I really don’t want to ever again have to listen to Republicans talk about respect for the office of the presidency. If they can’t even show up for a Joint Session of Congress, then they’re too hypocritical to live, let alone be taken seriously. If this speech were about a matter of national security, they’d be there. But it’s about jobs. They don’t think creating jobs is important? Of course not. They would rather use it as an opportunity to be rude.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
I don’t think this will go over well with Mr. and Mrs. America.
They aren’t going to notice unless it is pointed out to them – firmly and repeatedly. And the Washington media won’t do it. And comments from the odd stray Democratic member of Congress won’t do it.
No, there is only one person who will have enough media attention to raise this issue as it is happening and make it stick in the minds of America. That’s Obama himself.
This isn’t an issue for the President to comment on; at the outside I could see Joe Biden commenting on it but not the President.
That’s why the Democrats in safe seats should be out there repeating the line about how Republicans are disrespecting their constituents, their offices, the office of the President, and President Obama and Vice President Biden personally. It should be on a loop and the language should be the same and they should get that into their local media.
That’s how Conservatives win the message war; clear message that goes through all their channels and is repeated endlessly.
Hahaha! It doesn’t help when you have assholes like Ben Nelson and HolyJoe in the caucus. But that’s what happens when you enabler dumbasses like that.
Are you kidding me? Obama getting snubbed will make the news. Right now the narrative is that Blacks, Unions, and pretty much everyone in the US disapproves of him. This is just one more chapter in the Demise of Teh Obama. Of course they will talk about it.
Remarkable how every thing is put on Obama when other parties won’t stand up and do the right thing.
they won’t notice. only political obsessives like bloggers notice.
the rest of the country is busy trying to find/keep a job. They aren’t paying attention the way some of us are.
what they’ll notice is whether their lives are better now or before, and unless they are told very clearly over and over again WHY things are worse, they will blame the party in power (if they bother to vote at all).
That’s just a fact.
Very true, Brendan. They didn’t give the Republicans the House because they loved their policies or missed Bush, like the R’s think. They didn’t vote for the Republicans or against the Democrats. They voted against incumbents. Sadly, some of those incumbents were trying to help them, but John Q. Public doesn’t follow political news. They follow baseball, football, basketball, Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga, etc. etc.
For the most part in the next election they will be focusing solely on the President, not policy. They are poor, afraid, and angry. They will vote for the man that is perceived as strongest, even if he thinks Angels are coming in a spaceship. And it will be a man. Obama’s best hope is to run against Michelle Bachmann, not because she is a kook, which she is, but because she is a woman. In times of plenty women (and men) will vote for a woman. In times of want and fear, they look for the testicles. It’s instinctive. When there is something scary out there both sexes look for the leader with the biggest biceps and cojones. Unfortunately, for Obama, he showed this summer that he is a castrato.
Wow. What would a skilled political operator do with this opportunity, as handed to him by the GOP? It would be possible to show evidence of this – point to empty seat – and weave that fact into a theme about the GOP being interested only in political victories and willing to let America suffer in the process.
Man, if ever Mr. Rope-a-Dope is going to start punching back, now is clearly the time. I know it’s 14 months until the election, but if this speech flops and the economy continues the nosedive I’m not sure Obama gets another chance.
I don’t think this is a One Big Punch type of beating, where Obama can score a big win by pointing out the absent Republicans during the speech and expecting the whole country to be horrified. If he were to try to do so, the story would be that he used his jobs speech to take a pot shot at the Republicans over some inside baseball.
Instead, I think a skilled political operator would make sure there was some press about the absent Republicans, give his jobs speech, and then spend the next 14 months bringing up the time the Republicans cared so little about jobs that they couldn’t even be bothered to show up for a major event about jobs, as part of his stump speech on the economy.
Make sure there was some press about the absence of the Republicans
Like that?
I think you are right. Obama has tended to have a strict boundary line between campaign mode and Presidential mode. That drives folks like me nuts because Republicans never go into governing mode, but we will see whether it works.
Yeah, like that. Hit it hard enough that people will remember there was a story about it when you bring it up later, but not so hard that “Obama Calls Out Republicans for Skipping Speech” overwhelms his jobs message.
It’s sort of like insinuations about Rick Perry being a neo-Confederate racist. Obama can’t lead with it, or “Black Guy Calls Someone Racist” becomes the story, but it can seed the ground for good things later if you lay it on lightly enough.
Hey, that approach sounds good to me, too. I’m not picky, nor am I an expert on politics and political campaigns. But I can see that what Obama has been doing is NOT working. It’s not working for the economy, and as a result it’s not working for the politics. What you are suggesting would clearly be a shift in approach — something that is clearly called for right now.
Well, of course he’s going to change his approach when it’s campaign season.
Obama isn’t Bush. He hasn’t been running the White House as a permanent extension of his election campaign. David Plouffe went home when the campaign was over, and then came back to restart the campaign, because the campaign actually ended after the election this time.
Is that their official excuse?
Did they forget about the mid-terms?
Yep
That was Congress’s little blue wagon.
It’s the truth.
That should matter to you.
But I know it doesn’t.
True or false has clearly been sublimated to “pro- or anti-Obama” for you.
Don’t worry – it’s happened to a lot of weaker minds.
And…Obama got rid of half of the Blue Dog caucus by letting Congress handle their own campaign. Yes, there were some progressives from Republican districts lost in the shuffle. But the major portion of losses were Blue Dogs and New Democrats.
and
Why anyone takes anything that the Republicans say seriously baffles me – Baghdad Bob had more credibility…
Newer example.
Moussa Ibrahim had more credibility.
I call bullshit. They’re not going to skip it outright, if they do at all. They’ll come up with some excuse as to why they couldn’t make it — again, if they do at all. I don’t think they will. If they do, it better be all we hear about on Sunday. The Republican debate shouldn’t get any play-time whatsoever if they go through with this.
Where it really needs to play, and be intensely covered by reporters, is on local television in these Rep’s own congressional districts. That is where I think it would really have an impact. Sunday shows, not so much.
Fair. Also, I think joe’s comment above is correct.
If enough of them don’t show, I’m calling this a dog whistle. They think they can disrespect him like this because he’s not “one of them.”
Let those motherfuckers do it! I fucking dare them!
If Hillary had won and they pulled this on her, how would she have handled it?
Missing from all this is the reality that the R’s already made Obama look weak once by forcing him to move the time of the speech. In that context, some people will see empty seats at disrespecting the office of the presidency, but others will see it as further evidence that the R’s can jerk Obama around whenever they feel like it with no fear of serious consequence.
Also, too, this whole chain of events was started by Obama asking for his joint session on the same night as a Republican presidential debate. So it’s a little disingenuous to accuse the R’s of playing politics with this. Either Obama was trying to tweak the R’s in the first place, or his schedulers weren’t paying attention.
In the end, I think it will just reinforce the existing biases of people. D’s will be outraged at the empty seats; R’s will laugh at it and see Obama as weak; and the vast majority of people who don’t passionately identify with one or the other will just wonder where their jobs are.
How many of the R’s will actually be at the debate?
How many Americans will watch the debate?
And how many will care about any of this middle school one-upsmanship.
The significance of Obama moving the speech is way overblown, or possibly missed entirely (if, as is quite plausible, he actually planned it this way).
If republican members deliberately stay away, on the other hand, that is significant. It will be red meat for the TP, it will be covered in the press, and it will disgust many American voters, just as they were disgusted with the GOP’s behavior during the debt ceiling crisis.
Obama himself will say nothing, and it would be inadvisable for him to say anything about it. Anyway, he will not need to.
I think Obama should leave this alone.
Let the attack dogs flog it for political purposes.
I am dying to see if Obama opens his speech with a wink, smile and crack about, “I’m glad you all could make it. This time still good for you?”
THAT would be a hoot.
And some doofus from South Carolina will surely boo. Fuck him.