I fell back in like with my President this week. Not back in love — there’s way too much for Obama to do, way too much he needs to change — about Obama — for that to happen. Yet.
Go ahead, laugh, make jokes, tell me I’m a fool. Ridicule me.
But here’s what I’ll tell you: Obama started to grow a pair this week.
The State of the Union address was an unqualified success. Yes, it was short on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal details, but, it would appear, his message was received. We’ll know more Tuesday when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates makes his “major announcement” at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. I’m cautiously optimistic there will be significant movement. I’m also concerned Gates will present a long, drawn out process. Kind of like the way a crack addict would plan his own kicking the habit.
Obama faltered Thursday as he talked about equality in Tampa. That was a disappointment, because it seemed he really couldn’t find the words to show what we had hoped he believed.
Today, at what has now been christened “Question Time,” in a meeting reminiscent of British Parliament debates with the Prime Minister — albeit more civil — Obama found his voice. He spoke strongly and unreservedly to GOP Representatives at their retreat in Baltimore. He used phrases like, “You know that’s not true.” He quoted specific details that no president before, at least to my memory, ever could have. he called them on the carpet. In one exchange with GOP Rep. Jeb Hensarling, he interrupted the endless wind-up to a question that never came, and accused him of posturing and cited his rhetoric as exactly what is wrong with politics today. It was classic.
David Corn just wrote,
“The event was gripping. As word spread through Washington, people rushed to their televisions and became fixed on it. CBS News reporter Mark Knoller, a veteran White House correspondent, tweeted that this was a first. It marked a giant step forward in political and governmental transparency. (It was not certain that the House GOPers would allow cameras into the session until the morning.) The debate was serious and intense. It just so happened that Obama cleaned the clocks of the GOPers, referring to them repeatedly as “you guys,” while they called him “Mr. President.” (“Interesting session,” Republican leader John Boehner tweeted afterward.) Consequently, Republicans may want to think twice before providing Obama another opportunity. Yet this was a good moment for the republic.”
I agree. A “good moment for the republic,” indeed.
The GOP Reps whined. Literally. Cries of, “We have ideas too” were embarrassing.
Obama accused the GOP of engaging in the “Politics of no.” When one lawmaker misquoted the president’s State of the Union speech, Obama said, “That’s not what I said. And I should know what I said because it was just two days ago that I said it.”
THIS is my president.
(West Wing aficionados will remember the episode with “Dr. Jenna Jacobs,” whom President Bartlet slams for her beliefs on homosexuality. In no way was THAT President Obama this week. But the last part of the clip, where Bartlet says, “Toby, that’s how I beat him.” THAT was Obama this week.)
Unsurprisingly, the GOP wind machine has been hard at work, attempting to put a good spin for their side on this. They got their clocks cleaned by the President of the United States, and they know it.
Here’s what the National Review had to say,
“Pence calls today’s Q&A session with the president in Baltimore a “useful†tool for the House GOP in spreading its message. “It’s not widely known, but Republicans have actually been offering positive solutions on the economy, fiscal discipline, energy independence, and health-care reform,†he says. “It’s not widely known because this administration has done a real number on us, smearing the GOP as the ‘party of no.’ Today we were able to push back on that, and even the president acknowledged that Republicans have been offering substantive alternatives on every major issue.â€
“Republicans, he adds, “gave as good as they got†in the question period. “We confronted the president with some very direct questions and statements — focused on policy, not politics. He responded, occasionally, with similar directness. It was productive.†So is Pence open to more House of Commons-like debates? “We welcome them,†he says.”
Yes, Obama has a LONG way to go on equal rights — and in no way, shape, or form am I letting him off the hook for what he hasn’t accomplished — or even attempted.
But this week, my president found his backbone. And it was a welcome relief to the millions who feared he had lost it.
What happens next week is anyone’s guess. But this was an excellent (re)start.
You can watch Obama’s meeting with the GOP from earlier today at C-SPAN. Sadly, the video cannot eb embedded. I’ll ty to get a copy of it over the weekend. Watch it. It will raise your heart a bit.
See what Julie Gulden at DailyKOS says, in, “Luke Russert nailed it…updated w/video.”