Sunday, January 31, 2010

Opinion: (At the risk of liking the British) is this what U.S. politics needs more of?

http://vodpod.com/watch/2952428-obama-speaks-to-republican-house-conference

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/program/ID/218836&start=1184&end=5202

9 comments:

aprichard said...

First off, that link sucks. I watched this
http://vodpod.com/watch/2952428-obama-speaks-to-republican-house-conference
and i found the transcript on
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/29/transcript-of-president-o_n_442423.html

This question answer section seemed truely beneficial to U.S politics. Personally, I liked hearing Obama crush the lies slyly placed in the questions addressed to him. It was more for the viewers, not the republicans. The republicans would say their questions and Obama gave back answers after his speech. U.S. politics needs more of this because it took down fallacies or addressed truths on current events. Much of the information filtered from the citizens was disclosed during a speech such as this. It allows the president to speak on issues he desired and allowed him to address issues his peers desired. On the logical stand point, this appears helpful. I cannot think of any reason that this should be hindered other than lack of time and money and frequent attacks on character and sly politics language (interpret as needed). It provided more distinctive views from the republicans and the president. For those who were still unsure on certian issues such as earmarks and went more indepth on them. It was an outline for the future as well as a reflection on the structure of the past.
Although it veared off topic at times, a question is a question and deserves an answer. So I don't think you have to "risk liking the British" because this is a beneficial idea for the U.S.

PMiner said...

I think President Obama handled the questions very well. There were a couple tricky questions thrown at him and he handled them very well. I found it very interesting to watch this link and hear some of the ideas going on with many of the issues in the U.S. today. I agree with aprichard in his thoughts that this was benficial for the U.S. and that it should be done more often.

Alex York said...

There were a lot of things that the president said that I agreed with whole-heartedly. I too wish that legislators would open their ears to the opposite party's ideas. Because what happens now is not compromise of factional ideas, rather arguments that don't benefit any party in the long term. I liked how the president approached several of his answers admitting failure, but I feel a times he was overly defensive about some of his positions. I feel like I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do to Kehoe and Jesse in class tomorrow, but I agreed completely with what the president said about the competition between parties. I wish he would've added more often that his party was to blame for some of the same things, but overall he did a good job of urging for bipartisan support. I think that this is a very bold move, because he risks not getting elected again, but it may be well worth it if he can work with the Republicans. He didn't answer all the questions however... As aprichard would say: "slyly."

Brandon D said...

i agree with both pminor and aprichard. it was probably beneficial for the u.s. and obama did well when he was put on the spot with some tough questions.

MKlinka said...

I'd say that this was good for U.S. politics. We got the "truth"... sort of. the president was allowed to say what he needed to say, to clear up any inconsistencies, and to dodge any important questions that people might not like the answer to. American politics at its best, this is definitely perpetuating tradition, and I am all for that. Really, I think, and agree with everyone else, that this wasa beneficial move

(it's yesterday somewhere)

j.polinski said...

I also would agree by saying this would be very beneficial for the US. Mr. Obama handled the questions very well, as we would hope any president would, knowing he is the leader of our country

Tereza said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tereza said...

I agree with MKlinka, the U.S. can certainly find benefits with this. The president was able to answer the questions that's been on everyone's mind.

Unknown said...

I thought this was very helpful and also believe it should be done more often because it helped to get alot of thing out in the open and clear up any misunderstandings. Obama is usually a very good speaker so it was not surprising that he handled the questions very well.