...meeting with the House Republicans yesterday, you can watch it here. I watched all 86 minutes of it (no, I don't have a life), and I can tell you that you will never see anything like it. If the GOP should ever agree to meet with Obama again, they will surely never allow cameras in. It was that bad.
The president stood at a podium like a professor suffering questions from a classroom of unruly students. While Obama remained on camera, his interrogators spoke out to him from the shadows. Also, the Congressmen and -women all addressed him as "Mr. President"; he called on them by their first names. (Jeb Hensarling of Texas didn't even get that courtesy; the president insisted on calling him "Jim." I don't think they like each other.) Although he was gracious and accepted some of the responsibility for the current atmosphere in Washington, Obama definitely came off looking better than the House Republicans. Any unbiased independent would have thought he was reaching across the aisle to engage the opposition in an effort to tackle the nation's problems. It certainly worked against the Republicans' strategy of demonizing him in the public's mind.
Obstructionism and demagoguery have worked well for the GOP so far, but after watching the president's performance yesterday I think that strategy may be getting a little long in the tooth. Americans want their government to work for them, not against them.
This may have been a turning point for the president. I wouldn't be surprised to see his numbers go up after today.
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