William Rivers Pitt: Schooled
[William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know" and "The Greatest Sedition Is Silence." His newest book, "House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation," is now available from PoliPointPress.]
In my last article, I made the following observation regarding the challenges President Obama faced on the eve of his Wednesday evening State of the Union address: "The American people, well-trained in the art of short-term memory loss, have come to the conclusion that everything happening now is Obama's fault, and the polls reflect this without dispute. One speech on Wednesday night won't fix all that ails us, but if Mr. Obama doesn't hit precisely the right notes in the delivery, his second year could come to make his first year seem like a Cape Cod clambake by comparison."
...On Friday, Mr. Obama presented himself before a collection of some 140 Republican members of Congress and, not to put too fine a point on it, bounced them individually and collectively off all four walls in the room....
How wide a swath did the president cut through the Republicans at that Friday meeting? On Saturday afternoon, MSNBC canceled a scheduled afternoon showing of something titled "Death in the Hollywood Hills" to rebroadcast the Obama-GOP collision. For a major cable network to drop a show about gossipy Hollywood homicides in favor of - gasp! - actual substantive news programming means something truly incredible took place in that room.
It did indeed.
As the event unfolded, it was impossible to avoid comparisons to the British custom known as Prime Minister's Questions. Every Wednesday in the United Kingdom, the British prime minister sits in the House of Commons and answers any and all questions from members of Parliament for 30 minutes. Several other countries - Canada, Ireland, Scotland, India, Australia and New Zealand most prominently - carry on a similar tradition, but the United States has never enjoyed such an enlightening institution. The press can question a president at press conferences and on the Sunday shows, but members of Congress, especially members of the opposition party, have never been given an opportunity to do so. Until now.
One by one, Republican members of Congress stood before Mr. Obama and took their best shots. One by one, he sent them packing with a smile on his face and the facts on his side. One of the most revealing exchanges took place when GOP Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) tried to take the president to task for refusing to support an across-the-board tax cut, and for the massive cascade of job losses that hit the nation last winter. Mr. Obama reminded Pence that the job losses he spoke of took place before he took office, and before any of his programs had been implemented. He excoriated Pence and a number of his Republican brethren for attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies celebrating programs created by the stimulus package they had voted against. He concluded by telling Pence, "I'm going to want to take a look at your math," because Pence's support for massive tax cuts, a spending freeze and a balanced budget all at the same time basically makes no sense whatsoever....
Read entire article at Truthout
In my last article, I made the following observation regarding the challenges President Obama faced on the eve of his Wednesday evening State of the Union address: "The American people, well-trained in the art of short-term memory loss, have come to the conclusion that everything happening now is Obama's fault, and the polls reflect this without dispute. One speech on Wednesday night won't fix all that ails us, but if Mr. Obama doesn't hit precisely the right notes in the delivery, his second year could come to make his first year seem like a Cape Cod clambake by comparison."
...On Friday, Mr. Obama presented himself before a collection of some 140 Republican members of Congress and, not to put too fine a point on it, bounced them individually and collectively off all four walls in the room....
How wide a swath did the president cut through the Republicans at that Friday meeting? On Saturday afternoon, MSNBC canceled a scheduled afternoon showing of something titled "Death in the Hollywood Hills" to rebroadcast the Obama-GOP collision. For a major cable network to drop a show about gossipy Hollywood homicides in favor of - gasp! - actual substantive news programming means something truly incredible took place in that room.
It did indeed.
As the event unfolded, it was impossible to avoid comparisons to the British custom known as Prime Minister's Questions. Every Wednesday in the United Kingdom, the British prime minister sits in the House of Commons and answers any and all questions from members of Parliament for 30 minutes. Several other countries - Canada, Ireland, Scotland, India, Australia and New Zealand most prominently - carry on a similar tradition, but the United States has never enjoyed such an enlightening institution. The press can question a president at press conferences and on the Sunday shows, but members of Congress, especially members of the opposition party, have never been given an opportunity to do so. Until now.
One by one, Republican members of Congress stood before Mr. Obama and took their best shots. One by one, he sent them packing with a smile on his face and the facts on his side. One of the most revealing exchanges took place when GOP Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) tried to take the president to task for refusing to support an across-the-board tax cut, and for the massive cascade of job losses that hit the nation last winter. Mr. Obama reminded Pence that the job losses he spoke of took place before he took office, and before any of his programs had been implemented. He excoriated Pence and a number of his Republican brethren for attending ribbon-cutting ceremonies celebrating programs created by the stimulus package they had voted against. He concluded by telling Pence, "I'm going to want to take a look at your math," because Pence's support for massive tax cuts, a spending freeze and a balanced budget all at the same time basically makes no sense whatsoever....
The American people became savagely frustrated with his seeming complacency, so much so that the accusations made by the GOP began to take hold, no matter how perfectly stupid they were, until an administration elected with a massive plurality and with significant majorities in both houses of Congress found itself playing defense on virtually every front and losing ground everywhere. That guy got stuffed in a bottle and sent out with the tide, apparently, replaced at the end of last week by an Obama who was throwing haymakers and laying people out as he smiled, and smiled and smiled....