Odrama and the Impotence of Oration.
There has been a lot of discussion in the blogosphere today about who won and who lost Speech-o-drama. The president tried to upstage the Republican primary debate, was rejected and moved his speech to conflict with the NFL season opener instead. You have to believe that, if Obama has a plan at all, it’s to draw attention away from his speech, rather than to it. Here is my problem with the whole episode: nobody should give a damn about this speech.
If you think Obama will announce a serious plan or somehow move the ball on jobs next Thursday, you have not been paying attention these past two years. Obama and his advisers seem to think that merely giving a speech is enough; that it somehow solves something. It doesn’t. Words are just words. But even more ridiculous is that they seem to believe that Republicans daring to delay yet another speech is somehow obstructing progress.
Moreover, if there is some magical incantation that Obama could use to create jobs, why wait until next week? The President can recall the Congress and get them back to work now. Republicans have been asking him to do that for weeks. When asked why Obama had to address Congress at all, his Press Secretary, Jay Carney, committed a textbook Washington gaffe (emphasis mine):
“He wants to speak before Congress because he recognizes that while there are things he can do without Congress, and he will do them, there are actions that need to be taken with Congress that require legislation to grow the economy and create jobs. And he wants to go to Congress, speak directly to members of Congress, and layout his proposals.“
Really?!? What is it that Obama can do without Congress to create jobs? Why hasn’t he done them yet? When will he do them? What possible reason could he have for waiting two and a half years? Doesn’t this mean that Obama is misleading the public when he tries to blame the bad economy and slow job growth on hurricanes, earth quakes, tsunamis, Arab uprisings, greedy bankers, greedy investors, greedy businesses, George W. Bush, Lord Voldemort, S. K. Pagoat and the one-armed man?
This whole episode is driven by Obama’s massive ego. It takes substantial hubris to run on “Hope and Change,” and to say, without laughing, that your mere nomination for president “was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.“ It takes willful delusion to think that America cannot wait one day for your eighth attempt at a jobs proposal.