Q&A From President Obama's Meet at the GOP Retreat (Open Thread)
I'm stuck at work, so, naturally, I can't supply much commentary here, but I wanted to just get this up in case you haven't seen it yet. President Obama went to the House GOP's retreat upon their invitation and this FABULOUS conversation broke out. My Twitter was pretty much on fire with it all day and folks have been clamouring for more. Most folks have compared it to the delightfully entertaining parlimentary back-and-forths you'd see in Canada or Great Britian as it's pretty darn rare for a sitting president in the US to go face the opposition and take questions from them, directly, and have the whole thing play out on television. I won't be able to watch it on C-SPAN until this weekend more than likely, but that shouldn't stop YOU from discussing it!
Danielle Belton | 20 Comments | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article | tagged Barack Obama, Politics, Republicans, congress, government, media 
Reader Comments (20)
i'm glad he went. now lets see if this actually translates into something.
A great discussion! We need more of them.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/football/ncaa/01/29/obama.bcs.ap/index.html?xid=si_ncaaf
Apparently Obama wants the gov't to start interfering in college football. Why doesn't he stick with fixing the economy or the other important things?
the republicans are never gonna work with obama.
Scott, why is it so hard to make substantive comments? The average Americians is uninformed as it is.
Just move on and stop wasting everyone's time.
I don't completely understand Obama's intentions. He says that he wants to keep trying to work with Republicans but as he said himself at the retreat Republicans have so demonized him in front of their constituents that they can't be seen working with him.
This means that Obama is reaching out to people who he knows can not reach out back to him. At some point he's going to have to pivot, stop worrying about bi-partisionship and get some real things done.
Obama pwned the republicans. Now we need some action.
Sammy:
What is so wrong with my comment? There are real problems in this country but Obama wants to waste the DOJ's time and efforts on football. Why doesn't he address the real problems?
The President humilated the Republicans. They thought they were going to box him in, and after each question was answered they were left dumbfounded. Now certain Republicans are saying they never should have had cameras in the room. They regret having people see Obama counter-attack their over-construed remarks. I watched the whole speech and Q&A, and I had to remember President Obama was a lawyer. He reminded me of a counselor who effectively, strategically, and easily knocked down opposing counsels talking points.
the government addressing college football doesn't mean the government isn't addressing the economy. let's see if the democrats will actually follow obama's footsteps. and lets see if these footsteps are genuine as opposed to a camera and posturing oppurtunity.
and the fact that people are talking about pwning the republicans or how he "shot all of their points down" is why we're in the mess we're in. fact of the matter remains tha tthe democrats have done a crappy of job of trying to work with the republicans. not that the reeps aren't culpable, either.
bipartisanship and working together is about as realistic is post racial.
Please, showing 10 seconds of video is hardly proof Obama owned the Repubs. I saw one clip where even Obama had to admit that the his promise of amount and transparency of the TV coverage of the health care bill hadn't been kept.
@ Scott
The President was so good that FOX news cut away after 20 minutes. You think if the President fell on his face and this was embarrassing for him that FOX wouldn't have kept the cameras rolling? Please, even Republicans are admitting that it was a mistake to have cameras.
http://twitter.com/RussertXM_NBC/status/8380253627
And I'll bet they never do it again either. Why volunteer or a 2nd ass whipping?
@Scott...
fyi, people can multi-task. I'm sure you multi-task all the time at home by watching TV and making comments on blogs. See? The possibilities are endless.
I thought he was fabulous. it was hilarious to watch. they believed their hype. they thought he got his Harvard Law degree in crayon.
Obama occasionally dodged. But he usually gave a point-blank answer, and it is VERY telling that some Republicans now regret allowing the cameras. (There are, anyone would have to admit, very few ways to interpret that).
@ Swiv
Can you really not see how it's been the GOP that's been obstructing gratuitiously ever since this Obama clown waltzed through the door? And the key word IS gratuitious-----if I choose to be diplomatic and not use "spiteful", "petulant", or "hysterical."
It's so nice to have a smart person as President....
A friend of mine composed a list of “Obama’s New Rules for Discourse with Conservatives” during her lunchbreak and sent it to me. I thought I would share these rules with you. Feel free to add anything that she missed.
Rule #1: Never allow more than three questions at one time. (Cut them off when they’re getting a little too mouthy or long-winded or condescending – usually they’ll employ all of the above).
Rule #2: Address all of their points succinctly, however, redirect the conversation back to what they need to be focused on.
Rule #3: Use these “dialogues” or frontal attacks as an opportunity to remind them of their role in the policymaking process and what it means to govern.
Rule #4: ALWAYS take them back to school (See Rule #3 for example).
Rule #5: When admonishing them, deliberately mispronounce their first or last name. (For example, President Obama referred to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) as “Jim” several times in their exchange, and continued to do so after Hensarling corrected him). This is a perfect tactic to throw your opponent off their game.
^^^^^ of course, because the best course of action is to be disrespectful to people we're supposed to be working with. that'll end all of this bipartisan discourse. and the best way to end this bipartisan discourse is to beat the republicans and not actually work with the republicans. apparently that's part of rule #3, where they are supposed to know "what it really means to govern."
@ marbles
the democrats are equally culpable.
This bipartisanship requirement by Obama has the effect of blocking progress. Why would he do that? Obama plays basketball, I assume he watches football. Why wouldn't he lead his team to accomplish their goals now that they have the ball?