If you haven't seen it already, yesterday's 90 minute meeting between President Obama and the House Republicans was the most refreshing and entertaining televised political discourse undertaken by politicians at a national level in years. Maybe decades. For that reason alone, it was also shocking.
At the invitation of House Republicans, President Obama appeared for a question and answer session which nobody, and particularly the House Republicans, thought would turn into a true debate. The event was expected to be a nice photo op for all parties involved with each side presenting their standard talking points and perhaps exchanging a few political jabs designed to get a headline on the morning news shows. Obama had something else in mind entirely- which is perhaps why he demanded that television cameras film the entire event. The request for cameras made Republicans uncomfortable, but after having blasted Obama for failing to televise all health care negotiations on C-Span, they had little choice but to acquiesce.
The question and answer session began with a politically charged list of accusations leveled by Rep. Mike Pence, the "host" of the meeting, at President Obama. In hindsight, I am not sure what response Pence expected to receive, but I am quite certain he didn't expect the response he actually received. President Obama gave a lengthy answer that factually countered each of Pence's charges... on the merits. In the process, Obama's reasoned and intelligent response made Rep. Pence look silly and unserious. Amazingly enough, Republican after Republican- even having seen what had just occurred- still rose to ask their politically charged questions. And one by one, President Obama dismantled them.
I once heard Justice Scalia asked who, in his opinion, was the best advocate to ever argue before the Supreme Court. He responded, with little hesitation, "Rex E. Lee, the former Solicitor General." When prodded further for an example of what made Rex Lee so special, Scalia said that he once told Lee that Lee's position had a flaw in it which could not possibly be fixed. Scalia summarized Lee's response as, "You are right- that is a flaw in my argument, and I recognize it cannot be fixed. But I still win because of X, Y and Z." Lee won the case.
Obama seems to have taken a page from the Rex E. Lee playbook. There are no perfect positions in politics. All positions on complex issues are flawed in some manner, so we set about trying to find the one with the flaws we can live with most and which will do the most good. Repeatedly, President Obama made this point. He admitted his own flaws on multiple occasions which seemed to disarm the Republican questioner. Then he set about explaining why even with that flaw, his position was superior. Republicans never caught up. Instead, they continued following the traditional political style of "admit no flaw and paint your enemy as unreasonable and dangerous to America."
It is depressing in a sense to realize just why this exchange was so refreshing- it has been a very long time since any politician attempted real and honest debate in the political halls of Washington. The great tradition of the Lincoln-Douglas debate has moved out of the spotlight and into the think tanks which dot the DC landscape, if the tradition remains at all. The think tanks develop possible solutions to various problems, lobbyists seize on the solutions most favorable to their clients, politicians are fed lines from think tanks, lobbyists and party leaders, and all we hear from politicians are politically-charged one-liners designed to fit nicely in the 15 second media sound byte for the evening news. We are all cheated in the process. Even in the House and Senate, where you can tune into C-Span and see a representative speaking at length about a given topic, what you don't see is the rest of the chamber which is, usually, empty. The speech is for the cameras and the Congressional Record, it isn't for an exchange of ideas.
It is about time somebody decided to treat us like adults. It is about time somebody brought facts and rational thought to a discussion. Obama challenged not only the Republican talking points but also the accepted "fact" that real debate is bad politics. He won on the facts, but he also won on the politics, and yet, it is hard to feel that the real winner was anyone but us.
If this represents the leadership style President Obama will follow for his second year in office, Democrats have a lot to be excited about- and Republicans had better adapt quickly. You can only bring a knife to so many gun fights before you have no more gun fights in your future.
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