{"id":16627,"date":"2010-01-30T13:16:28","date_gmt":"2010-01-30T20:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=16627"},"modified":"2010-01-30T13:16:28","modified_gmt":"2010-01-30T20:16:28","slug":"where-has-this-president-been-the-past-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/30\/where-has-this-president-been-the-past-year.html","title":{"rendered":"Where has this president been the past year?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The House GOP thought they were being clever in inviting Obama up to their lobbyist-sponsored strategy retreat.\u00a0 They thought they were being even more clever in taking up the White House’s Br’er Rabbit offer to televise the 90 minute discussion.\u00a0 They were sure that the opportunity to stand up, preface their remarks with simplistic talking points and baseless assertions, then ask a “are you still beating your wife” kind of question, would make for great campaign fodder.<\/p>\n

Result: the GOP got their rhetorical hats handed to them.<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Now, the full video is 90 minutes long — worth listening to, but still a lengthy investment of time.\u00a0 The transcript is here<\/a>, and a more highlighted video and link site is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The point is not only that Obama debated effectively on policy, but that he didn’t do so by blasting back and forth with dueling talking points.\u00a0 Instead, he reframed the discussion, pointing out that the lengthy prefaces by each House questioner were full of assertions he disagreed with (which he then addressed), and that, beyond that, the general tone of the questioning was just the sort of thing that was leading to failure in Washington.\u00a0 For example, to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX):<\/p>\n

Jeb, with all due respect, I’ve just got to take this last question as an example of how it’s very hard to have the kind of bipartisan work that we’re going to do, because the whole question was structured as a talking point for running a campaign.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Exactly.\u00a0 Not only is accusing the president of running some massive “Bolshevist plot” to take over our precious bodily fluids untrue, but it then makes it impossible for the GOP to turn around and work with the White House, even if they wanted to. Not only has the GOP gone all in to make this a win-lose situation, they’ve painted themselves into a political corner in doing so, and the entire country is the victim for it.<\/p>\n

How can you tell Obama scored and won?\u00a0 Fox News, alone among other channels showing the program, cut away before it was over<\/a> so that they could run some talking heads criticizing Obama for lecturing to the House members.<\/p>\n

The GOP are now understandably dismayed<\/a> by having given Obama a chance to show them up.\u00a0 I have no doubt they will think twice before again going into a televised debate with a law professor, where he has the opportunity to answer with more than a 15 second sound bite.<\/p>\n

And maybe that’s a key as to why we haven’t seen this Obama — calmly making his points, demolishing or reframing those of his opponents, and then noting how their whole attitude is part of the problem — over the last year.\u00a0 Because the only time we get to see him is either (a) giving a speech (which he does well, but is then bushwacked by the obligatory Opposition Response who like to make him out as some pedantic lecturer), or (b) talking in sound bites on the evening news.\u00a0 Obama does nuance, he musters his points, he makes them carefully, deliberately, and effectively.\u00a0 That sort of thing doesn’t work in the current media.<\/p>\n

Anyway, some very good stuff.\u00a0 Obama’s outreach for bipartisanship is almost certainly futile, but if he can continue to present in this fashion, then it become an outreach of strength, not of weakness, a sign of leadership, not wishy-washy compromise.\u00a0 And it puts the GOP on notice that being the Party of No is as much a danger for them as it is for the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House GOP thought they were being clever in inviting Obama up to their lobbyist-sponsored strategy retreat.\u00a0 They thought they were being even more clever in taking up the White House’s Br’er Rabbit offer to televise the 90 minute discussion.\u00a0 They were sure that the opportunity to stand up, preface their remarks with simplistic talking … Continue reading “Where has this president been the past year?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fourth-estate","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32650,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/28\/hes-fiendishly-clever.html","url_meta":{"origin":16627,"position":0},"title":"He's FIENDISHLY clever!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 28-Feb-13 2:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Louie Gohmert, GOP stalwart from Texas (of course) has figured out Obama's fiendish master plot around the sequester.'\u201cWell that\u2019s not hard to figure out,\u201d Gohmert continued. \u201cWhat a great political ploy. What a great political plan to a year and a half ago come up with the idea, which the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26439,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/16\/being-the-adults-in-the-room-regarding-santorum.html","url_meta":{"origin":16627,"position":1},"title":"Being the adults in the room regarding Santorum","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Feb-12 9:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Operation: Hilarity\" --the Daily Kos idea for progressives to vote for Rick Santorum in open primaries (like Michigan), with an idea to continuing the existing disarray in the GOP, is a really bad idea.1. Playing with the already-battered democratic process is not what we want to be doing. Have there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20667,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/05\/unblogged-bits-tue-5-apr-11-1130.html","url_meta":{"origin":16627,"position":2},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Tue. 5-Apr-11 1130)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 5-Apr-11 11:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... The reason for Boehner's ovation - I'm sure that there are some Dems who are \"rooting\" for a shutdown because they think it will hurt the GOP, but the GOP not only seems to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marriage Equality"","block_context":{"text":"Marriage Equality","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/marriage-equality"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38991,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/02\/shutting-down-the-epa.html","url_meta":{"origin":16627,"position":3},"title":"Shutting down the EPA","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 2-Oct-13 1:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Which, frankly, I expect that most GOP congresscritters consider a good thing. And, look, they managed to do it without having to actually pass any pesky legislation. And if we piecemeal reopen the government, guess which kind of departments will be on the tail end of any restoration? \u00a0Devilishly clever.Reshared\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21235,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/10\/unblogged-bits-fri-10-jun-11-1730.html","url_meta":{"origin":16627,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Fri. 10-Jun-11 1730)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Jun-11 5:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Top 10 Things Texas Gov. Rick Perry Doesn\u2019t Want You To Know About Him | ThinkProgress - Actually, there are some things here that I suspect not only will Perry not be ashamed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133223,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/07\/republicans-for-obamacare.html","url_meta":{"origin":16627,"position":5},"title":"Republicans for Obamacare","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Apr-17 9:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"The headline (and the article) are a little too all-inclusive, but they make a very real note -- a substantial number of Republicans (because, among other things, a substantial number of their constituents) believe in enough of the fundamental benefits, and thus economic requirements, of the ACA to be able\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16627\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}