The President went to the Republican Congressional retreat and appeared to enjoy sparring on the GOP’s home turf. I will leave it to others to say if he scored any policy points on the opposing party, but I agree with what conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox News last week, “he engaged in a fairly high level debate on policy with his antagonists and he showed his best qualities as a fine analytic mind. He was able to phrase and to frame his opponents’ arguments in a clear way. And I thought he held his own quite well.”
No minds may have been changed, but the president behind that podium resembled the guy many Americans thought they had voted for in 2008.
Obama continued on the offensive this week. He talked to voters in New Hampshire and did a Q & A with Senate Democrats today where he cited not getting out of Washington enough and not communicating with the American people as failures of his first year in office. Look for President Obama to keep swinging and traveling in the days, weeks and months to come. There is a new game plan at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. But, this strategy is going to fail if the rest of the Administration is not on board with the new open and accessible presidency.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is scheduled to meet behind closed doors tomorrow with Democratic Members of the Committee on Homeland Security. Napolitano skipped a January 27 hearing of the Committee to discuss the attempted Christmas airliner bombing. This, after flippantly downplaying the security failures in the hours after the incident. Perhaps some sensitive security measures are better not discussed in the open air format of a hearing, but the public deserves as many of the details as possible. More important, now is not the time for the Homeland Security Secretary to be playing politics and meeting only with Democrats. If she meets with one party, she should meet with both.
The President has showed in the last seven days that good can occur when representatives of the opposing parties meet and try to find common ground. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel should not waste a minute before calling Secretary Napolitano and giving her a briefing on what the President is doing and promising with regard to seeking bipartisan consensus. It’s OK if the Emanuel/Napolitano meeting is behind closed doors, in part because it is appropriate and in part because it is understandable if Mr. Emanuel feels some of his famous salty language is required to make the point.
This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.
This entry was first published as a Des Moines Register blog entry.
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