After the President’s request to address the nation from Congress next Wednesday was turned down, the White House announced the speech will take place on Thursday.
Now, you may be wondering why is the President so adamant about doing a speech on jobs, jobs, jobs from the floor of Congress, when a. the unemployment rate has been over 9% for most of his tenure, b. he could have given the speech anytime, anywhere – particularly during last month’s bus tour. Simple: The speech is intended to launch his re-election campaign.
If so, it’s doing it with a pratfall. As it turns out, Thursday is the NFL season opener.
Now, I don’t follow football (or any sports, for that matter), but even I am mindful of such things when scheduling events – whether it’s a fundraiser for an organization I belong to, or meeting with friends, or having people over.
And I’m not running for office.
Fear not, football fans; the Obama speech apparently won’t conflict with Saints-Packers kickoff, as long as you don’t mind missing the pre-game coverage,
Though an official announcement has not yet been made by the White House, Obama’s speech apparently will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on September 8, one hour before kickoff of the kickoff to the season.
And so, assuming the absence of any filibustering (a big assumption, given the precise location of the address), the speech should be over before it’s time to play the game.
What will the speech be about?
For starters, expect a lot of blame-game: Minutes after his Sept. 8 address to Congress is set, Obama bashes both houses. Certainly the President will get in a dig or two during his speech.
Other proposals, such as more stimulus, the creation of a Fannie Mae for infrastructure a. k. a. a federal infrastructure bank (since Fannie Mae worked so well?), and the creation of more “green jobs“, involve yet more government spending and direct federal involvement in local economies.
Who’s going to want to miss the NFL pre-game show for that?
UPDATE, Friday 2 September,
Betsy:
Anonymous White House aides admit that they were aware all the time of the GOP debate that they were trying to preempt with Obama’s move to schedule his speech to Congress. They simply figured that it wouldn’t matter because it was going to be on a cable station which isn’t “sacrosanct.” So they just sent Jay Carney out to lie when he said it was all a coincidence.
