I’m sorry, but we’re in perhaps the most serious financial crisis since the great depression, and I swear I just heard reporter Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times ask President-elect Barack Obama about his daughters’ new puppy?

OK, I know I may have mentioned that the press is typically good at shifting gears with a favored presidential candidate, changing the focus from whatever positive political coverage from the campaign to a more traditional watchdog emphasis, providing a healthy dose of skepticism and curiosity to the new agenda.

If this can be any indication, that is not catching on as quickly as it should:

Obama breaks down his family’s puppy dilemma: ‘We have two criteria that have to be reconciled.’
By Faiz Shakir
Think Progress

After meeting with his Transition Advisory Board this afternoon, President-elect Barack Obama held a press conference to discuss his plan to move forward on the economy. Obama laid out three principles: “a rescue plan for the middle class,” “address the spreading impact of the financial crisis on other sectors of our economy,” and “review the implementation of this Administration’s financial program.” When Obama opened it for questions, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet turned the page on the economy, asking instead about his family’s puppy dilemma — namely, what kind of puppy will he get for his daughters. Addressing the question with his trademark dead-pan sarcasm, Obama responded, “We have two criteria that have to be reconciled.”

… Obama indicated his own personal leanings: “Our preference would be to get a shelter puppy, but obviously a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.”

First thought, completely unfiltered, off the top of my head: Who cares?! I mean, it was a cute line for a victory speech, but this is the president-elect and he’s dealing with some major issues, not to mention the fact that unemployment shot up to a 14-year high last month.

Why are reporters asking these pointless questions? Not cute. Not professional. And this totally plays into the arguments by conservatives that the press is in the tank for Obama and will continue to fawn over him as he takes the highest office in the land.

What I also find interesting is the treatment of this remark by Think Progress, a liberal blog. While I haven’t heard outrage pouring out of conservative blogs for the remark, the fact that it was highlighted in a somewhat disinterested light by a liberal blog poses some interesting questions about how the partisan blogosphere will change in the next four years.

I’ve always been of the opinion that liberal blogs were always the more organized and ambitious, mostly because they were in the minority in governance and were always seeking to support candidates on the rebound. Red blogs always seem to be less interesting, over-confident and ineffective among their empowered leadership. Will this shift now that Democrats are in power? Will red blogs become more mobilized and influential as Republicans enter the wilderness of power?

We’ll have to wait and see.