Its been a long time since Congress was focused on what the American people need them to be focused on. I know that youre frustrated by that. I am too."
-- President Obama in an email to political supporters asking them to watch his speech on the economy next week
Maybe House Speaker John Boehner did President Obama a favor by rebuffing his request to give an economic speech to a joint session of Congress at the same time as a long-scheduled Republican presidential debate.
The most notable prior occasion when Obama sought to step on a Republican rivals moment in such a fashion was on May 21 2009 when the president opted to preempt a speech by former Vice President Dick Cheney on terrorist detainee policy. Obama gave his talk Cheney gave his and then a Democratically controlled Congress sided with the guy they call Darth Vader and refused to allow Obama to import the inmates on the Guantanamo Bay prisoner of war camp.
Obama had put his presidential prestige on the line quite considerable in those early days of his administration against the most reviled member of the hugely unpopular previous administration and got shown up. The same thing might have happened if Obama had gotten his way and pushed back by an hour the NBC/Politico debate set for next week. Republican frontrunners Rick Perry and Mitt Romney both running on jobs platforms might have had much of the following two hours to offer searing rejoinders to a speech that will necessarily be a policy patchwork.
But it could at least be said of the face-off with Cheney that Obama was engaged in the spoken version of a point-counterpoint editorial. He just used his presidential prerogative to claim the top of the page. The bid to preempt the Republican debate though was just about politics.
Its Perrys first debate appearance and the first time that many independents are likely to hear from the Texas governor. Obamas speech is the kickoff for the next level in his escalating re-election campaign aimed at demonstrating that while he may have a job approval rating lower than a post-Katrina George W. Bush he is still the man in command of Washington.
Imagine the thought process at the White House: Have to give the speech next week waiting any longer to release the jobs plan would be a disaster. Cant go Monday its Labor Day. Tuesday is out -- Congress isnt in session yet. Thursdays a no-go because its the NFL kickoff. You cant get roadblocked prime-time coverage if the Packers and the Saints are playing. Friday? Nobody would watch. Its got to be Wednesday. Hes the president theyre just wannabes. Well make them move it. Brilliant.
The problem with the plan though is that the president can only address Congress at the invitation of the speaker of the House. If the White House did what protocol demands and consulted with the speaker it would have given Boehner the chance to upend their plan in private: Gee Im not really a Packers fan but I kinda wanted to see my partys presidential debate maybe Thursday?"
So the whiz kids at the White House figured they could embarrass Boehner into accepting the date: a quick call to notify the speaker of the request and then blamo a public announcement. But Boehner was blunt not clever and just did in public what he would have done in private: Gee…" Once the president had played politics with his request it gave Boehner all the cover he needed to politicize his response.
The timing of the speech isnt really important as it relates to jobs. If Obama has been sitting on a bombshell plan that can win bipartisan accord in Congress it will be plenty discussed whenever and however he released it. If the plan is a bunch of small-scale policy retreads or a call for politically impossible large-scale measures or some combination of the two the speech will be little more than a campaign ad in which Obama casts himself as the reasonable man battling an unreasonable system (Obama 2012: He too is very disappointed in how everything has worked out).
This spat with Boehner though does matter in so far as what it tells us about the way the president thinks and how his team works: They have a tendency to outsmart themselves.
Whether it is freighting the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 with a bunch of talking points about the equivalent suffering of other societies deflecting criticism of his vacation by promising to spend his trip working on his jobs plan or most consequentially pushing a health care law at a time of economic anxiety the president always seems to find a way to complicate situations both good and bad.
The president will still get some good visuals to be replayed on TV next Friday the big flag the cheering members of Congress etc. but he ended up with an early-evening time slot ahead of the NFL kickoff draining viewership and gravitas from the event. Democrats may say that Rick Perry is dumb but this all looks too clever by half.
Its been a long time since Congress was focused on what the American people need them to be focused on. I know that youre frustrated by that. I am too."
-- President Obama in an email to political supporters asking them to watch his speech on the economy next week
Maybe House Speaker John Boehner did President Obama a favor by rebuffing his request to give an economic speech to a joint session of Congress at the same time as a long-scheduled Republican presidential debate.
The most notable prior occasion when Obama sought to step on a Republican rivals moment in such a fashion was on May 21 2009 when the president opted to preempt a speech by former Vice President Dick Cheney on terrorist detainee policy. Obama gave his talk Cheney gave his and then a Democratically controlled Congress sided with the guy they call Darth Vader and refused to allow Obama to import the inmates on the Guantanamo Bay prisoner of war camp.
Obama had put his presidential prestige on the line quite considerable in those early days of his administration against the most reviled member of the hugely unpopular previous administration and got shown up. The same thing might have happened if Obama had gotten his way and pushed back by an hour the NBC/Politico debate set for next week. Republican frontrunners Rick Perry and Mitt Romney both running on jobs platforms might have had much of the following two hours to offer searing rejoinders to a speech that will necessarily be a policy patchwork.
But it could at least be said of the face-off with Cheney that Obama was engaged in the spoken version of a point-counterpoint editorial. He just used his presidential prerogative to claim the top of the page. The bid to preempt the Republican debate though was just about politics.
Its Perrys first debate appearance and the first time that many independents are likely to hear from the Texas governor. Obamas speech is the kickoff for the next level in his escalating re-election campaign aimed at demonstrating that while he may have a job approval rating lower than a post-Katrina George W. Bush he is still the man in command of Washington.
Imagine the thought process at the White House: Have to give the speech next week waiting any longer to release the jobs plan would be a disaster. Cant go Monday its Labor Day. Tuesday is out -- Congress isnt in session yet. Thursdays a no-go because its the NFL kickoff. You cant get roadblocked prime-time coverage if the Packers and the Saints are playing. Friday? Nobody would watch. Its got to be Wednesday. Hes the president theyre just wannabes. Well make them move it. Brilliant.
The problem with the plan though is that the president can only address Congress at the invitation of the speaker of the House. If the White House did what protocol demands and consulted with the speaker it would have given Boehner the chance to upend their plan in private: Gee Im not really a Packers fan but I kinda wanted to see my partys presidential debate maybe Thursday?"
So the whiz kids at the White House figured they could embarrass Boehner into accepting the date: a quick call to notify the speaker of the request and then blamo a public announcement. But Boehner was blunt not clever and just did in public what he would have done in private: Gee…" Once the president had played politics with his request it gave Boehner all the cover he needed to politicize his response.
The timing of the speech isnt really important as it relates to jobs. If Obama has been sitting on a bombshell plan that can win bipartisan accord in Congress it will be plenty discussed whenever and however he released it. If the plan is a bunch of small-scale policy retreads or a call for politically impossible large-scale measures or some combination of the two the speech will be little more than a campaign ad in which Obama casts himself as the reasonable man battling an unreasonable system (Obama 2012: He too is very disappointed in how everything has worked out).
This spat with Boehner though does matter in so far as what it tells us about the way the president thinks and how his team works: They have a tendency to outsmart themselves.
Whether it is freighting the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 with a bunch of talking points about the equivalent suffering of other societies deflecting criticism of his vacation by promising to spend his trip working on his jobs plan or most consequentially pushing a health care law at a time of economic anxiety the president always seems to find a way to complicate situations both good and bad.
The president will still get some good visuals to be replayed on TV next Friday the big flag the cheering members of Congress etc. but he ended up with an early-evening time slot ahead of the NFL kickoff draining viewership and gravitas from the event. Democrats may say that Rick Perry is dumb but this all looks too clever by half.
