Stella Lohmann
Obama-Gates saves face of healthcare legislation mutiny!
By Stella Lohmann
Fans of the television series "24" may have noticed President Barack Obama caused more ruckus in one hour than Jack Bauer! His Wednesday press conference was fit for prime time entertainment!
*See how Obama dares a Live National Presidential Press Conference without his trusty teleprompter czars!
*See how Obama, wearing an American flag lapel pin, reassures the American people on his struggling healthcare legislation using all the conservative talking points.
*And then finally, see how a civil arrest in Boston involving black Harvard professor Skip Gates warrants time away from asking really tough healthcare questions?
Now we hear there's a social scheduled over beers at the White House! Is anyone as cynical as I am over the President of the United States of America jumping into this discussion, admittedly not knowing the facts, and then he asserts the Cambridge Police acted "stupidly"? Does anyone wonder how such a question about a civil matter still under investigation made it to the top 11 questions screened by the White House before a LIVE national Presidential Press Conference on health care? And now he's making lemonade out of his disparaging words criticizing law enforcement professionals and fanning the flames of racial profiling. Isn't inviting a police officer and a civilian to the Oval Office for a "learning moment," as he has called it, interfering with an on-going investigation? Why this case; why now?
Rewind the events leading up to Wednesday night's broadcast. Polls indicated that not only were the President's approval ratings dipping, but also the public's view of the present health care bill and unknown contents. At first President Obama approached the microphone to address the press corps and American people with the same confident rhythmic stride and whimsical grin. I thought, okay, here we go again, smooth sailing and slick rhetoric here we come! And in truth he looked in true campaign form addressing the televised audience with direct eye contact no less! — no right to left reading twin teleprompters positioned perfectly for a perfectly delivered Obama speech.
Then, as expected, the preapproved questions began...But where were his trusty Teleprompter Czars? Sadly for the President, it showed in his lackluster, dispassionate, and stammering of words. So many words that who can remember what he said and at times why we were tuned in to watch. Then, it happened! Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times rose and began to tell how Harvard Professor Skip Gates had been arrested by police at his home in Boston for disorderly conduct. The rest is international knowledge of how the President prefaced his statement that he did not know all the facts BUT "the police acted stupidly"!
What followed is the shame of it — Obama went into a short history of racial discord and generalities of how pervasive black and Hispanic arrests are compared to others. His point? The White House knew Obama would start a major debate and deflect, even distract, attention in the media toward the Gates vs. Police debate AWAY from his waning healthcare initiative, bill, and faltered August 9th deadline by his own party!
The media is still rehashing this "stu..." comment and NOT talking about his dying healthcare polls. No good crisis going to waste here. In fact it could be blessing. Now his image makers are billing him as a reasonable peacemaker a la Martin Luther King, energizing his base to his side to fight for his sickly heathcare legislation. Oddly enough, the beer exchange will help fill air time and copy away from a growing exodus by Congress and the public from his adoring side.
Deflect. Deflect. Deflect.
© Stella Lohmann
July 27, 2009
Fans of the television series "24" may have noticed President Barack Obama caused more ruckus in one hour than Jack Bauer! His Wednesday press conference was fit for prime time entertainment!
*See how Obama dares a Live National Presidential Press Conference without his trusty teleprompter czars!
*See how Obama, wearing an American flag lapel pin, reassures the American people on his struggling healthcare legislation using all the conservative talking points.
*And then finally, see how a civil arrest in Boston involving black Harvard professor Skip Gates warrants time away from asking really tough healthcare questions?
Now we hear there's a social scheduled over beers at the White House! Is anyone as cynical as I am over the President of the United States of America jumping into this discussion, admittedly not knowing the facts, and then he asserts the Cambridge Police acted "stupidly"? Does anyone wonder how such a question about a civil matter still under investigation made it to the top 11 questions screened by the White House before a LIVE national Presidential Press Conference on health care? And now he's making lemonade out of his disparaging words criticizing law enforcement professionals and fanning the flames of racial profiling. Isn't inviting a police officer and a civilian to the Oval Office for a "learning moment," as he has called it, interfering with an on-going investigation? Why this case; why now?
Rewind the events leading up to Wednesday night's broadcast. Polls indicated that not only were the President's approval ratings dipping, but also the public's view of the present health care bill and unknown contents. At first President Obama approached the microphone to address the press corps and American people with the same confident rhythmic stride and whimsical grin. I thought, okay, here we go again, smooth sailing and slick rhetoric here we come! And in truth he looked in true campaign form addressing the televised audience with direct eye contact no less! — no right to left reading twin teleprompters positioned perfectly for a perfectly delivered Obama speech.
Then, as expected, the preapproved questions began...But where were his trusty Teleprompter Czars? Sadly for the President, it showed in his lackluster, dispassionate, and stammering of words. So many words that who can remember what he said and at times why we were tuned in to watch. Then, it happened! Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times rose and began to tell how Harvard Professor Skip Gates had been arrested by police at his home in Boston for disorderly conduct. The rest is international knowledge of how the President prefaced his statement that he did not know all the facts BUT "the police acted stupidly"!
What followed is the shame of it — Obama went into a short history of racial discord and generalities of how pervasive black and Hispanic arrests are compared to others. His point? The White House knew Obama would start a major debate and deflect, even distract, attention in the media toward the Gates vs. Police debate AWAY from his waning healthcare initiative, bill, and faltered August 9th deadline by his own party!
The media is still rehashing this "stu..." comment and NOT talking about his dying healthcare polls. No good crisis going to waste here. In fact it could be blessing. Now his image makers are billing him as a reasonable peacemaker a la Martin Luther King, energizing his base to his side to fight for his sickly heathcare legislation. Oddly enough, the beer exchange will help fill air time and copy away from a growing exodus by Congress and the public from his adoring side.
Deflect. Deflect. Deflect.
© Stella Lohmann
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