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June 09, 2007
Questioning the Questioner
MissLaura gets to the heart of my favorite thing about Obama. I often think his rhetorical focus on the theatre of politics and health of the discourse is annoying, as I'd like to hear something more concrete, but the upside is his fairly sophisticated antennae for when the show becomes trivialized and can safely be rejected. His comfort forcing questions back on Blitzer led to his best moments in the debate, and were the sort of audience-channeling responses politicians to seldom offer. Sometimes it's useful to have a critic enter the arena.
June 9, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
You betcha. The real benefit is not waking up the media by questioning their questions, but waking up the public that they are being fed trivia by the questions the media asks. A direct assault on the question is effective, but just evading the question is bad atmospherics.
Obama made it look real easy, and Hillary picked up on it as well. Reminds me of Harry Truman: in response to the 'give um hell' chants, he responded 'i'm just telling the truth and the GOP thinks its hell' (or something).
Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Jun 9, 2007 7:33:32 PM
Without a doubt, 90% of the politicians have the same awareness of the shallowness of the media and the inherent irony of the situation as we do, and if you ever talk to them privately you will see this.
Obama's different because he talks like this in public too. Sometimes it gets good responses (the recent debate), but sometimes it has really bad responses. Time will tell which out weigh the other.
Posted by: Tony V | Jun 9, 2007 8:05:18 PM
He'll make a great Vice President in 2008 -- the anti-Agnew, sorta.
And a great President in 2016.
Posted by: joel hanes | Jun 9, 2007 9:01:59 PM
I only want Obama to be VP if the top of the ticket is Al Gore. I'd rather see Obama be Governor of Illinois than vice president under Edwards or Clinton. Actually the prospect of an Edwards/Obama ticket rather frightens me.
On topic, it's nice that Obama pushes back against stupid questions, but it's hardly my favorite thing about him! That seems a little trivial. The thing I like the best about Obama is that he sees the common humanity in everyone, but he doesn't let that natural empathy prevent him from taking the hard steps necessary to accomplish his goals. In other words he's a winner, but a nice one. This is in contrast to Hillary Clinton, for example, who sees shadows and enemies wherever she goes--she's not wrong, really, but it's not a worldview I think is conducive to a successful Presidency.
Posted by: Korha | Jun 9, 2007 10:03:37 PM
For instance, asked the common question about when he will speak more concretely and in greater detail about issues and propose specific policies, he noted that he had given a detailed speech on energy policy to the Detroit Economic Club earlier in the month, which had garnered little press. When, he asked the reporter, would his policy statements be covered? Did he just need to keep repeating himself until it seeped into the coverage of his campaign?
Posted by: M.O. | Jun 9, 2007 10:11:03 PM
Actually the prospect of an Edwards/Obama ticket rather frightens me.
Why?
Posted by: Christmas | Jun 10, 2007 12:36:31 AM
What bothers me is that this nation is in the last throes of democracy (to borrow a phrase from the evil one), and that no "leading" candidate for President even acknowledges this, much less offers a viable solution.
When we have a legislative branch that has completely abdicated its Constitutional responsibility, and an Executive that asserts that it is above the law and not constrained by either other branch of government, and a military-industrial complex that is completely out of control, being able to call Wolf Blitzer on his obvious absence of logic and depth is hardly a sign of greatness.
Obama is a skilled politician, but he has no game plan for saving this Republic. He would probably do less damage to the nation and the party than Senator Clinton, but that's not saying much. If the party and the nation cannot do better than this, then there is no point to the process.
Posted by: Chuck | Jun 10, 2007 8:43:14 PM
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