First the Republican Convention, Now Opening Day NFL....

[Coito ergo sum]

In agreeing Wednesday to reschedule his planned address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama might have placated House Speaker John Boehner at the expense of the nation's football fans.

Boehner, R-Ohio, balked at the president's original request to appear before Congress to discuss the nation's chronic unemployment problem on Wednesday, Sept. 7. That's the same day as a Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif.


Obama agreed to move his speech to Thursday, Sept. 8, which happens to coincide with the opening game of the NFL regular season, a prime time contest between the New Orleans Saints and the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers from Lambeau Field.

The game will be televised by NBC at 8:30 p.m. ET.

"We’re aware of the situation and are communicating with the NFL," an NBC spokesman told ProFootballTalk.com.

The Associated Press reported that White House officials were working on the precise timing of the speech in hopes of avoiding a conflict.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d8 ... line_stack


O.k. - so, the gist of this is that here in the US, the Obama Admin has been building up the populace for his big economic speech. A couple of weeks ago, he announced that in early September he would unveil his latest and greatest plan to fix the ailing US economy. Well, he announced his plan to make this political stump speech before a joint session of Congress, and he announced that he wanted to do it on Wednesday night, September 7th. The only problem with that is that a big Republican debate had already been scheduled for some time on that date and at that same time, so Republicans in Congress were a bit miffed. So, the President decides to move his speech.

In a public relations blunder, they decide to move it to Thursday, September 8, and obviously someone didn't bother check what other things might operate as conflicts. Well, it seems September 8 is opening day for NFL football. Now, to me, I wouldn't think a football game would be more important than the President's speech. However, I am willing to bet that there are millions of NFL football fans who would look at this as Obama being "out of touch" - and it would just piss Joe-six-pack off.

They need to tread lightly on this one. Americans love their football (yes, I know -- hand-egg - and we already know, Brits...your football is the real football - and Americans need to play a real sport and not wear all those pads and whatnot....gotcha -- we get it).

[Ian]

Why doesn't Obama just start his speech at 7:30? I doubt he'll speak for more than an hour on this. The game should be able to start on time if the speech begins an hour before kickoff.

Even if he doesn't, would NBC pre-empt the game for the speech coverage? There are other networks plus news channels and websites covering this. And as for Joe Sixpack watching the game, he'll probably be more interested in the soundbites the next day anyway.

[Robert_S]

Why doesn't Obama just start his speech at 7:30? I doubt he'll speak for more than an hour on this. The game should be able to start on time if the speech begins an hour before kickoff.

Even if he doesn't, would NBC pre-empt the game for the speech coverage? There are other networks plus news channels and websites covering this. And as for Joe Sixpack watching the game, he'll probably be more interested in the soundbites the next day anyway.

7:30 east coast would b 4:30 over on the West coast and that's a bit early. He should just schedule it for a different day anyway.

[Coito ergo sum]

This isn't a crack on Obama in particular, but I wish he would just lay out the fucking plan in writing - with specifics - I already know what we're going to get when he does give his speech: generalities and blah blah blah "make it all better" blah blah blah "put people to work" and blah blah blah "..it's part of our American culture to overcome adversity" and blah blah blah "if we all pull together as one..." blah blah blah - then he'll recommend some bipartisan panel of experts to recommend some "investments" in key areas that will spur job growth.

All the Democrats listening will say "Isn't that all wonderful and what he said was just so great and smart and see if only the Republicans would see it his way and compromise with him so that we can all get back to work..."

All the Republicans listening will say, "he didn't say anything new - it's just a rehash of all the old stuff - and he's talking about another stimulus..."

And, since none of them is competent to fix the situation anyway, not a damn thing except smoke and mirrors and attempts to grab credit for good occurrences and deflect blame for bad occurrences is going to happen. They all just figure this is cyclical and they just want to be in the right place at the right time to ride the coattails of the recovery to election or reelection.

I have an extremely low opinion of our elected officials. That doesn't mean Obama only - the whole feckin' lot of 'em. Republicans, Democrats, Independents - hardly a one of 'em is worth 1/2 the salary they are paid. They're neither the best, nor the brightest. Not even close.

[Tyrannical]

Obama promised that his speech would be done by opening kick-off anyways.

Congress has to vote to accept the President, and with the House starting session at 6:30 PM that day a certain Ron Paul could object to unanimous consent forcing a vote which would not take place before the President wanted to talk thus forcing a last minute cancellation.