President was and still is about to deliver a huge blow to the GOP. He wanted to do it initially by having his speech around the same time as the GOP. It ALMOST succeeded. He really was about to give a speech you have finally wanted to hear.
Boehner's staff had no problem initially with Wednesday. They said so themselves. Just when Boehner was about to approve, he suddenly changed his mind. Someone got in his ear and told him to do otherwise. That someone was so scared of President Obama giving the speech around the same time of the GOP debate. It was Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh is the master of keeping evil strong. His constant emphasis on a strong message that is always out in front and decieving people easily helps the good side to lose in messaging wars and public relations. This all spreads to the rest of the GOP. Rush Limbaugh KNEW what President Obama was going to do. He was going to get out in front and create a strong progressive message that would rally the people to the Democratic party's side or at the very least, give strong credibility. The GOP would then have a hard time poo-pooing the president's message. Simply put, Rush Limbaugh saw a threat to conservatives' domination of evil messages and their power by President Obama going first in messaging. Evil has always succeeded by going first in messaging. Finally, Boehner at the last minute rebuffed the president and did not issue an invitation. President Obama can't go unless he is invited. Inside privately, the white house officials and boehner officials were screaming at each other. The White House out in public insisted that Boehner's office had no objection and the WH assumed they could go ahead. Only after some time did the President agree to move the date. They probably thought by then it was a losing battle and would gain nothing by trying to slam the GOP further and insist that they give the speech on wednesday. They would probably be the ones labeled petty if they continued to fight the GOP. Just think of a black man arguing with a white man. Think of angry black man and childish white house wanting a date so badly.
Here is the link that shows EXACTLY what happened.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
notice that only AFTER privately bickering did the President agree to thursday.
this link shows that rush limbaugh understands what is a threat to GOP and conservative power. If journalists ask tough questions to republican candidates, they will look stupid to the voters and start doubting the credibility of conservatives.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Even though the GOP may or may not try to get ahead with their jobs talking points in their debate, the white house can still mount a strong-comeback. The white house probably will take careful notes and hit hard with strong progressive messaging that puts the GOP back on the spot. Many people have criticized the white house for not being upfront in messaging or countering false memes when they spring up. They will STRONGLY do the later in an improvement in messaging.
The fact that WH wanted to take advantage of messaging FIRST (in doing so setting a strong narrative) should bode well for every progressive and person for sanity. Many progressives, including myself, have been most critical of the White House's messaging approaches: letting conservative memes go, and being one step behind the GOP in messaging.
Look out for the STRONG comeback.