On Friday following the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama made an appearance at the annual GOP House Retreat. His purpose was to address the assembled representatives and answer questions. It was an opportunity for the GOP to show the President's ideas were weak when an honest debate over those ideas took place. And best of all, it was to be televised for all of America to see how lost this President is when it comes to the issues.
At least that was the idea. Instead for 67 minutes, without aides or a teleprompter, the President took full command of the room and spoke about the realities of governing versus the rhetoric of campaigning. I think the quality of his performance was best illustrated by how the three main cable networks (each with thier own partisan bias) covered this meeting. CNN showed it live and in full and then devoted a majority of it's evening coverage to discussing the event. MSNBC showed it live during the afternoon and then devoted a two hour special to it that evening with commentary. Fox News cut away from the questions almost 30 minutes before it ended during the afternoon and then ignored it.
The President answered questions concerning the deficit, why he would not agree to across the board tax cuts, where he thought he could find areas of agreement with the GOP and most importantly....the difference between reality and rhetoric.
Said President Obama, "we've got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the reality. I'm not suggesting that we're going to agree on everything, whether it's on health care or energy or what have you, but if the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect of our lives....And I would just say that we have to think about tone. It's not just on your side, by the way -- it's on our side, as well. This is part of what's happened in our politics, where we demonize the other side so much that when it comes to actually getting things done, it becomes tough to do."
Rhetoric says the Stimulus package was "out of control" spending....reality is that 1/3 of the bill's cost was in tax cuts (many of which were objected to by liberals), 1/3 of the bill was to stabalize state budgets (keeping firemen, police, teachers, etc. employed, extending unemployment & cobra benefits) and 1/3 was spent on infrastructure spending. (Which the President pointed out meant that many of those in the room had voted against the bill and then showed up at ground breaking ceremonies to claim credit for tax dollars coming into thier district even though they had voted against spending those tax dollars.)
Rhetoric is the GOP saying that it's budget proposal was ignored....reality is that it was a budget with no numbers.
Rhetoric is saying that health care reform is a communist plot...reality is that large sections of the bill resemble ideas proposed by Sen. Bob Dole (R) during the Clinton administration.
Rhetoric is stirring up the base so much that when it comes to governing you have "boxed yourself in" to the point that if you agree with the President on ANYTHING you lose votes. Because people in the heartland actually believe you when you describe him as "dangerous to America' so why should they support you when you find an area of agreement with him.
Rhetoric is saying that GOP ideas were ignored in the Health Care debate...reality is that the idea of "pools" that allowed uninsured individuals and small businesses to buy insurance, covering children until the age of 25 under their parents insurance, incentivizing "wellness", allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines (with the caveat that they meet minimum regulatory standards) and catastrophic insurance for young adults were all Republican suggestions and were part of the dreaded "Obamacare" that the GOP fought so hard against while screaming that they had NO input into the bill.
It was a most interesting hour of television....one which you can watch on the web without the benefit of either conservative or liberal commentators. What you will see is an hour of honest, intellectual discussion between two differing ideologies on how to govern our country. And whether you agree with the President or not, whether you think he was "lecturing" the GOP or applauding his "fight"...the truth is that the real winners were the American people. Who for once got honest discussion from Washington politicians.
I hope everyone will take time to watch the entire event.