I would agree with Steve Benen that President Obama calling to address a Joint Session of Congress is a good sign. And beyond that, I like how a coincidence of scheduling puts this important speech at a time that will pull focus from the silly season of the GOP dog and pony show.
I think stepping on the Politico/NBC News Republican Candidate’s debate is a nice touch and an opportunity for these would-be-Presidents to demonstrate how they respond to events out of their control. So far, the response is a pretty predictable symphony of whimpers, belly aches and name calling. Naturally our media and the very serious wankers orbiting them are singing back-up.
Which is why this response from Press Secretary Jay Carney was so delightful:
“There were a lot of considerations,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters today. “And, obviously, one debate of many that’s on one channel of many was not enough reason not to have the speech at the time that we decided to have it.” [snip]
Carney suggested the organizers could move it. [snip]
“There is one president,” he said. “There is 20 some odd debates.”
And a post over at Politico Pravda on the Potomac reported this response:
“There are many opportunities for the American people. There’s a choice they can make to watch the president, to watch the debate,” he said. “A network could make a decision to alter the timing of the debate by an hour.”
Carney later elaborated, saying that if “sponsors chose and the candidates so chose to adjust the timing of their debate … that would be completely fine with us, in the spirit of democracy.”
I’m sure this wee bit of political hardball will be presented as a sign of President Obama is a gangster and weak at the same time, but it made me smile all the same.
Cheers
Endnote: The transcript of the press conference is here and you could watch it at this link. One thing shines through–Ed Henry is one of the stupidest fuckers working in any profession. He is an epic idiot. No wonder Fox News “hired” him away from CNN.
Legalize
“Odd” is right.
dmsilev
They’re apparently going to delay the debate until after Obama’s speech. Which means that for the few people who tune in, it’ll have the massive contrast that we got when Bobby “something called ‘volcano monitoring’ ” Jindal followed one of Obama’s State of the Union speeches.
Blue Neponset
Bully Pulpit for the win!!!
Who will be the first to apologize to those of us who have been begging Obama to do this kind of thing?
Baud
Has Boehner agreed to the joint session yet? I wouldn’t put it past him to say no.
trollhattan
Kudos for “Pravda on the Potomac.”
Dang bullies and their pulpits!
AlphaLiberal
Thumbs up! It is good to see.
I am hoping for a strong speech with robust job-creating policies. It would be great to be applauding the President on the morning after.
BGinCHI
Since they’re delaying to debate after Obama’s speech, anyone who’s interested can tune in to see the contrasts.
It’s great political theatrics from the WH. You have the positive jobs plan, then the GOP Flash Mob of candidates offering tax cuts and….some other bullshit….then GOP members of Congress offering to obstruct constructive ideas.
Trifuckingfecta.
chopper
@Legalize:
i’d have gone with ‘wacko’, but yeah.
@dmsilev:
awesome. obama gives a decent speech on jobs, then everybody gets to watch a stage full of dunces argue over whether the earth is 6000 or 6005 years old.
Samara Morgan
@dmsilev: Cap’n Stupid thinks that the clown car posse can all attack Obama instead of attacking each other.
i like Bobby “Exorcist” Jindal better.
Trinity
Yes he can.
Villago Delenda Est
Um, “Pravda on the Potomac” is a longstanding little name for the rancid fishwrap that is the Washington Post, especially in the Hiatt era.
“Izvestia on the Potomac” hasn’t been taken, I don’t think, and parallels the old Soviet Union joke of “there is no truth in Pravda, and there is no news in Izvestia”.
chopper
of course, the GOP will still end up winning the day after anyways because the butthurt left will come up with something or other to bitch about the president’s speech and try to suck all the oxygen out of the room.
Wag
What’s not to like?
Obama gets to move the focus away from a group of preeeing Republicans engaged in a meaningless debate taking place months prior to any voting, and moves the focus on to jobs, where the focus needs to be. The only people who will be disappointed in this are Beltway insiders who are already salivating over the “showdown” between Perry and Romney.
singfoom
@chopper: Of course, your pre-emptive butthurt at the left’s butthurt is much better than their butthurt, right?
Cris (without an H)
Do people not have DVRs?
chopper
@singfoom:
i’m not butthurt. i’m just cynical. and because the butthurt left is so fucking predictable, unfortunately i’m going to be right.
aisce
well, now, this cannot be. i’ve been told by very knowledgeable people that trying to use the media is a mug’s game because they’re clearly in the tank for the republicans (as opposed to simply being plutocratic ratings-whores chasing whatever “dramatic” leads they can gin up) and would never help the president do anything well.
also, too, i suppose this is the thread for people to fap to the “political masterstroke” (which must have surely taken hours of exhaustive work to come up with) of having the president step all over his opposition’s primary debate.
what fun.
Dennis G.
@chopper:
pure win. Thanks
YellowDog
I think Carney actually said there were “20 odd debaters.”
Just for fun, they should invite, uninvite, reinvite, then reuninvite Palin to the debate.
danimal
I usually hate this kind of move; bigfooting on the other parties’ debate. But I’m usually on the 15 side of the 85%approve/15% disapprove, so it’s probably a good political move.
Shows ’em Obama is the alpha dog or something like that.
@chopper: Yep. I really do wonder how many of the manic progressives are actually right-wing trolls just trying to create fissures on the left. They can’t all be so very, very fragile, can they?
AlphaLiberal
@singfoom:
Oh, will this vicious cycle of butthurt never end?
It would be great to be applauding the President on the morning after. If he’s putting forward crappy policies, it’s back to criticism.
People are out of work and hurting badly and deficit fighting won’t help. This ain’t a game.
Samara Morgan
@Wag: yeah this will give Perry and Romney a place to show solidarity against the evuul soshul1st mooslim usurper, and stall their steel cage death match.
and also prolong the bleeding and expense of the GOP demolition derby race to the primaries long enough for Palin to jump in.
:)
MikeJ
@chopper:
McCain won the day every day for about six months straight.
trollhattan
@Cris (without an H):
The only conflict is precisely how Fox will ‘splain not carrying the president’s speech. Everybody else will bag the “debate.”
Hunter Gathers
Who cares about what the GOPer candidates have to say? I’m more interested in what would-be glibertarians have to think about said jobs speech, and what the ramifications of the speeche’s schedule has to the dinner plans over at the McSuderman household.
In all seriousness, I hope Matty Y chokes on whatever gawd-awful concoction McArdle ‘cooks’ up while using utensils not available to mid 20th century homemakers (like the strange machines known as mixers). Perhaps then we’ll be spared a trillion posts on the evils of licensing, the inherent tyranny of permits and meta-level bullshit on hack gaps.
In the interests of honesty, fuck Matty Y with a gross of acid-tipped spears.
JGabriel
Dennis G.:
This just goes to show that Obama hates the liberals and the left! If Obama were a real progressive, he’d have scheduled this speech to interrupt a debate on FOX!
(/snark)
Seriously, though, I wish this was conflicting with a Fox-sponsored debate. Wingnut explodey-heads squared.
.
singfoom
@AlphaLiberal: Criticism? You can’t criticize someone on your own team! That’s against the rules!
Pointing out different approaches or different policy positions obviously means you’re just seething with hate.
chopper
bully pulpit! wait, a speech? dammit, i want results!
lacp
@Hunter Gathers: What’s with the hatin’ on Matty Wiggles? Guy’s just trying to earn a buck.
chopper
@singfoom:
WHY ALL THE BUTTHURT? WHAT TIME IS IT IN YOUR WORLD? IS IT BUTT-HURTY?
gnomedad
Perhaps Obama has realized that there is no downside to actually doing all the sneaky things the wingers will say he is doing anyway. The butthurt will be entertaining.
cat48
singfoom
@chopper: I’m all good, thanks. No butt hurt here. It’s 3:18 though, CST.
And you? What time is it there? Is it Caps Locky?
danimal
@chopper:
…and ponies. Don’t forget the ponies…
chopper
@gnomedad:
that would be great. “today i woke up, turned to michelle and said ‘what the fuck, let’s take away everyones’ guns’.”
General Stuck
Timing is everything in politics. Obama has far more hits than misses with grand gestures in his presidenting. Such as the big classroom bipartisan get together, to get congress to finish up with passing HCR. He’s delivering the same message day after day at town halls and stops all around the country for a while now. Sort of local mini bully pulpiting picked up by local news for that area.
This grand gesture is timed just right for after the traditional POTUS reelect campaign begins on labor day, and for all the nice touches Dennis G mentions. It is why this president has been on of the most successful ones thus far in his term, against an insane and disloyal opposition. Obama has this, my little progressive childn’
chopper
@singfoom:
wow, that’s a world-class comeback. on that note, the jerk store called and they’re running out of you.
cleek
on the other hand, great liberal savior Kucinich is about to find himself in the hot seat.
chopper
@General Stuck:
shrug. meh.
OT, did you birth the lil fucker yet?
Wee Bey
OT, but per TPM, Dennis Kuccinich has been getting all treasony.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
No, no, and no. President Obama’s use of the bully pulpit always makes his balloonbagger base (the REAL base!) blubber.
.
.
Samara Morgan
@Wag: run, Sarah, run.
poor COD. sarah won’t share.
singfoom
@chopper: Wait, you insulted me? I didn’t notice. Must have gotten the wires crossed somewhere.
Cheers!
General Stuck
@chopper:
Nope, but it’s mostly quiet right now, except for feeling like warmed over shit. It took 4 months for one to emerge back in the 90’s, so it will pop out when it’s good and ready to/ and not before.
Hunter Gathers
@lacp:
It’s easy. Wiggles is the type of silver spoon fuckwad I used to steel beer from in college. But the thing about him that really wangs my chung about him is this – would he just bite the fucking bullet and admit that he’s just another loser hipster libertarian? It’s not like he’s the only one. There are prolly ’bout 15 of ’em in his D.C. apartment complex alone. I know that he spends all of his time drinking micro-brews while debating the evils of barbershop permits when he’s not eating poorly prepared meals over at the McSuderman’s. And they are ill prepared meals. The chef lacks basic math skills.
kindness
Good for Obama. Screw those whiners.
Speaking of which, Chopper; you said some good things and then proceeded to arrange a circular firing squad a tad early. At least that is what I think the others here are trying to express. You had to know that though, amirite?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@danimal:
Sadly, yes. I’ve spent 50 years over here on the active left, and the people around me get more candy-assed all the time. As sociopathy is the to right wing, ego fragility is to the left.
Martin
@cleek:
Hot seat? What the fuck are you smoking man? This is primary gold! Time to send that center-right interloper packing by primarying him hard (oh so hard) from the left!
dmsilev
According to TPM, Boehner wants an extra day to finish that homework assignment or something. Should be interesting to see whether the White House tells him that the date is not negotiable.
Alex S.
@Wee Bey:
Didn’t he also travel to Syria 2 months ago? He’s a hypocrite.
And on topic,
quite a ballsy move, but the republicans can’t let this happen as scheduled. In any case, this move can change the trajectory of the campaign. And Iowa is not THAT far away anymore.
chopper
@singfoom:
yeah, that’s some good stuff.
let’s be fair here, i call it ‘butthurt’ because that’s what ‘butthurt’ is – being all self-righteously indignant despite being revealed to be a total self-absorbed choad.
you think that that cynicism is ‘butthurt’, but it isn’t. that’s why i made fun of you. because you were being an idiot. you could not apparently grasp that, and attempted one of the worst internet comebacks i’ve seen in like 3 months.
chopper
@General Stuck:
man, that makes me feel like cooling it on the beer and coffee.
Violet
Both the President and the Republicans might get upstaged by the two tropical systems that could be impacting (or close to impacting) the US by that point: Katia in the Atlantic and Lee-to-be in the Gulf.
trollhattan
Sorta O/T but Rumproast has been followin’ Sarah’s(tm) going or not going to an Iowa bagger thang to announce or not announce…something. Also, too, Christine O’Donnell, or not.
http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/wsj_palin_cancels_major_address_at_iowa_tp_event_over_lying/
Popcorn-worthy.
Elizabelle
Calling the GOP debates a “dog and pony show” is a slander to dogs and ponies everywhere. But I know what you were going for.
PS: Dengre: still laughing over “Nickelodeon for people with dementia”.
Funny and true. Your brother is perceptive (as you know).
chopper
@kindness:
it’s more like standing aside while some other people assemble a circular firing squad, and muttering ‘every fuckin’ time’ as they load up, but otherwise spot-on.
Violet
@trollhattan:
Following this debacle on Conservatives4Palin is fun! They now hate I-am-not-a-witch even though many of them donated money to her. They’re convinced $arah is going to speak. Good times, good times.
butler
Yup. The Packers and Saints play on the 8th, so it was best to get this done on the 7th. Wouldn’t want to conflict with something that people actually care about watching.
ASKII
This sounds like some real presidenting.
If the firm, sharp Obama shows up for the congressional address, the debaters might actually have to respond to concrete, substantive proposals that address jobs and other issues and that actually are designed to be effective in addressing issues, and not the lowest common legislative denominator (who is it this week?).
If the actual president comes to Congress with solid proposals that go straight to the issues without waiting to detouring to find out how the presidential wannabes feel about it, they should have plenty of opportunities during their debate to show how fast they are on their feet.
singfoom
@chopper: Ok. Thanks for your feedback. And the analysis is spot on. I will continue being an idiot.
Cheers!
General Stuck
Violet
There was yesterday, a TD on the Pacific side, that is supposed to be a hurricane soon, and they have it tracking north up through the Gulf of California. When that happens, sometimes the rains get sucked up into our seasonal monsoonal flow of tropical moisture, and we can get drenched. With lots of flash flooding in the desert that is highly dangerous.
AND THANK YOU OBAMA, AGAIN
There is a fairly good swarm of hummingbirds today, like there should be, but I guess were late arriving. It could only be Obama, at it again, arranging miracles and shit. but why dint he do it sooner?
Martin
Shorter Obama:
“Get your Charlie Brown school play off my fucking stage.”
Jenny
Al Jazeera has discovered documents in Gaddafi’s office showing Kucinich asking the dictator to provide/manufacture evidence to show the NTC was linked to al-Qaeda.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/08/2011831151258728747.html
This is Cheney redux. Cheney manufactured links between Iraq and al-Qaeda and now Kucinich wanted to Libya to manufacture links between the NTC and al-Qaeda.
Hoooocoooodanode!
trollhattan
@Violet:
I sure wish some intrepid reporter would slap a tracker on Sarah’s(tm) big ol’ bus-o-graphics so we’d know when she’s on the road, sneakin’ up on some Republican candidate’s media event. She’s too disorganized to issue…what are they called, press releases?
BGinCHI
@Martin:
“Get your
Charlie Brown school playGlee parody off my fucking stage.”Fix’d.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
He just said no to Wednesday night, suggested Thursday instead.
Kane
From Sam Stein at HuffPo
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/31/obama-joint-session-jobs_n_943471.html
LGRooney
So, TPM is reporting that Boehner has asked the President to move the date. My guess is (and I am afraid to make optimistic guesses with this WH for fear of being absolutely, humiliatingly stomped by their lack of agreement with me) that the WH will be more than happy to play this game to ensure that it gets an audience, i.e., lets make it a right kerfuffle in the public’s eyes so they’ll actually pay attention and then O can deliver a blistering (by his standards, anyway) speech about obstructionism, partisan gamesmanship, and class warfare while he has a real audience.
cleek
@dmsilev:
Obama should say “OK, stay home, dinks.”
and then open his speech with “Well, I was expecting Congress to be here for this, but some of them decided they didn’t want to come to work today. Anyone out there want their jobs? They don’t seem to interested in doing the work.”
singfoom
Ah, the Great Orange one. Yes, those security arrangements. How will he be able to stop the House Teabagger Reps from taking shots at Obama?
The answer is obviously a POTUS Mobile inside Congress.
keestadoll
@JGabriel: The president knows NBC (read: GE) is his bitch, so there was no risk of pissing off a network by his choice of date and time. Just sayin’. In any case, if I’m reading the comments correctly, the carnival tent evangelists (oops, I mean the GOP candidates) moved their debate until after the speech. I dunno, why not have used the carnival show as talking points to spin off from during his speech?
Eykis
@Violet:
Butler,
I checked out those fewlish Palinites at C4P Tiger Beat fansite. They get more delusional by the hour. I simply cannot understand the attraction of Snowbilly Grifter and what those morans think she has to offer to anyone, ever.
fasteddie9318
So what happens with this? I’m assuming Boehner can put the kibosh on this if he wants to, but if he does will Obama make him pay for it?
Martin
@Kane:
My response would be “If we can evacuate a million people 48 hours before a hurricane, I should think you can make sure the candy wrappers are picked up off the floor before I arrive a week from today. Do your fucking job.”
chopper
@Kane:
jesus, they can’t whip up an invite in more than a week? no wonder everyone thinks congress can’t get shit done.
chopper
@Martin:
lol. i’d love to hear obama respond “no wonder congress’s approval is so low. these guys couldn’t find their own ass with two hands, a map, a sherpa guide and a homosexual dwarf.”
JPL
@LGRooney: Thursday is the first NFL game of the season. Boehner is not stupid. Obama needs to say no.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@Kane: So Rusted Orange Boner’s cunnning plan is to have the President speak AFTER the debate, thereby giving Obama the ability graciously agree to the change in the spirit of bipartisan bonhomie and skewer the hell out of the wannabe PotUSi on Boner’s team?
Brilliant!
nellcote
So Boner suggested the Prez pre-emp the NFL opener instead of the gooper debate. Yeah, that’ll happen.
wrb
@chopper:
Jay in Oregon
@chopper:
I’d love to see an Obama speech with all sorts of odd, off-putting word choices to make the people parsing his speeches’ heads explode.
“My Fellow Americans, it is time for a Great Leap Forward. As we come together, brother and brother, and gather under the crescent moon to discuss the reparation of our nation’s spirit and cast off our chains…”
JPL
The President should mention that Congress has been on vacation long enough but if Wednesday is not convenient for them then he’ll hold the speech in the oval office.
kindness
Obama should tell Boner to stuff it and then give the speech to the Senate with which ever Congresspersons wish to sit in.
Hill Dweller
The Republican party is run by nihilists. They are the least patriotic people in the country, despite their constant proclamations to the contrary.
Martin
My guess is that Obama is going to tell Boehner to suck on Article II, Section 3:
You’ll come to work when I fucking tell you.
shortstop
@General Stuck: I want to know, but I don’t want to know, you know? Okay, I want to know. No, wait, I’m afraid to know. Hell, I don’t know.
shortstop
@Martin: I just got strangely, but rapidly, aroused reading that. TMI?
JenJen
Just now on Hardball, Politico’s John Harris said:
I shit you not. I thought “I don’t know that to be true” was a nice touch.
Samara Morgan
Perry/Palin 2012.
Rhoda
This is fun.
The White House gets three stories: a story about the jobs speech, a story comparing the choice of POUTS v. GOP in 2012, and Congress looking like they can’t take the time to sit down and listen to the number one issue for Americans today.
Let’s see what happens when the WH offers to move the speech to 9pm.
Calouste
@Martin:
Kucinich is really off the cliff there. The NTC has written a draft constitution that explicitly excludes members of the NTC from standing for elections under that constitution. So we have people who take over the power in a country, and even before they have completed the take over, have already comitted themselves to giving that power back to the people. What the fuck does Kucinich think is wrong with that?
chopper
@Jay in Oregon:
“this is america! shit, we’re so bad we kick our own asses twice a day.”
chopper
@JenJen:
the experts say no, but my producer says yes.
elmo
“Presumptuousness.”
The President of the United States.
The motherfucking President of the motherfucking United States is being called “presumptuous.”
I absolutely fucking defy you to find any instance of Politico calling George W. Bush “presumptuous.”
Tell me again that Barack Obama gets the same amount of respect as every white President before him. Tell me. It’s after five and I’m due for a laugh.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@chopper: ,.. “just so we remember we’re boss. This has been my struggle since my father taught me two plus two equals five if you work hard enough at it. Some saw I have dream.”
chopper
@elmo:
apparently according to the house historian, orange julius’s demand to move the speech is unprecedented. these guys love to talk about ‘respecting the office’ until a democrat’s in it.
ruemara
@elmo:
He doesn’t. From either side. Fuck everyone.
Jax6655
Presumptuous = uppity
Social Outcast
Nobody is going to give a shit about what Obama says in his address, any more than they’ll care what republicans say in a debate months before the first primary. Scheduling his address during the other party’s debate is kind of petty and douchey, but nobody outside bloggers and hardcore political junkies is going to care about that either.
Charles E.
Can someone explain to me why the President is in the list of the Politico “Campaign Hub” right at the bottom between the not-running, whilst the list seems to be ordered in polling numbers standing?
General Stuck
@Social Outcast:
Granted, there aren’t a lot of people seriously considering electoral politics at this early stage, but I suspect more than normal, folks are tuned into our long runnng bad economy, especially about jobs.
But mostly what this is for, is to frame the election debate, and overall political debate concerning the number one issue, that of jobs. It is as much for inside the beltway politics, as anything, to use the megaphone a president has to lay down markers and be on offense, and put the other guys on defense.
cleek
NPR was having a big ol larf about this today. called it a ‘circus’, thanked each other for making time to talk about the story. ho!
but, one interesting thing came out of it: NPR reporter Andrea Seabrook mentioned that there was apparently already a verbal agreement between the WH and Boner about having the speech on Wednesday, but Boner changed his mind for some reason.
OzoneR
@elmo: @chopper: But if he used the bully pulpit, people will flock to him and hang on his every word.
OzoneR
@elmo: @chopper: But if he used the bully pulpit, people will flock to him and hang on his every word.
Rhoda
@Social Outcast: People notice power moves; so yeah especially low information voters will notice.
Stefan
The motherfucking President of the motherfucking United States is being called “presumptuous.”
At least they didn’t use “uppity.”
Turgidson
@Martin:
Which would prompt Boner to weep uncontrollably and blubber about how he will have to reschedule a golf outing.
gogol's wife
@elmo:
I’m just seething. ETA: And I’m serious, not sarcastic, i.e. I’m agreeing with you.
OzoneR
I’m so glad to see the true progressives at DailyKos attacking the President for stepping on the GOP debate
Fucking losers.
FlipYrWhig
I don’t think people dispute that the Bully Pulpit can be used to communicate with the public. What people–OK, what _I_–dispute is that the Bully Pulpit is a good way to swing politicians’ votes to the president’s side. And that’s the implicit or explicit argument from the left: if Obama used more
cowbellBully Pulpit, he’d connect with the public and then politicians would be browbeaten into doing what he wanted. I don’t think that’s going to work.Dennis G.
@Stefan: Word
OzoneR
@FlipYrWhig:
I dispute it. The bully pulpit is pointless if the congregation is too busy with Dancing With The Stars for football while the pastor is lecturing.
harlana
@trollhattan:
Hilarious, when she went tromping up to Iowa. She just could not help herself.
FlipYrWhig
@OzoneR: OK, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a potential tool, just one of limited efficacy. What I question is the logic that leads from Bully Pulpiteering to legislative victory.
cleek
@FlipYrWhig:
1. speechify
2. House GOP cowers in fear of reprisals from the tens of millions of people who have completely accepted Obama’s argument and are now screaming for their reps to Make It So
3. legislative victory
simple, logical, irrefutable!
FlipYrWhig
@cleek: I wish it worked that way. That would be sweet. I think the idea in (2) is way more fanciful than anything Firebaggers attribute to Obotology.
Turgidson
@OzoneR:
Largely true, of course. And the fact that the media will do whatever they can to ignore the substantive points Obama makes and focus on some inconsequential sideshow they can turn into a scandal, should one occur (and perhaps even if one doesn’t). Hell, it wouldn’t even surprise me at this point if some GOP backbenchers is instructed to do something unruly a la Joe Wilson for this very purpose.
But at this point there’s no harm in trying. For months, polls have uniformly shown that the public cares about jobs/unemployment and much less about the deficit. It can’t hurt for Obama to let them know he’s still listening to them.
Particularly considering that anything he proposes that is worth doing will be met with a new round of hypocritical and hysterical shrieks about the deficit (which, I am sure Obama will have already pointed out, he’s done a lot of work addressing lately) from his adversaries. Draw contrasts and all that.
danimal
@cleek:
El Cid
The guy who had the close interactions with the Qaddafi regime was David Welch, Bush Jr’s point man who negotiated the normalization of relations with Libya, and now employee of semi-nationalized bureaucrato-conglomerate Bechtel, depository of US officials who use their sway and policy to get Bechtel exclusive contracts in 3rd world domains.
I realize how badly people want to publicly jack off about how the great progressive hero Kucinich was begging Qaddafi to kill babies in exchange for signed photos of Jane Hamsher, but the evidence isn’t there yet.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@JenJen: So not only does the President have to take care of the fee-fees of the SoH, he also has to be careful not to tread upon the tootsies of the widow of a former PotUS.
I’m surprised they stopped there. Why not clutch the pearls over the deep psychological wounds this will inflict on each of the Republican Wannabes?
According to the New Rules of Civility (which only apply to liberals for some reason), it is mean, nasty and racist for you to suggest these bigoted pricks can barely contain the rage they feel because a black man is PotUS.
kindness
Obama should do just what Cleavon Little did in Blazing Saddles when he gets up to make a speech to the town he just took over the Sheriff’s job:
Just to see the bluenoses tweet/die on the spot would be too funny.
askew
@OzoneR:
Yep, that site is repugnant. They are overjoyed that Obama got rejected by Boehner. Not much difference between FDL, DK and Redstate. They are all suffering from ODS.
FlipYrWhig
@Turgidson:
Right, but there’s a lot of consciousness-raising still needed to make people understand that the best way for the government to advance the goal of “creating jobs” requires, in fact, adding to “the deficit.” My pet suggestion is making sure that when talking about the deficit Democrats emphasize that any money borrowed will be swiftly and efficiently repaid — even if it takes evoking the dreaded Household Analogy to make that point.
Frankensteinbeck
I think @Social Outcast is correct about one thing – the speech itself is pretty moot. The media’s been ignoring Obama’s speeches for years now.
What’s different here is that he’s scheduling it to preempt the GOP debate. What the media *likes* is political slaps in the face and the horse race. He may get his message out simply on the back of their fascination with how he’s giving the GOP the finger.
Showing Obama side by side with the GOP has always made them look like morons before. That will be an awesome way to start the campaign season.
Turgidson
@FlipYrWhig:
Of course. I suspect the WH thinks they can claim the job creation mantle simultaneously with deficit reduction after the govt shutdown and debt ceiling deals resulted in some long-term deficit reduction they can trumpet.
Not sure that will work (it certainly won’t stop the GOP morans from throwing their tantrums), but that’s probably their hope. It’s probably a better bet than making the nuanced argument that short-run deficit spending on jobs now is necessary not just to get people back to work, but to grow the economy out of the deficit later. Regardless of the fact that it’s a sound economic plan and right-about-most-things economists like Krugman and Stiglitz support that idea (as do I), it just doesn’t win the political argument with a public that, to overgeneralize, alternately hates government, thinks spending is out of control, but loves government spending they benefit from and doesn’t care to know much beyond that.
Also, I don’t get the impression that there will be any talk of another large, multi-pronged stimulus bill, per se, so he can probably speechify without saying “we need xx billion in y spending to get this done.”
Bill H.
Considering this sentence, with emphasis added,
“It is my intention to lay out a series of bipartisan proposals that the Congress can take immediately to continue to rebuild the American economy by strengthening small businesses, helping Americans get back to work, and putting more money in the paychecks of the Middle Class and working Americans, while still reducing our deficit and getting our fiscal house in order.”
I would not be counting on anything new, or big. I think Steve Benen’s idea that this is a “swinging for the fences” moment is pure pipe dream.
boss bitch
@Blue Neponset:
hold on there lil’ buddy. The argument has always been whether the so-called bully pulpit would result in getting Repubs to vote yes on a mostly or totally liberal bill. Has that happened yet?
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
@Blue Neponset: Oh, you just hold your breath while we sort that out.
OzoneR
@El Cid:
Kucinich did too
FlipYrWhig
@Turgidson:
I’m expecting to hear the phrase “down payment.”
Frankensteinbeck
@boss bitch:
There’s a legitimate debate as to whether the bully pulpit exists at all. This isn’t news or being covered because the president is giving a major speech. It’s news and being covered because in doing it he’s spitting in the GOP’s face in a way that promises an exciting campaign season.
Nobody argued about whether the media wants to cover THAT.
Martin
@El Cid:
I’m sensing a pattern here.
Frankensteinbeck
@Martin:
…held accountable for civilian deaths by bombing? Bwa? That’s not a war crime unless you’re deliberately aiming for civilians and not military standing next to civilians. Shouldn’t Kucinich know this stuff? He’s not just Joe Schmoe who’s never been interested in international politics.
OzoneR
@AlphaLiberal:
you know what else won’t help…proposing things that won’t pass
WaterGirl
Rotating tag line, please.
Elie
@chopper:
heh heh heh
Keith G
@Frankensteinbeck:
Maybe he just wants some face time.
CaliCat
@chopper:
I will be using this. LOL.
chopper
@Turgidson:
i’d get that checked out.
Keith G
@boss bitch:
No. That was not it.
The concern was about messaging and about keeping fragmented blocks of voters engaged in the process. Not every ’08 Obama voter is dialed in just waiting for the chance to support this guy again (sad but true). The steady decline in Obama’s poll numbers on the question of leadership bear this out. This speech is the White House’s acknowledgement of that problem.
OzoneR
@Keith G:
yeah thats what a campaign is for.
dww44
@OzoneR: I disagree. Given the Congress that we have, it’s accepted fact that nothing is going to pass. Proposing some things and then really fighting for them can count for a lot, particularly if it begins to energize the voters and makes crystal clear that he’s on their side. Of course, I’d like it better if, instead of blaming Washington politics as usual, he’d be pointing the blame finger at the GOP.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith G: Or it could be the regularly scheduled change into campaign mode. The decision to bigfoot the Munchkin debate seems campaigny to me.
Elie
@elmo:
Just remember, they do it on purpose. Its their way to call him a ‘nigger’ and is the last dregs of the old south’s racist terrorism to keep blacks under their control and off kilter. Don’t let it effect you but note it. Remember all of those who have come before — black and white martyrs. Hold their dignity and pride foremost and move on with your head high.
OzoneR
@dww44:
energize who?
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus: @OzoneR: Y’all are right.
I forgot. It is tradition that presidents soft sell the arguments for their policy goals until a year out from the reelection campaign.
WaterGirl
Okay, i asked nicely the first time. If this isn’t made a rotating tag line in the next 45 minutes, I am chaining myself to my fence. :-)
That should help.
Omnes Omnibus
@Keith G: Obama seems to let things roll through the end of August, and then he picks up his game. I am not sure why, but it looks like a pattern. In this case, it could very well be a desire to let his potential opponents put on their clown show for a while.
OzoneR
@Keith G:
That’s ok, many people have no fucking clue the world existed before 2007.
Keith G
@OzoneR: That’s cool, hopefully your memory will get better.
Keith G
@Omnes Omnibus:
It is certainly his call to make.
There has been reporting since early summer that some advisers have been urging a more outgoing communications strategy as well as some Congressional Dems being a bit frustrated that some opportunities have been missed.
I guess its his world and they are just living in it.
The Spy Who Loved Me
At the rate people have been tuning the President out, does it really matter what else is on?
The Spy Who Loved Me
Politico says the President’s speech has been moved back a day. Now people can pick between football and the President instead of between the President and the GOP Primary candidates.
elle
Sigh. He agreed to move his speech to Thursday. I think I will just quit now. Let me know who wins the election.
Heliopause
The Capitulator-in-Chief wasted no time shitting all over your victory parade. This had better not interrupt the football game. I mean, it really had better not.
Elie
I frankly, am very disappointed that he changed it.
Asteele
Obama has to propose something that will work. No matter what you propose if you lose the argument it doesn’t get passed. If you win the argument and it gets passed, and doesn’t work, you’ve just screwed yourself and your whole party.
The alternative is the Republican strategy to just propose something that you want to do anyways (tax cuts solve everything!). Which would be fine if I thought that Obama’s list of things worth doing anyways (Raise the retirement age?) was the same as mine, but I don’t, so I don’t want him to do this.
cleek
ok, that was a cave.
Jebediah
@The Spy Who Loved Me:
Fuck. Shit. Piss. God-damn. I feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick a football.
hildebrand
I know that I will sound like a full-fledged Obot here – but allow me to ask a question: What is the benefit of a pissing match with Boner over when the speech is given? Does it really cost anything to delay a day? (I say this as a die -hard Packer fan.)
Honestly, if Obama goes to the wall for the date of a speech, then the entire focus will be on the fact that he fought to give a speech on a particular day – and any possible message about jobs would be utterly lost. This way, the true believers will be hopping mad, but the media will move on, their story about sniping Washington DC gone.
Ah, never mind, your minds are made up, Obama caved. It matters not a whit what he actually says, just that it ‘feels good’ how he says it or when he says it.
Elie
Apparently there has been a bit of treachery on the part of Boehner (surprise!). He apparently ‘approved’ the Weds date before the President requested it according to a tweet (which I don’t follow but see steve Benem’s site on this topic)
Not good still but the usual usual….
General Stuck
@hildebrand:
Welcome to the blogosphere
Keith G
Okay, I often comment that Obama needs to step up a bit more, but this was not a ‘cave’. He had no ground to give up. Separation of powers is no small thing.
The question I had earlier was why the hell did they pick this silly fight. That is some fucked up shit.
RinaX
@hildebrand:
I’m only just now catching up on the whole thing. My takeaway is that Boehner is a dick, which I knew, and President Obama just wants to give his speech and get on to the real fight.
Billy Bob Tweed
Uhhh, so, what did Ed Henry say? You want me to sit through the farkinthing to find out? Just tell us, ferfucksakes,.
Marc
@cleek:
Why should we care about this?
Elie
@Keith G:
Agree wicha there
Elie
@hildebrand:
Your point is a good one.
Sorry — just always feel – tired of it. tired of fighting everyone and having no place to feel ‘good’
Gawd — I have no idea why Obama wants a second term. I would not blame him for thanking us very much but to go fuck ourselves…
Kane
Gotta hand it to Boehner. Any sign of disrespect towards President Obama is great red meat for the right-wing. Plus, should Obama agree to another date, it helps to provide red meat for some on the left who live to criticize the president (can’t wait for the many posts of faux gnashing of teeth lamenting that “Obama caved.”)
Keith G
@Elie:
He can do this because he does not take it personally. It is not about him. That is one of the reasons I like him so much.
Its ironic that many of his African American supporters obsess more deeply about these things that he does.
Jeremy
Without out a doubt, the Republican leadership owns Obama. When they say, “Jump”, he says, “How high?”. This is just the latest example.
Turgidson
Who the fuck cares about the day of the speech. Obama wants the focus to be on the issues he’s going to talk about in the speech, not some fucking pissing match.
Jesus, no wonder the media covers this stupid horserace/gamesmanship bullshit so rabidly. It really is what people care about most.
Jon H
“And beyond that, I like how a coincidence of scheduling puts this important speech at a time that will pull focus from the silly season of the GOP dog and pony show.”
No, it was fucking stupid. Apparently the White House just wanted to create yet another opportunity to give in to the Republicans. It was inevitable that the White House would reschedule, so why bother setting up such a moronic own-goal?
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“He may get his message out simply on the back of their fascination with how he’s giving the GOP the finger.”
Yeah, well, now we know he’s serious about pushing a jobs package through, given the resoluteness he showed about the date.
Seriously, Boehner probably did a bait-and-switch just to show who was in control. I’m normally an Obot, but am becoming disillusioned.
CaliCat
Good lord, yesterday must have been a slow news day. Nice to know the butthurt left had some smash Obama porn to get them through it. Good times.
cleek
if you read closely, you can see the point in this thread where the mood goes from fist-pumping elation over Obama’s attempt at giving the GOP a little chin action, to exasperated insistence that none of this means anything at all.