By now, we all know about President Obama's masterful handling of the House GOP Caucus. The question and answer session, put on television at the last minute request of the White House gave Americans a very public forum in which to watch the President spend over an hour and a half eviscerating GOP talking points one by one.
The reviews came in, and the results were pretty much unanimous- the President was calm, reasonable, witty, and devastating. Even the Republicans admitted they had made a mistake in allowing their humiliation to be televised.
The President also had a less noticed televised meeting with the Senate Democrats, where he managed to get a few digs in at the spinelessness of some of the members of the caucus, and make Blanche Lincoln look like a bit of an idiot.
Its obvious that this is a good format for President Obama. Robert Gibbs indicated that President Obama would be accepting the invitation from Senate Republicans to speak, as well. But a funny thing happened on the way to the forum... join me below the fold
Suddenly, Senate Republicans aren't so keen on having the President talk to them. Certainly not on live television. While every moment of health care negotiations has to be on C-Span, or the President is the biggest socialist liar ever, Senate Republicans aren't so keen on a little sunlight being shone on their meetings.
Senator John Cornyn doesn't think its such a good idea.
“We’re always happy to hear from the president but I don’t really feel any compelling need to do it [on camera],” Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the Republicans' chief campaign strategist, told POLITICO.
Asked about the White House invitation to Senate Republicans, Cornyn said: “For what purpose? Was it for photo op or is it serious? The president can invite Mitch McConnell, John Boehner or anybody he wants for a serious talk about issues.”
Yes, its a serious talk about issues that they're interested in. I'm sure. They're against photo ops and political posturing. They're not just worried about how bad this is going to make them look.
"They don't want anything to do with it," said a GOP insider. "They want the whole thing to just go away."
http://www.politico.com/...
Republicans have considered several different formats for any session with Obama, including a "roundtable discussion," but don't believe that it will benefit them politically if Obama comes off as well as he did in Baltimore.
Oh, darn. In addition, they're trying to claim that they already HAD their annual meeting, so there is nothing for them to invite President Obama TO. I can see how that would be a major problem. They've been so busy crafting legislation and offering reasonable solutions to the many problems we face to get together for a meeting with the President.
Its pretty obvious that they're running scared. So the question becomes how we press the advantage. Do we just let them slink away? I don't think so.
The more the White House pushes to have this meeting, the more the results of the first meeting will be talked about. More particularly devastating clips of it will be looped on the news. And the punditocracy will LOVE a story about political cowardice. Its the kind of sensationalism that they thrive on. Every mention of Republican cowardice on the news emboldens our side, and demoralizes theirs. This is the kind of thing we need to be pressing every advantage on NOW. Either the story kicks around for a while and the Republicans have to explain their cowardice in ever more ludicrous justifications, or have the story be that the GOP caved to intense pressure from the White House. Either way, its a victory for us.
They're running scared, and we need to make them own that.