The Obama White House was trying to replicate a previous PR stunt that they thought was successful. In late January, President Obama showed up at a meeting of congressional Republicans and took their questions. At that event, he seemed poised and composed. The way the forum was organized—Obama up at the podium, with the members of Congress seated to his side and somewhat below him—combined with the respectful deference which the members of Congress showed for the office of the president, all gave him an advantage.
This led some people, particularly on the left, to get excited about what a great idea this was. They began proposing to make it a regular event, like Britain's "question time," when the Prime Minister goes down into the well of Parliament to answer questions—and jibes—thrown at him by members of Parliament. But this custom stems from British political history and institutions, in which the Prime Minister is a member of Parliament who gains and holds his office primarily because he represents a parliamentary majority.
In our system, the Congress and the chief executive are independent and co-equal branches of government. The one does not have to answer to the other. So that's not really what a presidential "question time" is about. It is not about the president answering to Congress, because he doesn't. It's not about him serving as the leader of a legislative coalition, because he doesn't lead it. The Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader perform that function. So what is it about, in our system? It's about turning relations between the president and Congress into a campaign-style debate.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama denounced the idea of a "permanent campaign." Knowing Obama, you should be able to guess what comes next: it turns out that a few days earlier, Obama had summoned his campaign manager, David Plouffe, back to the White House to try to save the health care bill. And so Obama is planning a series of PR stunts and face-offs with congressional Republicans, like a permanent series of campaign debates.
Except maybe it won't be a series, after all. The first "question time" was not really a success, because it didn't move public opinion polls on the health care bill, nor did it move any votes in Congress. Nothing Obama has done in the past seven months has succeeded at that goal. But it seemed like a success, to an Obama White House in campaign mode, because Obama looked good and sounded good, because he upstaged the Republicans, and because the political class in Washington generally approved of his performance.
So Obama went into today's summit on the assumption that because he came off well before, he would come off well again. It didn't exactly work out that way.
I did not watch all six hours of the event, and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. But I saw enough to get a general impression. For one thing, given that Obama planned this on his home turf, so to speak, he oddly gave up all of his advantages. At the previous meeting with Republican leaders, the special nature of the event and the way that he was positioned up at the podium gave him a special deference that restrained Republicans from really taking him on. But if you want to make these confrontations a regular event, suddenly it's not so special any more. And at this summit, that was underscored by the way that the president was seated behind a long, low, U-shaped table on the same level with everybody else. Visually, what this conveyed was: I'm not really in charge here. And while the previous event was relatively short, this summit dragged on for six televised hours. No politician, no matter how skilled, can maintain charisma and composure for that long. It is almost calculated to break any kind of oratorical spell Obama could cast over the proceedings.
And this time, with a little more warning, Republicans were able to put up some of their best debaters and really come prepared to wallop the administration's proposals. In this regard, I thought the key event of the day was a brief speech by Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who has emerging as the rising star of the past few months. And you can see why. Ryan is the top Republican on the House committee responsible for the budget, so he has become the point man on deficits and government debt.
In this presentation—you really have to watch it—Representative Ryan thoroughly exposes the dishonest accounting of the health care bill, showing how it breaks the budget and violates the president's own promises. He ends by advocating that Congress start over from scratch and reform health care by giving more power back to the people—and that Democrats should listen to the majority of the public on this issue.
When you watch the video, notice Obama's face. He does not look like a man confident and happy to be there. He looks chagrined and deflated. See also Obama's reaction as Senator Lamar Alexander demolishes the idea of bypassing the filibuster with a straight partisan "reconciliation" vote. Obama is trying to remain carefully expressionless, but he looks like a man taking a beating.
A few weeks ago, I posted a piece by Jack Wakeland on how the Tea Party movement has taken all of the fun out of being a statist politician. Well, congressional Republicans just took all of the fun out of being President Obama.
Most people did not and will not watch all six hours of the health care summit. Instead, they will see it in short clips on the evening news and on the Internet. And the exchange with Ryan is one of the clips they will see.
But as Yuval Levin points out, some people were watching the whole thing. "The purpose of this spectacle is not so much to move the public as to move Democratic members of Congress…, and they are seeing their leadership fail to make a straightforward case for the Democratic approach to health care."
For six months, I really poured on the steam on the health care debate, producing more than 20 articles on the issue. Since January 19, when Scott Brown became the 41st vote the Republicans needed to block the health care bill, you may notice that I have stopped making the issue a priority. Why? Because the bill is dead, and the Democrats are lying to themselves if they think they can revive it. The latest lie they told themselves was that somehow the president could pull out such a marvelous performance at this summit that it would change public opinion and embolden House Democrats to push the bill through. But if she ever has the guts to actually schedule a vote, I think Nancy Pelosi would find that she falls well short of a majority for the bill. And today's event didn't gain her any more votes.—RWT
Robert Tracinski writes daily commentary at TIADaily.com. He is the editor of The Intellectual Activist (TIA) and contributor to The Freedom Fighter's Journal
This led some people, particularly on the left, to get excited about what a great idea this was. They began proposing to make it a regular event, like Britain's "question time," when the Prime Minister goes down into the well of Parliament to answer questions—and jibes—thrown at him by members of Parliament. But this custom stems from British political history and institutions, in which the Prime Minister is a member of Parliament who gains and holds his office primarily because he represents a parliamentary majority.
In our system, the Congress and the chief executive are independent and co-equal branches of government. The one does not have to answer to the other. So that's not really what a presidential "question time" is about. It is not about the president answering to Congress, because he doesn't. It's not about him serving as the leader of a legislative coalition, because he doesn't lead it. The Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader perform that function. So what is it about, in our system? It's about turning relations between the president and Congress into a campaign-style debate.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama denounced the idea of a "permanent campaign." Knowing Obama, you should be able to guess what comes next: it turns out that a few days earlier, Obama had summoned his campaign manager, David Plouffe, back to the White House to try to save the health care bill. And so Obama is planning a series of PR stunts and face-offs with congressional Republicans, like a permanent series of campaign debates.
Except maybe it won't be a series, after all. The first "question time" was not really a success, because it didn't move public opinion polls on the health care bill, nor did it move any votes in Congress. Nothing Obama has done in the past seven months has succeeded at that goal. But it seemed like a success, to an Obama White House in campaign mode, because Obama looked good and sounded good, because he upstaged the Republicans, and because the political class in Washington generally approved of his performance.
So Obama went into today's summit on the assumption that because he came off well before, he would come off well again. It didn't exactly work out that way.
I did not watch all six hours of the event, and I don't feel the least bit guilty about it. But I saw enough to get a general impression. For one thing, given that Obama planned this on his home turf, so to speak, he oddly gave up all of his advantages. At the previous meeting with Republican leaders, the special nature of the event and the way that he was positioned up at the podium gave him a special deference that restrained Republicans from really taking him on. But if you want to make these confrontations a regular event, suddenly it's not so special any more. And at this summit, that was underscored by the way that the president was seated behind a long, low, U-shaped table on the same level with everybody else. Visually, what this conveyed was: I'm not really in charge here. And while the previous event was relatively short, this summit dragged on for six televised hours. No politician, no matter how skilled, can maintain charisma and composure for that long. It is almost calculated to break any kind of oratorical spell Obama could cast over the proceedings.
And this time, with a little more warning, Republicans were able to put up some of their best debaters and really come prepared to wallop the administration's proposals. In this regard, I thought the key event of the day was a brief speech by Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who has emerging as the rising star of the past few months. And you can see why. Ryan is the top Republican on the House committee responsible for the budget, so he has become the point man on deficits and government debt.
In this presentation—you really have to watch it—Representative Ryan thoroughly exposes the dishonest accounting of the health care bill, showing how it breaks the budget and violates the president's own promises. He ends by advocating that Congress start over from scratch and reform health care by giving more power back to the people—and that Democrats should listen to the majority of the public on this issue.
When you watch the video, notice Obama's face. He does not look like a man confident and happy to be there. He looks chagrined and deflated. See also Obama's reaction as Senator Lamar Alexander demolishes the idea of bypassing the filibuster with a straight partisan "reconciliation" vote. Obama is trying to remain carefully expressionless, but he looks like a man taking a beating.
A few weeks ago, I posted a piece by Jack Wakeland on how the Tea Party movement has taken all of the fun out of being a statist politician. Well, congressional Republicans just took all of the fun out of being President Obama.
Most people did not and will not watch all six hours of the health care summit. Instead, they will see it in short clips on the evening news and on the Internet. And the exchange with Ryan is one of the clips they will see.
But as Yuval Levin points out, some people were watching the whole thing. "The purpose of this spectacle is not so much to move the public as to move Democratic members of Congress…, and they are seeing their leadership fail to make a straightforward case for the Democratic approach to health care."
For six months, I really poured on the steam on the health care debate, producing more than 20 articles on the issue. Since January 19, when Scott Brown became the 41st vote the Republicans needed to block the health care bill, you may notice that I have stopped making the issue a priority. Why? Because the bill is dead, and the Democrats are lying to themselves if they think they can revive it. The latest lie they told themselves was that somehow the president could pull out such a marvelous performance at this summit that it would change public opinion and embolden House Democrats to push the bill through. But if she ever has the guts to actually schedule a vote, I think Nancy Pelosi would find that she falls well short of a majority for the bill. And today's event didn't gain her any more votes.—RWT
Robert Tracinski writes daily commentary at TIADaily.com. He is the editor of The Intellectual Activist (TIA) and contributor to The Freedom Fighter's Journal
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