Good afternoon. My condolences to all of you that weren’t allowed to go to Las Vegas and Los Angeles, including myself. Let me get organized here.

Thanks, Robert. Two questions on the Supreme Court, please. As expected, the debate to try to define Judge Sotomayor is underway from interested parties...

That's her now. (Laughter.)

That plan that you just laid out of the Judge herself talking to senators, obviously that happens in a private setting. Meanwhile the debate is happening...

One more on that, if I could. You made a comment yesterday, "I think the President picked the person he believed best suited for the job at this time."...

A couple of questions, first on North Korea. What's the administration's reaction to North Korea's threat to attack South Korea after it said it would...

Are you saying you're not really taking the threat seriously?

And another subject, oil prices have doubled over the last six months. The Saudi oil minister said today that the global economy could -- was strong...

Will the President be speaking to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia next week about keeping oil prices reined in?

A couple questions, Robert. First of all, a lot of public officials have been complaining that the stimulus dollars just aren't getting out to the...

Okay. And just a separate question. Today in California, Ted Olson, former Solicitor General for President Bush, and David Boies, are introducing...

The President supports the idea that people should be able to -- same-sex couples should be able to enter in civil unions. Boies and Olson -- a very...

Not Boies, right -- Olson, a very conservative lawyer, saying that is a violation of the Constitution. It is also the position the President holds,...

Generally. Just forget the specific argument; I'm just talking about their general argument is that by having -- by not allowing same-sex couples to...

And that's the President's position, so --

Is the administration -- towards North Korea now -- is the administration frustrated at all that North Korea doesn't appear to be intimidated by the...

Yes, that they don't appear to be intimidated by this. They keep doing these tests. Is there any frustration at all from the administration that --

And is there a sense that North Korea will back down before this escalates any further?

Two things; first, GM. Recently, when Chrysler was front and center, the President singled out investors as one of the causes of that bankruptcy. ...

This is more than a negotiation. I mean, the bondholders are not playing ball here, just as the speculators did with Chrysler. Does he seem bothered...

-- refusing to sacrifice the way the speculators did?

Are they the bad guys?

So he doesn't see them in the same light, the bondholders and GM, in the same light that he saw the speculators in Chrysler?

And are you familiar with -- switching topics for a moment to Sotomayor -- are you familiar with Newt Gingrich's blog -- (laughter.) You are not?

Okay. Well, he apparently -- I'm told it is on his blog that he said, "Imagine a judicial nominee said 'my experience as a white man makes me better...

He also tweeted us. (Laughter.)

The President moves on to Los Angeles today, where he hosts a fundraiser where the top price is up to a reported $30,000, at the Beverly Hills Hilton...

But today's context includes the financial crisis there and the controversy over Proposition 8. The President, as far as we know, is not going to speak...

A couple questions, one on the Court and one on North Korea. On North Korea, the Moscow summit is a little more than a month away; that was supposed...

Do you have a time -- I mean, is there any thought of submitting the CTBT to the Senate --

Okay. And then on the Court, President Bush would routinely bring in outside people, greybeards, sherpas, to chaperone his nominees around the Senate....

Robert, does the President know for a fact that Judge Sotomayor supports the ruling in Roe v. Wade?

Didn't he make that a campaign promise, that he would appoint justices who support --

Okay.

I want to follow up on Matt's question. When he meets with King Abdullah next week, you said that he'd -- you would imagine that oil would be on the...

Would he ask for the Saudis to increase --

Switch to GM. You mentioned, in response to Chip's question, "we're making progress." Isn't bankruptcy a fait accompli?

The only thing left was the bondholders and their deadline passed last night at 11:59 p.m.

There's nothing left -- unless I'm missing something.

Robert, on autos -- not in the negotiating realm at all, but last week 36 members of the House wrote a letter to the President saying: We're a little...

And those lawmakers who would agree with your initial point that the White House has not made decisions on dealerships or union contracts being terminated...

To follow up on Chip, briefly, are you saying that there's no racial dimension and there should be no racial dimension interpreted or drawn from Judge...

There's a larger contextual point there --

It's out of her mouth. Those were words that she said out of her mouth. You can admonish YouTube. You can admonish that and talk about her record,...

I'm just asking you if you want to offer -- as the White House had nominated her -- something that you believe the American public should read into...

Something that the White House wants to add to what Americans who may look at that fair-mindedly and say, this sounds to me as if there's a racial dimension...

In all fairness, a follow to that -- it's not just a racial dimension, but it's a gender dimension. And do you at least acknowledge that she did say...

I mean, you're spinning it, trying to make us look at the record. Okay, we look at the record. But we're also looking at her words.

I know, but you're spinning --

-- what she actually said.

I understand it, but I --

You have to look at the context --

-- but, yes, as well, you have to also see the words that she said. You have to have a whole --

Robert, some of us have read the entire speech --

Thank you.

-- and we're wondering if you can explain what she meant. Because some of...

She wasn't saying that a Latina woman judge and a white male judge would have equal views; she said one was better than the other.

We want to get it. (Laughter.)

You're not spinning us. We're asking you, spin us. (Laughter.)

Explain what you think she meant.

Thank you.

And why there is no racial component to it.

You dismissed Newt Gingrich as not doing well enough at Princeton or doing as well as Judge Sotomayor at Princeton --

-- and all he's saying is there's a racial component to it, and a fair-minded person could read that and wonder to themselves if there's not a racial...

We have.

Have you read it?

And what conclusion do you draw? And what conclusion does the White House draw?

And it's okay, therefore, to say that that different life could lead you naturally to better conclusions than someone who didn't live that life?

She said "better."

In rolling out this nomination, the President --

In rolling out the nomination, the President and others in the administration have highlighted kind of the Horatio Alger aspects of Judge Sotomayor's...

Robert, two questions related to Judge Sotomayor. First, there's just been some commentary that if she's confirmed she would be the sixth Catholic...

Was her religious background given any consideration at all?

Okay. And then, beyond that, you talked before about getting your message out, and you'll convene six legal experts today, later today, to talk to...

Right. So now you're bringing in -- bringing in other folks.

Is this the beginning of the war room?

Robert, can you talk a little bit about the Abbas meeting tomorrow, what's on the agenda and what the White House hopes to accomplish?

It originally was envisioned that you were going to have three meetings. Of course, you had Netanyahu here and you were going to have President Mubarak,...

Robert, you promised -- you promised. (Laughter.)

Just to follow, would the President like President Abbas to resume peace talks with Israel? And just quickly, does the President believe that China...

Robert, back on Sotomayor. During the process of vetting and all the papers that the President was given and seen, did he ever, out of curiosity, find...

Did he ever express any disagreement with the decisions she made?

Robert?

Thank you, thank you very much. Just one question concerning what the President said in his speech on Thursday, and I quote, "I ran for President promising...

Good. In consideration of this very good promise of transparency, why can't the President respond to the petition to requests of 400,000 American citizens...

Yes.

No, no, no -- the long form listing his hospital and physician. (Laughter.)