The exchange between Major Garrett of Fox News and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Wall Street bonuses at today's briefing:

Q In a rare alignment, MoveOn.org, Paul Krugman and Bill Kristol all agreed the President was wrong when he said he does not begrudge Wall Street bonuses.

MR. GIBBS: The President didn't say that, Major.

Q I'm saying what they're saying he said. He said "success" -- "I don't begrudge success, I don't begrudge --

MR. GIBBS: Let's not play hypothetical.

Q All right. He said, "I don't begrudge their success, I don't begrudge their wealth."

MR. GIBBS: No, no, no, no, no. “I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people's success or wealth.”

Q Well, read the question, too, because the question was about -- the question was about the bonuses.

MR. GIBBS: No, no, I read the questions. You and I talked about this like four times the other --

Q I know, but the question was about --

MR. GIBBS: I understand. I understand the question was about bonuses. The question -- and the President on five different occasions -- just as I emailed you yesterday, causing you to reexamine what you'd written based off of the interview -- that the President was talking in that sentence, as he's done many times, about -- he does not believe the federal government should be setting salaries for business in America. He still believes that.

Q Does he still remain comfortable with the analogy he made with Major League Baseball players many have pointed out -- yes, Major League Baseball players make a lot of money -- no, many of them will make the World Series, but none of them had anything to do with the financial crisis or bad --

MR. GIBBS: Well, I don't think the President would argue that not many baseball players had anything to do with the financial crisis. I don't think that's -- the point he was trying to make was that there are obscene and shocking salaries, and obscene and shocking compensation that don't match what happens with your performance

Q Does Blankfein and Dimon count

MR. GIBBS: Hold on, hold on, let me -- can I just -- let me finish my answer -- that the President has said that there ought to be -- these ought to be based on performance, not on risk-taking, okay?

Q And some of these new ones are.

MR. GIBBS: No, that -- right, in the sense that yes, they're in stock rather than in --

Q Long-term health.

MR. GIBBS: There should be a say on pay. Shareholders ought to be able to weigh in on this. And he said that salaries like you were talking about with baseball and these bonuses are extraordinary and shocking.

Q Blankfein and Dimon -- are those obscene bonuses, Blankfein's and Dimon's?

MR. GIBBS: The President has spoken repeatedly on these bonuses, and finds them, as he did in here, extraordinary and shocking.

Q Has he been asked specifically about Blankfein and Dimon?

MR. GIBBS: And he said extraordinary and shocking, specifically.

Q Are they obscene, are they an offense, are they a violation of our moral principles?

MR. GIBBS: The President doesn't have any different view on bonuses yesterday than he had 10 days ago or 10 months ago.

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