Looking Beyond the State of the Union Address
Mike Lampe
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: Opinion
Once again the President of the United States delivered a beautiful combination of words that braced the public for what his agenda for the country, and possibly the world, will be. This year, to give a small synopsis of what he proposed, he talked about how he wants to push his student loans forgiveness program for those who want to step into public service for a certain amount of years, his incentives program for those businesses that create jobs here in the U.S. and his fiscal responsibility programs that would put a government spending freeze on discretionary programs for three years starting in 2011.
I would like to point out and reiterate to President Obama that it is more than just the State of the Union Address that he needs to worry about. He will have to do what people have criticized him for plenty of times, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? With that being said, American citizens have an obligation to also go beyond the election speeches and State of the Union Addresses. Something that could boost the President's popularity ratings dramatically is the events that occurred a couple of days after the State of the Union Address. The President made an effort to meet the heavy demands of the people that were calling for Congress to get something done, despite the magnitude of issues on the table or if the issue doesn't align 100 percent with their party ideology.
He met with Republican Party Congressional leaders earlier in the week to have a "question time" in which the Republicans could ask the President anything on current policy and debate it in front of the media. Instead of having some lag between responses, (between a half day and a month) having this question time allowed the President to rebuttal right away with the cameras rolling. It reminded me of when I participated in mock trial back in high school where both sides actually had to know their material before performing and they actually needed to be ready for any curveball questions. This is politics the way it should be, not as scripted and setting a higher standard for those who want to be in the most powerful positions in the world. He held a similar event with Senate Democrats in which there were some heated questions from worried Democrats about the upcoming elections. Once again, the President was able to quickly point out some very key points. For instance, there was a question dealing with why people should trust the Democrats to help push reform, and President Obama answered that they should considering the last person who was able to balance the budget and create a budget surplus was a Democratic President, Bill Clinton.
I would support a question time with the president in Congress to allow accountability to take place in a world that is shaped by the high-tech media. After studying in London and interning for a Member of Parliament, I have seen the effectiveness of the Prime Minister's weekly Question and Answer Session. It is believed that there were several times Q&A Sessions influenced elections, whether it was Sir Geoffrey Howe turning on his own Party Leader Margret Thatcher or whether it is the critiquing of current Prime Minister Gordon Brown who does not have the same ability to connect Labour Policies with the common people like his predecessor, Tony Blair, was able to do. To show how lively this idea is gaining momentum, besides turning on the TV news stations, one can see this being discussed in numerous blogs online. If you think that this idea is great for bipartisanship and government accountability to take place, I encourage you to sign the Petition at www.demandquestiontime.com
I would like to point out and reiterate to President Obama that it is more than just the State of the Union Address that he needs to worry about. He will have to do what people have criticized him for plenty of times, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? With that being said, American citizens have an obligation to also go beyond the election speeches and State of the Union Addresses. Something that could boost the President's popularity ratings dramatically is the events that occurred a couple of days after the State of the Union Address. The President made an effort to meet the heavy demands of the people that were calling for Congress to get something done, despite the magnitude of issues on the table or if the issue doesn't align 100 percent with their party ideology.
He met with Republican Party Congressional leaders earlier in the week to have a "question time" in which the Republicans could ask the President anything on current policy and debate it in front of the media. Instead of having some lag between responses, (between a half day and a month) having this question time allowed the President to rebuttal right away with the cameras rolling. It reminded me of when I participated in mock trial back in high school where both sides actually had to know their material before performing and they actually needed to be ready for any curveball questions. This is politics the way it should be, not as scripted and setting a higher standard for those who want to be in the most powerful positions in the world. He held a similar event with Senate Democrats in which there were some heated questions from worried Democrats about the upcoming elections. Once again, the President was able to quickly point out some very key points. For instance, there was a question dealing with why people should trust the Democrats to help push reform, and President Obama answered that they should considering the last person who was able to balance the budget and create a budget surplus was a Democratic President, Bill Clinton.
I would support a question time with the president in Congress to allow accountability to take place in a world that is shaped by the high-tech media. After studying in London and interning for a Member of Parliament, I have seen the effectiveness of the Prime Minister's weekly Question and Answer Session. It is believed that there were several times Q&A Sessions influenced elections, whether it was Sir Geoffrey Howe turning on his own Party Leader Margret Thatcher or whether it is the critiquing of current Prime Minister Gordon Brown who does not have the same ability to connect Labour Policies with the common people like his predecessor, Tony Blair, was able to do. To show how lively this idea is gaining momentum, besides turning on the TV news stations, one can see this being discussed in numerous blogs online. If you think that this idea is great for bipartisanship and government accountability to take place, I encourage you to sign the Petition at www.demandquestiontime.com
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