Earlier today on WHMP’s Bill Dwight Show, I offered my analysis of President Obama’s speech. The segment starts about five minutes in.
Terrance Heath made the point earlier today that apparently we now need a grownup’s table and a kid’s table for Presidential addresses to Congress. I offered in the above clip that Rep. Joe Wilson’s childish outburst was probably the best thing that could have happened to the President.
One of his goals was to reposition himself as the adult in the room, looking for an effective compromise, amidst the obstructionist fringe rabble. Rep. Wilson made the point as clear as day without Obama uttering an extra word.
Such is the downside to the right-wing’s success at hijacking the debate in August.
As Terrance tells his son, “Throwing a tantrum will not … get you any positive attention.” Lacking adult supervision, the right-wing mob (and apparently, Rep. Wilson) took the wrong lesson from August, cherry-picking poll data to tell themselves what they were doing was working. So Wilson brought that wrong lesson to a live national television audience while in the people’s chamber in front of a most dignified and well-liked President.
Obama gets to be the stern parent. The conservative mob gets a time out.
