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Barack Obama's fourth solo White House press conference differed from his past efforts in many ways: It was held during the day instead of prime time. It was the first to be held in the briefing room. It featured a question that had been directly solicited by the White House.

And perhaps most notably, the feel was simply different. The president faced a press corps that at times seemed exasperated and was quick to challenge him, and Mr. Obama seemed more frustrated with his questioners than he has been in the past.

The primary point of contention was Iran. The president opened the press conference by ratcheting up his rhetoric, saying he is "appalled and outraged" by the violence and threats against protesters. He had been criticized in recent days by John McCain and others for not offering stronger criticism of the Iranian regime.
That prompted this question from Fox News' Major Garrett: "What took you so long?"

The president responded by saying, in part, "we've been entirely consistent, Major, in terms of how we've approached this."

That's a stretch – the president had previously been nowhere near as strong in his criticism as he was today. He was later short with Garrett, repeating exact words in response to a follow up on potential diplomatic relations with Iran.

Before you say, "hang on, this is conservative-leaning Fox you're talking about, it doesn't mean all that much," consider the fact that an even more contentious back-and-forths took place with other correspondents.

Here's an exchange between Mr. Obama and NBC's Chuck Todd:

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