Obama Takes Republicans' Night From Them With Speech
Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
Sometimes, give it a rest: There are right times and wrong times to check in, so keep away from that Blackberry before next year's State of the Union address.
By George E. Condon Jr.
Updated: August 31, 2011 | 4:00 p.m.
August 31, 2011 | 1:21 p.m.
Next Wednesday night was supposed to belong to the Republicans. It was to be a showcase for the eight GOP presidential contenders, a chance to use two hours of national television coverage of their debate in California to bash President Obama. A chance to look presidential.
But with only 198 words in a letter to the leaders of Congress, Obama has reminded them who is president right now. And it doesn’t get much more presidential than commanding the members of the House and the Senate to sit there in a joint session to get their marching orders from the commander in chief.
(RELATED: Text of Obama's Letter to Boehner, Reid)
In deciding on the grandest possible venue to unveil Obama's jobs plan and in picking Sept. 7 even though it clashes with the Republican candidates’ debate in California, the White House is playing political hardball. But it is also ratcheting up the pressure to deliver a program that is more than just a rehash of past proposals and is bold enough to put the economy on a course more positive than today’s.
If Obama falls short on that measure, if his proposal looks timid or inadequate, he could regret seeking that large stage. But that will not be known until later. The immediate impact is on politics, and it assuredly leaves the eight challengers steaming and the debate sponsors miffed.
In his letter requesting the audience, the president placed his speech above politics. “Washington needs to put aside politics and start making decisions based on what is best for our country and not what is best for each of our parties in order to grow the economy and create jobs. And we must answer this call,” he wrote. (Both chambers of Congress would have to approve such a session by passage of a joint resolution.)
(RELATED: 14 Proposals Obama Could Make)
Obama promised to use the speech “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 [of] working Americans, while still reducing our deficit and getting our fiscal house in order.”
At the White House, officials professed to be shocked at any suggestion that they would intentionally step on the planned GOP debate. “Of course not,” insisted a wounded-looking press secretary Jay Carney at his daily briefing. Asked how 8 p.m. Wednesday was selected, he responded, “There were a lot of considerations. You have to deal with Congress’s schedule. This is one debate of many, that is on one channel of many. That was not enough reason not to have it.”
Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus is not buying the White House explanation, deriding the scheduling of the speech as “a thinly veiled political ploy.” In a statement, Priebus dismissed Carney’s contention that it was “a coincidence” that the speech will be when the debate was planned. “The American people can see right through that excuse,” he said.
As to why the president would want to give the speech on Capitol Hill and not from the Oval Office, Carney said that the Capitol was appropriate given the high stakes for the country. “The president hopes that members of Congress, while they’ve been on their recess, have been hearing the same things he heard while on his bus tour and that they will come back with the same sense of urgency.”
Carney seemed to lump the Republican candidates in with animals and chefs when he noted a presidential speech always competes for viewers with other TV fare, such as “the Wildlife Channel or the Cooking Channel.”
He suggested that the debate could be shifted by one hour. It will be at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. The fourth of this year’s debates, it will be the first to include Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The debate is cosponsored by the Ronald Reagan Foundation, Politico, and NBC News and is to be broadcast live by MSNBC.
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