Today the White House announced that President Obama has requested a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern; Jay Carney said the timing, at the precise time of a scheduled Republican presidential debate in California, is coincidental.
For the next day or so, we’ll hear some cheery salutes about what a savvy move this is on the part of the president. Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post is already declaring it, “bad-[tush].“
(Notice that it has gone from “a very specific plan” (Obama’s words) to a speech. While Obama is pledging to “lay out a series of bipartisan proposals,” we’ll see if it ever gets written down, as Obama’s big plan to reduce the deficit never was.)
Except that once Obama and his advisers finish patting themselves on the back for scheduling the debate opposite the Republicans and making them move, he will still have to give a speech with two extremely high bars to clear. Can it or any of the ideas in it A) actually improve the economy at all or reduce unemployment or B) change the way Americans feel about how he’s handing that issue?
Of course, if Obama had a terrific idea on how to achieve either goal, why did he wait until now to use it?
Even Capehart admits,
My only concern is that Obama is not going to present anything we haven’t already heard or won’t propose ideas that stretch the imagination. He must if he’s to change the course and the dynamic of the debate. We’ve heard these do-or-die speeches from Obama to Congress before. This one must not be deemed a waste of time.
If you’re worried about it being a waste of time, just how bad-[tush] a move can this be?
UPDATE: Speaker Boehner responds, “Hey, how about Thursday night?“
every major speech by Obama on any subject has caused his poll numbers on said subject to drop ... he really is a SCOAMF ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHa, SCOAMF - had to google it, this came up:
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think it proves Mark Halperin was right.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLove the Speaker's response.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBoehner's response was GREAT!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThursday night is great!!! Lets see what his ratings are when he goes up the Packers and the Saints.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama is raising expectations to the limit. He's LeBron baby!!
Nothing about this schedule fracas helps the president, but then I highly doubt he has a "plan" or that this speech was going to help him anyway. It looks like he is turning what was supposed to be a bipartisan plan to save the economy into just another stump speech in his never-ending reelection campaign. His actions are undermining his own claims to be "leading"!!!
I think the "misery tour" was the moment the wheels came off. His speech next week is just the icing on a cake that is already baked: "Obama doesn't know how to fix the economy, only how to read a teleprompter." Right now, he is the best "inadvertant ally" the Republican candidates have. Go LeBron Go!!!!
Question is, after "plan A" fails, and he suggests a "plan B" which is just more of what didn't work in "plan A" -- then what is "plan C" going to be? At some point does he just stop trying and concentrate exclusively on scapegoating and whinging? "I can't help it that the economy stinks -- there's all these earthquakes and Republicans are so mean!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOf course, he is going to do a belly flop. And the only thing worse than a belly flop in front of everyone, is a belly flop in front of everyone after you holler "Hey, everyone, watch this!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama keeps talking about his plan, so I'm looking forward to him walking up to Speaker Boehner, handing him a binder with detailed plans and policy changes, then proceed to give a speech summarizing the plan.
Oh heck, what an I thinking. It's just one more speech that the CBO can't grade. After he's done, the adults in the House will go back to work.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"This one must not be deemed a waste of time." Anyone willing to bet it won't be?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe primary result of Obama's actions is to give tremendous publicity to the GOP candidates dabate. I like to think that I follow politics pretty closely, but I'd be challenged to name all 8 candidates who will be in the debate next week, and there are a couple I couldn't pick out of a police line-up (Huntsman?).
Love the Speaker's reply to tell Obama to shove it, but better would have been to delay the debate until following the speech, and then have a puke-on, 11th commandment moment.
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