Here are some highlights from the White House Press briefing on April 18th.

First, the exchange of the day:

Q What’s the President’s strategy for his meeting with congressional leaders today? Is he open to any talk of compromise, or is he just going to hear what they say and insist on a clean bill?
MS. PERINO: The President looks forward to having the members come down — that’s why he invited them. I think one of the things that he is looking forward to hearing is how the Democrats have decided to compromise amongst themselves first so that he knows what their position is. They have several different positions, and as you can imagine, that’s really difficult to negotiate with anybody if you don’t know where someone stands.
The President has laid out clear principles, and he will be able to give some remarks at the top of the meeting. And then, of course, as you know, I’m sure the members will make their way out to the stakeout afterwards.
Q I mean, there are differences. Both the Senate and the House have passed bills, though, and both of them have some form of a withdrawal deadline, timetable. And that’s unacceptable —
MS. PERINO: And here’s the point on that, which is that the President has said he will not accept a bill that has an artificial timetable — time line, deadline for withdrawal, a forced retreat, a legislative failure for our troops. He’s not going to do that for our troops, and he’s not going to do it to the Iraqis, or for the region, and for the safety of the American public.
The Democrats have said that they will not vote to cut off funding for the troops. And yet, they can’t come to an agreement amongst themselves as to how to get a clean bill to the President. So the President is saying, negotiate amongst yourselves first; if you need to send me a bill that I have to veto, I will do it, reluctantly. But that’s going to be his position. And so it’s the Democrats that need to negotiate amongst themselves first before coming and asking the President to change his positions.
Q But to pick up on that, once they have negotiated among themselves and have a unified position —
MS. PERINO: Well, let’s see what that is.
Q — then they can negotiate with the President?
MS. PERINO: You’re asking me a hypothetical situation.
Q No, no, no, they will — let’s say that they have a coherent —
MS. PERINO: Well, that’s hypothetical. It’s speculative. I don’t — I would like to see if they would come forward and have a position before we talk about anything that would tie the generals’ hands or have a deadline for withdrawal.
Q But the way you’re stating this leads to —
MS. PERINO: Well, what I’ve said for many days is that I’m not going to negotiate anything from this podium. I’m going to let them have a meeting.
Q I’m just asking you to finish your thought.
MS. PERINO: I finished my thought.
Q With an incomplete thought, an incomplete sentence?
MS. PERINO: No, I thought it was complete.
All right, Kelly.

Second, I thought thess comments on gun issues were relevant:

Q What does the President think of the gun control rule which prohibited guns on the campus of Virginia Tech?
MS. PERINO: I haven’t spoken to him about that specifically. I do know as governor he supported weapons-free school zones.
Q He supported?
MS. PERINO: When he was governor of Texas, yes.
Q And he thinks that this was effective at Virginia Tech?
MS. PERINO: I’m not going to comment about — obviously, the investigation is ongoing at Virginia Tech.

And…

Q Are you thinking — is he thinking about changing or stepping up gun control issues?
MS. PERINO: As I said yesterday, I think that there’s going to be a debate. The President said there’s going to be a debate, and it’s one that we have in our country about the right to bear arms, as well as gun control policies. In addition to that, I think one of the things that we’re learning out of this investigation, as we have from many of the others, is that there are some individuals who are disaffected in society, lonely, and we have to figure out as a society how to identify those individuals and get them help prior to them having — going on a rampage and killing all this innocent life.