Guess who's on TV tonight?

Clue: it's rerun season.

Yeah, it's Obama. Again.

He seems to believe that if he makes himself omnipresent, like God, or perhaps Orwell's Big Brother, we'll be convinced that we like the idea of government health care. He's not used to not getting his way, and his response to this novelty is to keep getting in our faces, Alinsky style. (I wonder if anyone is telling him that there's such a thing as over-exposure.)

Here's a clip from the campaign trail:



Fast forward to the present. From Jake Tapper:

At 5:54 pm ET the news came: "The Energy and Commerce Markup of H.R. 3200 – America’s Affordable Health Choices Act for 7-22-09 has been CANCELLED.

Not a good sign for the Democrats trying to report the bill out from committee onto the floor for a vote. Seven conservative blue dog Democrats on the committee have said they can't vote for the bill in its current form. Some of those Blue Dogs came to the White House today for a 2 1/2 meeting, an hour of which was with President Obama. [. . .]

In the last nine days the president has spoken publicly about health care reform nine times. Tomorrow night, in a prime time press conference, will make it 10 times in 10 days.

That's more than enough for Smitty:

As you fetish the camera and the bully pulpit all the more, and watch your approval ratings dive for the sewer, you can know that, for all we strive to maintain decorum towards you as a person, we really have no love for you in your role as POTUS. No, I'm not going to watch your ratchet-head emit another series of empty clichés at the presser. Fear, guilt, and straw man arguments do not an impressive leader make.

I wanted to quote the whole thing but forced myself to leave something for you to click on. I think Smitty deserves a promotion, btw. Maybe drop the 'Other" (it's just derivative, and who wants to be reminded of John McCain all the time, anyway?) and work Smitty's name into the title.

In mostly unrelated news, Alison Krauss fans here in the P&P household died just a little to learn that she spent the evening with the Obamas. (If only she had sung Who Can Blame You.) Now we learn that Obama is a country music fan: "I know folks think I’m a city boy, but I do appreciate listening to country music." #2 son's response: "OMG I LIKE BRAD PAISLEY NOW I LIKE OBAMA" He doesn't have a lot of patience with the politics of celebrity.

One does have to wonder: Will Obama ever stop campaigning?

Back to the press conference. Keith Hennessey has a list of good questions for tonight:

I hope the questions are better than the one asked by Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times at the President’s 100-day press conference on April 30th:

During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office, enchanted you the most about serving in this office, humbled you the most and troubled you the most?

The only thing worse than that question was the answer. Remember what Obama found "humbling"?

Humbled by the -- humbled by the fact that the presidency is extraordinarily powerful but we are just part of a much broader tapestry of American life. And there are a lot of different power centers, and so I can't just press a button and suddenly have the bankers do exactly what I want, or turn on a switch and suddenly Congress falls in line. And so what you do is to make your best arguments, listen hard to what other people have to say, and coax folks in the right direction.

Okay, I guess a person with a pathologically super-sized ego might find the discovery that he isn't omnipotent "humbling." The rest of us would call it reality.

But I digress. Read Mr. Hennessey's questions and place bets on how many of them will be asked tonight. And if asked, how many will be answered.

Comments welcome.
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