President Obama and his Heckler: Is it Unprecedented?

President Obama delivered a speech announcing the relaxation of Immigration Laws on Friday at the Rose Garden, without congressional approval and bypassing that pesky "charter of negative liberties," the United States Constitution.

During the speech, Neil Munro, from the Daily Caller dared to ask the president about how unemployed Americans could be affected by the new policy. The president was clearly irritated by the interruption and stated, "It's not time for questions, not while I'm speaking."

The mainstream media, instead of focusing on the overreach of Mr. Obama, decided to attack the man that challenged the president. Neil Munro has been called every name in the book, including a racist. Not everyone disapproved of Neil Munro's actions. Lou Dobbs, for example, sympathised with Munro, stating, "What's rude is the president not speaking to the American people and taking the questions of the White House press."

Is Neil Munro's question unprecedented?

Consider,

In 2005, Democrats howled, hissed and shouted "No!" when Bush pushed for Social Security reform in the State of the Union address: "Foreshadowing the contentiousness of the coming debate, Democrats broke decorum and booed twice," according to the National Journal. At the time, CNN's Bill Schneider remarked, "It was unusual. I had never heard it at least at that level before. The Democrats clearly were booing, heckling, saying no when the president talked about the crisis in Social Security."

President Reagan was hounded by reporters, Christopher Connell wrote a piece for the Associated Press in 1987 that stated, "Grown men and women are shouting at President Reagan at the top of their lungs," he said. "They do it for a living." He justified the behavior by quoting a professor, George E. Reedy, who stated, "I will definitely put blame on the White House." He noted that the press corps acts the way it does because "all the regular channels of access to the president have been cut off."

Neil Munro stated that he was trying to grab President Obama's attention, because he felt the speech was drawing to a close. If he truly believed that, and considering that the president does not answer questions at the end of his statements, his action is a bit more sympathetic.

Watch President Reagan tell a heckler to "shut up."