Obama holds traditional news conference to talk bipartisanship

When President Obama dropped by the White House briefing room unannounced Tuesday, it marked a tactical shift: He had not held a full-scale news conference since July, instead bypassing the traditional format in favor of other speaking venues.

He had taken questions at town hall meetings, via YouTube and from network anchors, but here he was hewing to the custom of answering queries from the White House press corps -- and, in the process, answering critics who say he has been ducking scrutiny. Administration officials insisted that the visit was not a concession to Obama's detractors (or a reaction to recent articles in The Washington Post and New York Times about the lack of presidential news conferences).