This came up during a conservative radio show that followed the sedate interview Todd did with the President the other day:
I actually think he would benefit from just simply doing some town halls and not White House-screened town halls with supporters, but doing, you know, going back, essentially letting some folks vent, letting some folks vent, handling the vent a little bit....
Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich did that joint town hall back in ’96, in ’97 in New Hampshire. It was a big, it was a good moment, frankly, for both of them. At the time, it ended up helping Clinton more than helping Newt, but it was sort of, that’s another way you could do this.
Todd says Clinton wasn't "afraid" to do that kind of "political theater," but Obama? "It’s not that President Obama is, it’s just not, well, I mean, if you went to law school with him, you know." Ha. Todd has trouble finding his way out of that sentence so he throws it over to the radio host, Carol Platt Liebau, who'd earlier mentioned that she "was on the Harvard Law Review with him, and when criticized, he really did used to bristle a bit." And this awkward little dialogue happens:
CPL: Yeah.
CT: I mean, that’s not what he, that’s not his…
CPL: Comfort zone.
CT: …comfort zone. He’d rather be in a lecture hall.
And CPL moves on to the next topic.
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52 comments:
Why does this have to be about "helping" Obama? Why not talk about what he could do to help people like me. For once. Oh nevermind.
Obama did far more than hold his own at the Republican Retreat in Baltimore in 2010. I would love to see him at a Town Hall event with Cruz, Rubio and Rand Paul.
House Republican Retreat.
Why does this have to be about "helping" Obama? Why not talk about what he could do to help people like me. For once. Oh nevermind."
You expect him to resign?
"
Blogger Inga said...
Obama did far more than hold his own at the Republican Retreat in Baltimore in 2010. I would love to see him at a Town Hall event with Cruz, Rubio and Rand Paul."
HAHAHAHAHAHA
OMG, what Chuckie Todd wanted to say was "Obama is a loner"
Obama wouldn't last 5 minutes in an unregulated environment.
Bring it on!
The recurring theme in the comments on the VF article is this ""He is not aloof, he is incompetent. He is The Hollow Man. Completely devoid of any real managerial experience. He is withdrawing because he is like an imposter surgeon who is afraid of getting shoved in front of a bloody gurney in a trauma surgery in front of four surgical nurses. He wants out of the room because he knows six seconds after he picks up the scalpel ... everyone in the room is going to know. "
You expect him to resign?
I'm talking about ass kissers like Todd, stop worrying about Obama's political standing and start looking for what he can actually do to help. Not that Obama can do anything but the media needs to stop treating everything like Obama does, just another campaign.
Jindal would destroy him.
Jindal doesn't need lecture notes.
Jindal would destroy him.
"I would love to see him at a Town Hall event with Cruz, Rubio and Rand Paul."
11/9/13, 3:07 PM
Maybe Rand Paul would get his feelings hurt and challenge Obama to a duel. Cruz could call in his father to pray over Obama to get him sent back to Kenya via O'Hare. Rubio would wander off looking for his bottle of water.
Yeah. That'll work.
Did little Chuckie watch any of the debates, esp the ones between Obama and Hillary?
Inga,
Obama couldn't handle a Cruz, Paul, or Jindal in a debate.
Like the people say, it is just not Obama's comfort zone.
He's just not a great enough human being to do such a thing.
I'll guess that he is just going to hunker down in the Rose Garden, and issue executive orders....to solve global warming.
@ Inga
Obama did far more than hold his own at the Republican Retreat in Baltimore in 2010
Yeah, that was January of 2010. November 8th 2009, his Real Clear Politics aggregated approval index was +8%, today it is -11% And how did November of 2010 election turn out?
I would love to see him at a Town Hall event with Cruz, Rubio and Rand Paul.
I bet he would crap his pants. Wish he would do it - can only help in 2014, if 2010 is any indication.
I'm talking about ass kissers like Todd, stop worrying about Obama's political standing and start looking for what he can actually do to help. Not that Obama can do anything but the media needs to stop treating everything like Obama does, just another campaign."
Dude, they are ass kissers. What do you expect? When a republican becomes president they will do a half-assed job of being journalists. But until then they are what they are-house organ hacks. Even if they were inclined to stop whoring themselves unless they change professions they don't have much of a choice in terms of jobs. The patron calls the shots. Forget Jake. It's Obamatown.
@inga interesting idea. Too bad it won't happen. Either way it would most entertaining.
I'd like someone to ask him if the website is really going to work or if he is going to find out from the papers again or if he now knows it won't and he is lying again, hoping something will turn up?
(Memo:
From the President of the United States to Israel
If you like your country, you can keep it. Period.)
I'd like someone to ask him whether he ordered the website to go forward without security and without being ready. Did Sebelius say it was ready and why is she still there if she said that? Why is she there if she said nothing? Why didn't you listen if she told you it wasn't ready?
Did he understand that websites needed to be tested? Did no one say that to him? Why didn't he listen? Or, if no one told him, then why, in his opinion, didn't anyone tell him?
Does he personally yet understand that the law made plans change so that millions will lose health insurance? When did he find out that this was what would happen? Why does the White House website say on Nov. 9, 2013 that if you like your plan, you can keep it?
Why didn't he accept the Republican offer to delay the law one year before it started working and got us all in a mess? Is he going to delay it now?
Yeah I know cubanbob I'm just ranting like a grumpy old man. A role I'm practicing for and my daughters would say, already perfected.
"Please proceed Senators". That's all he'd have to say.
@ Inga
"Please proceed Senators". That's all he'd have to say.
And then it wouldn't take much for this scenario:
The moment it happened could be pinpointed with precision: at the 39:35 mark on the clock. A question about home foreclosures had been put to potus; under the rules, he had two minutes to respond. Before the mock, Kerry had been instructed by one of the debate coaches to interrupt Obama at some juncture to see how he reacted. Striding across the bright-red carpet of the set that the president’s team had constructed as a precise replica of the Hofstra town-hall stage, Kerry invaded the president’s space and barged in during Obama’s answer.
The president’s eyes flashed with annoyance.
“Don’t interrupt me,” he snapped.
When Kerry persisted, Obama shot a death stare at the moderator—his adviser Anita Dunn, standing in for CNN’s Candy Crowley—and pleaded for an intercession.
The president’s coaches had long worried about the appearance of Nasty Obama on the debate stage
I think those guys would be quite effective at bringing out the Nasty Obama Death Stare. I don't think there is any intervention that could keep that from happening.
The Intervention
He’d blown the first debate. Now he was on the verge of blowing the second and risking his reelection. In an excerpt from their new book, Double Down, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann describe the moment when a president was talked away from the edge.
Lecture hall. Quelle suprise!
Lyle said...
Inga,
"Obama couldn't handle a Cruz, Paul, or Jindal in a debate.
Like the people say, it is just not Obama's comfort zone.
He's just not a great enough human being to do such a thing."
Now, if the TelePrompTer could enter the debate...
Inga was probably in that line of Obama adorers on the Madison campus for the Obama speech who were asked if he should be allowed to use his TelePrompTer in the next debate. And she said YES !
I saw you there, Inga.
by all means, lets have another campaign event where politicians try to score debate points, rather than actually do the hard work of governing.
"He'd rather be in a lecture hall" means he (Obama) can't handle not being in control.
I know many of you know this; I'm just trying to record it for some readers who may not know the reference.
In a lecture hall, some guy or girl stands at the front and acts all knowledgeable and wise and all, and everyone in the hall seats knows his or her grade might drop if he or she shows disrespect.
Obama is there on the stage usually, and he loves it. Harvard, Columbia, etc. But he's an idiot, and now that he has done several stupid things, he doesn't know how to respond.
We students know what to do when we're stupid. "My dog ate my homework!"
Obama is at a loss. He's supposed to command all attention and respect. He does not know how to respond when he has lost attention and respect.
Obama is too thin-skinned to manage a town hall meeting, or even a back-and-forth debate. In his mind, he is always right, and not to be contradicted or criticized.
Whatever you think about Obama's ability to govern, his ideas about life, the universe and everything, if you don't realize that he's an imbecile without prepared remarks or a controlled environment, you either haven't been paying attention or are intentionally misleading yourself.
In an environment where "lifelong Democrats" are (by their own admission) becoming "foot soldiers for the Republican party," Obama cannot be let anywhere near the lumpen-proletariat.
"“Get the transcript,” Obama said—at which point Candy Crowley interceded.
“He did, in fact, sir,” Crowley said to Romney. “He did call it an act of terror.”"
Alan Markus, thanks for that link to the book chapter about the debates. All we need to know is the exchange above. Candy should have a big job in he administration, although she may not want one now.
We're All Racists Now: How the Formerly Reliable Mouthpiece Media's Couched Critiques of The Won Revealed the Widespread Racism in America
Choom couldn't even manage a lecture hall (a real one, anyway, where pertinent questions are asked and his viewpoint might be challenged by someone sharper than him), let alone a town hall with the likes of Cruz or Rand Paul, or even Rubio.
None of those guys spent his life coasting on his ethnicity.
Choom has always been able to get away with calling anybody who challenged him a racist.
That seems to be going away.
So let me get this straight.
Obama cannot do an event that may help him recover from being exposed as a liar because such a venue might expose the real Obama?
Do I have that right?
A real Town Hall for Obama?
No, will never happen cause then tar, feathers, and a rail will be brought.
And he knows that.
I would pay to watch Omama and Ted Cruz in a televised discussion with no moderator or audience. Just alternate their live microphones, 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off for each guy for an hour or so.
The Bamster would be trussed up and stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey by the end of it.
Gosh if only president Obama would do what I (insert talking head/journalist here) think would be something effective/productive.
It never ceases to amaze me how those who sympathize with Obama wish/project their own version of behaviour onto him in spite of Obama never showing the slightest wilingness, much less ability, to play the game the way the unicorn believers think it should be played. Why iis that?
In other news, Inga reappears in this thread after a noticible absence in the last half dozen or so Obamacare threads.
Obama wouldn't last 5 minutes in an unregulated environment.
This.
Who cares about Jindal. I'd like to see President Obama do a town hall with reality.
The Republican vs. Democrat format presumes that the President's failure is political. This would be a gift to Mr. Obama.
I want to see the President in a town hall full of systems architects, insurance adjustors, and sick people with canceled policies.
Let us see how he obfuscates then.
If he were a CEO in the private sector, he’d be prosecuted for such deception.
Read it. If that sentiment catches on, it can get very serious. Clinton lied about sex and was impeached. His will look like golden years when history is written.
Inga said, "Obama did far more than hold his own at the [House] Republican Retreat in Baltimore in 2010. I would love to see him at a Town Hall event with Cruz, Rubio and Rand Paul."
Me, too. If they let me ask a question, I'd give him a real earful, telling him point-blank that he lied about keeping plans, he lied about his lies, and how he talked about incivility but never about his own personal contribution to it, how he looks down on us, how he's far harsher on his fellow citizens who are not Democrats than on our actual enemies, like Iran.
But that won't happen because he'd never answer questions that were not pre-screened, being the lying coward that he is.
Inga is an Obamabot.
Just as some "can't handle the truth", well the Bamster can't handle an unscreened town hall meeting. He's just not that sharp.
Obama is like Captain Queeg from 'The Caine Mutiny'. Hes not one to be questioned or challenged, and if you challenge his statements about promises made, he will just brush that aside with 'its all for your own good'. Obama doesnt inhabit the same reality that the rest of us do. Hes in an alternate reality, and all we have to do to expose him is to get him to talk about the strawberries.
If Obama were ever to have a Town Hall with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or Rand Paul, one of them would ask him this question:
"If you feel so bad about all those folks who lost their insurance, why don't you use your Presidential power and nullify Sebelius' regulation that caused this mess in the first place.
Of course he would have no answer and probably would turn to Inga to help him out.
No, if Obama has any Town Meeting it will be with John McCain.
If Obama were ever to have a Town Hall with Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or Rand Paul, one of them would ask him this question:
"If you feel so bad about all those folks who lost their insurance, why don't you use your Presidential power and nullify Sebelius' regulation that caused this mess in the first place.
Of course he would have no answer and probably would turn to Inga to help him out.
No, if Obama has any Town Meeting it will be with John McCain.
Obama wouldn't do so well with Ted Cruz. He does much better with the gentry, polite type, like McCain and Romney.
But Cruz would actually ask tough questions. Questions considered impolite. Cruz is the sort that would hand him an internet for dummies book, or an economy for dummies book.
I'm not sure about Jindal or Rubio, but they don't strike me as in your face types.
I'd pay to see Cruz and Obama. The rest? Not so much.
This period is going to go down as the lost decade, instead of coming into office with an agenda that was positive & possible, Obama comes into office and pisses everyone off with the impossible. AKA shovel ready stimulus & obamacare.
"please proceed senators" only with Too Much Candy Crawly at his back
Once you've been shown to be a liar, more words don't help you. Only actions and results matter. Bambi can't talk his way out of his mess; his only hope is that the ACA works and works well.
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