On Wednesday, Obama tried to change the national conversation about the long string of questions dogging the White House. He decided he is back to being serious about jobs. Very serious. Serious enough to talk about jobs for an hour at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. This speech was touted as the kick-off to a series of events and talks aimed to get refocused on jobs.
A funny thing happened on the way to the recovery. In the midst of his speech, Obama slips in a scolding remark to his critics:
“But with this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball. And I am here to say this needs to stop. (Applause.) This needs to stop”
He is very brazen. To come out and call the scandals “phony” is downright delusional. What’s worse, by inserting it in the context of his speech about jobs and the economy, it purposely gives the suggestion that Obama’s critics are at fault.
“If only they would stop bothering me and asking me questions about what we are doing. Don’t they know I’m in charge, anyway? They won’t leave me alone to fix the economy and create jobs. They are being mean.”
Be aware. This tactic is going to continue to be repeated during his jobs apology tour and into the fall before election season. Obama is shaping the narrative that the Republicans et al. are too busy criticising him to tackle real issues, and it’s their fault the economy is still sluggish.
Keith Koffler, the White House watchdog reporter, makes a great point — if this was President Bush, you know darn well that the Democrats and media would not let up on talking about and reporting about these “phony scandals”.