Comments on: Is Question Time Becoming a Tradition Already?

By: Quidnunc

Quidnunc — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:21:22 +0000

It appears to me that Obama will do almost anything to avoid interacting with the American people. He promised transparency but has not given it. He has not had a formal press confernece since last July. He takes very few questions in any public setting so while this is an interesting development in presidential behavior, it is also a manipulation that permits him to control the situation. look more open and approachable, and remain above the fray. He does not acquit himself well in off the cuff situations. His speech patterns become sloppy and he says some extremely stupid things like “I don’t know anything about this but this is my opinion anyway.” He becomes arrogant and condescending – witness the way he spoke to the republicans at the health care summit and the number of times he has to remind us that he can do what he wants because he is the president. As long as the public is duped by this misdirection and the media fails to call him to account, we will see more of this. If Congress and the people fail to do his bidding we will see far more of this than we care for as the president excoriates Congress for misbehaving and the rest of us for not listening properly.

By: Dr. Xylem Galadhon

Dr. Xylem Galadhon — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:03:28 +0000

Yes, i think PresO may start to bring this in more regularly — not least because it almost always benefits *him* because of his skills, honesty, likeability etc. when this is able to happen. But i’d also like to see the timing more formalized, and i would *watch* it (or at least snippets as showed up on The Daily Show etc. ;->), as many political junkies of various parties would. which then will trickle out to the general public. twice a month (or more) of say 90 min each wouldn’t seem too much to me, but at *least* 1/month.

My current worry is that Repubs would back off and not attend, because they mostly get sliced and diced because PresO is a sharp cookie…

So i say yea, bring on the QTime!!

By: Prolific Programmer

Prolific Programmer — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:50:28 +0000

The difference between Parliamentary Question time and this “tradition” is that Question Time is more formal. I’d prefer this “tradition” being formalised and on the Congressional calendar.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:13:39 +0000

I agree with Dallek, but those presidential debates the public demands seem to be really fabricated and controlled, at least during the last few elections. The problem is untangling the media’s need for superficial nonsense from the governmental process that is sometimes dry but ultimately fruitful and necessary.

I thought the health care summit was a great start, but we need remain vigilant, forcing Obama to honor his pledge of transparency-hopefully the rest will follow.