Obama Jobs Speech Unlikely to Capture Interest from Football Crowd

COMMENTARY | President Obama’s gambit to try to overshadow the Republican presidential debate on Sept. 7 by scheduling an address to a joint session of Congress has backfired. The speech will now be overshadowed by the beginning of the NFL season.

The White House violated one of the first rules of being a good guest, which is to ask first before going to someone else’s house. Instead, apparently with a 15 minute warning to House Speaker John Boehner, Obama announced that he would speak before Congress about his latest plan to lift the country out of the economic doldrums and get job creation moving again.

Surely Congress would never refuse a presidential request to grace the legislative body with its presence?

But that is exactly what Boehner did. In a politely worded letter, Boehner reminded Obama that Congress had already scheduled some votes to take place at about 8:30 p.m. on the day in question. There would be no time to make the preparations necessary for a presidential address. Could the president see his way to speaking on the following night?

Obama was thus caught in a trap of his own making. If he insisted on Wednesday despite the speaker’s reasonable sounding objections, he would be all but admitting that he was trying to step on the toes of the Republican presidential candidates, especially Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is surging in the polls.

On the other hand, the New Orleans Saints play the Green Bay Packers in the first game of the football season, kickoff to occur at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. Given the choice between listening to the president drone on about spending and jobs and watching a football game, even the White House knows which most people will choose.

The plan now is for the president to finish his remarks before kickoff. This will be a great challenge for a politician who is well known for his loquaciousness. He will have to time his remarks, including applause lines, very exactly to avoid running long and avoid NBC from cutting away from him to the game.

It is rather sad. This White House cannot even do political hanky panky right.

Sources: What’s Obama Strategy Holding Jobs Speech Same Night as GOP Debate? Mark R. Whittington, Associated Content, August 31, 2011

White House working to avoid clash with NFL’s opening game, NFL.COM, September 1, 2011


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