Thread: Obama and Republicans at Baltimore Retreat

As cameras roll, President Obama faces down GOP



President Obama, groping for a new strategy after the Massachusetts defeat, seemed to find the perfect foundation for one Friday: direct engagement with the GOP in front of a national TV audience.





In a lively Q-and-A with House Republicans at their annual retreat in Baltimore, Obama showcased the campaign skills that won him the Oval Office – he was cerebral, combative, cool and quick.





And he was also able to forcefully express his strongest political and policy argument: that Republicans have little authentic interest in compromise.





“I don’t believe the American people want us to focus on our job security... I don’t think they want more gridlock. I don’t think they want more partisanship,� he said.“They didn’t send us to Washington to fight each other in some sort of steel-cage match to see who comes out alive.�





Obama is getting the blame for much of what ails Washington these days, including the partisan feuding. What his advisers are trying to do - first with the State of the Union and more dramatically with Friday's event - is make clear that he wants to work with Republicans and that the minority party deserves blame, too.





By that measure, Friday’s event was a home run. It also showed Obama’s determination to ditch a Rose Garden strategy that pinned him down, month after month, in fruitless White House wrangling over heath care.





Expect more of Friday’s Obama, his aides say, with the president out on the road, liberated from messy legislative process, taking scores of questions from friends and foes.





Expect monthly meetings with Republican leaders.





Expect a campaign.





Friday’s session ran the gamut from testy to clubby, with Obama mocking Republican critics for labeling him “a Bolshevik� – then breaking off from an intense debate over health care to ask a young GOP congressman if his wife and children were in the audience.





“Is this your crew right here, by the way?� Obama asked.





Obama’s top aides were delighted with the performance, believing the encounter – as much as any other public appearance recently — contrasted his willingness to compromise with the GOP’s posture of recalcitrance.





“It was illuminating,� said White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton. “It definitely gives people a fair idea of how the president [and Congressional Republicans] interact privately. It really gave people a window into how that conversation goes.�





Many Democrats staffers, mesmerized by an hour of political theater in their Hill offices, were thrilled by what they saw.





“He kicked their asses,� said a Democratic Senate aide. “He went in there and made them look like petty, little politicians.�





A top GOP House aide called it a “draw� – and said that his party’s willingness to hear Obama deprived Democrats of “all that Party-of-No bull——.�





White House officials said that Obama did virtually nothing to prepare for the showdown, apart from quickly checking in with Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag to make sure he had his numbers straight.





He also took along assistant legislative affairs director Phil Schiliro to help gauge which members were likely to pepper him with questions.





But this was no chance encounter. When Obama spoke at the GOP conference last year, the cameras were present for only his speech and were ushered out during the question-and-answer period.



http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32239.html



Did anyone watch this? I thought it was really impressive. If anyone still thinks Obama is dependent on a teleprompter, watch this discussion. He did a great job addressing Republican arguments. Could you imagine Bush doing this?

Many Republicans in attendance described his performance positively...though, one said it was like "a first date", referring to his avoidance in working with them since his election.



I too, was somewhat impressed...for the first time.



He seemed sincere, animated, and even exhibited a few leadership qualities. Maybe...just maybe, the spanking he's received over the past year has opened the door to communication, and closed the door on the arrogant belief that his election gave him and Dem's a mandate for their long coveted list of social concerns.





Perhaps the humbling is coming to fruition.

[quote name='Daktoria' date='29 January 2010 - 09:55 PM' timestamp='1264820122' post='107837']

Does anyone have a link to any footage?



Reagan and Gingrich engaged Democrats in similar get togethers, both of them were praised for cleaning things up, and there have been plenty of other hero reformers who have walked the same path.



The problem is that people like drama, and culture circulates around that. It's frustrating, and as long as constituents appreciate that kind of bickering, the same obstacles are going to come up time and time again because that's what politicians will appeal to in order to get elected.

[/quote]



YouTube "Obama RNC Baltimore"



I feel you frustration, I think....it's sorta the process though, you know.... Drama, slick marketing, dog and pony show...

[quote name='Devil505' date='29 January 2010 - 09:56 PM' timestamp='1264820180' post='107838']

The problem is....We all know that the GOP does not want to help Obama fix problems...They want him to fail so they can capture more seats in Congress this November. That's their strategy & they are using the tactic of complete obstructionism to achieve it.

It's as simple a strategy as it is un-American & borderline treasonous,imo.

[/quote]



Overly dramatic, hyper-partisan pap. (again)

Before the Mass. election with his supermajority, Obama's conversation with Repub's was less than enthusiastic, it was basically non-existant. But now, after the Mass. election and after his supermajority failed to furnish him a health care bill for his signature, has suddenly changed tactics.



Surely you want America to be the greatest, let's work together, just follow my leadership to accomplish my agenda, it's good for you, it's good America, bla, bla, bla. Talk about transparent, he is about as transparent as pane of window glass. The State of the Union Address confirmed his ideological intentions to push ahead to the left.



So, his meeting today was just another campaign stump exchange with Repub's in an attempt to sway opinion and eventual Sen. votes. If he had begun this dialogue a year ago, he would at least be believeable as a sincere attempt toward working together, but now, with his credability at zero to none, he simply can't be believed, he can't trusted.



Come back again Mr. President in about 6 months after you've seriously reduced the debt and deficit, after you've seriously reduced our tax rates that allows capitalism to put Americans back to work, after you've returned GM and Chrysler back to public ownership, after you've stopped demonizing banks, after you've started a new dialogue about health care, after you've stopped merandizing enemy combatants, and we'll talk again.