Congress At Same Time As GOP Presidential Debate
Politico - The White House suggested Wednesday that the hosts of next week’s GOP presidential debate can change the time by an hour so it doesn’t interfere with President Obama’s planned jobs speech to Congress.
POLITICO and NBC are hosting a Republican debate Sept. 7 at 8 p.m., the same time the White House said Obama asked Congress to make an address.
Asked about the timing on Wednesday, press secretary Jay Carney said, “It is coincidental.”
“There are a lot of factors that go into scheduling a speech before Congress, a joint session,” he said. “You can never find a perfect time. ... There are many channels, there are many opportunities for people to watch the president, and obviously for people to watch the debate.”
Asked later if the interruption is then an “added bonus” for the White House, Carney suggested that isn’t the case. “There's one president, there's 20-some-odd debates," he said.
“There are many opportunities for the American people. There's a choice they can make to watch the president, to watch the debate,” he said. “A network could make a decision to alter the timing of the debate by an hour.”
Carney later elaborated, saying that if “sponsors chose and the candidates so chose to adjust the timing of their debate ... that would be completely fine with us, in the spirit of democracy.”
Blog author's comments - Speaker John Boehner runs the House. Tell Obama the time he wants for a joint session of Congress is not available. The White House will have to choose another date for this so important speech.
I believe the consensus is that Boehner will back down and give Obama what he wants. The GOP controls the House and they should be the ones telling Obama when he can speak to a joint session.
This President deserves zero respect. Why should we care what President Disaster has to say? He will no doubt ask the GOP to fund more programs which will have no chance of creating jobs. This will simply be a push for another stimulus.
The White House knew the schedule of the GOP debate well before the President decided which day to present his speech. So, logic dictates it was intentional to play games with the GOP debate, and saying it should be moved in the “spirit of democracy”.
There’s no reason for Obama to give a political 'campaign speech' in a joint session. Obama should make his campaign speech on “jobs” at a televised press conference.
Update: Boehner Rebuffs Obama Request for Speech on Night of Debate
No comments:
Post a Comment