economic plan if it opened credit markets and lenders were confident in the economy; housing market stabilized; job loss declined and new jobs were created.

“The recovery and reinvestment package is not the only thing we have to do. It’s one leg of the stool. We are still going to have to make sure that we are attracting private capital, get the credit markets flowing again, because that’s the lifeblood of the economy.

 What do you think of the President’s speech? Do you think he made a strong case?