The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Out on a Limb
“Tree Sitter in Berkeley’s People’s Park Defies Order to Climb Down”–headline, Berkeley (Calif.) Voice, Sept. 1
Help Wanted
“Calif Professor Wanted for Leading Gang, Drug Ring”–headline, Associated Press, Sept. 2
It’s Always in the Last Place You Look
“Runaway Cow Tracked Down in Germany”–headline, Associated Press, Sept. 1
Seeing Red at the White House
The White House is “furious” at Speaker John Boehner for asking the president to delay his much-dreaded jobs speech, Politico reports:
“It is a big deal that the House said ‘no’ to the president from our end,” a White House source with intimate knowledge of what took place between the House and the president told me Thursday. “This confirms what we all know: They will do anything in the House to muck us up.”
According to the report, the president’s men were “well aware” that their originally proposed date conflicted with a Republican debate:
Yet the White House did not see this as an obstacle. “With all due respect, the Politico-MSNBC debate was one that was going on a cable station,” the White House source said. “It was not sacrosanct. We knew they would push it back and then there would be a GOP debate totally trashing the president. So it wasn’t all an upside for us.”
It could’ve been worse for the White House, we suppose. At least Clarence Page is a newspaper columnist rather than a presidential adviser. On MSNBC’s “Hardball” yesterday, Page offered this brainstorm:
Frankly, if I was Obama I would have had my speech on the first night and say “Hey, if you guys don’t want to show up, you know, that’s on you.” Let the cameras pan around to the empty seats and see what kind of message that will send to the public. But that’s me, that’s not Obama. I sometimes wonder why he’s not more of a Chicago-style politician because here in Washington, his old role model would have done something that like and he would have won.
Yeah, that would have been great, if Obama were a dictator and actually had the authority to commandeer the Capitol. Or would it have been? Wouldn’t Obama have looked even more pathetic speaking to a half-empty room?
USA Today reports that the speech will be at 7 p.m. so that it will be finished before the kickoff of the NFL season opener between the Packers and Saints. And look at this USA Today report from last March:
In case you’re wondering why President Obama’s speech on Libya began Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., consider this basic television fact:
Prime time starts at 8 p.m.
On Monday nights, that means Dancing With the Stars on ABC, the second-most-watched program on television. . . .
So rather than take on the entertainment world–or his presidential predecessors, for that matter–Obama’s team opted for a 7:30 p.m. start.
Given that Obama schedules his speeches around pro football and “Dancing With the Stars,” it takes chutzpah to complain that he has been treated disrespectfully by a coequal branch of government.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below ”Today’s Columnists.
