Updates On Obama, Palin Speeches
Obama Accepts September 8th Date

Breaking: Obama takes the offered Thursday date.

Very good (at least, it's interesting) piece on the Palin/O'Donnell confusion in Indianola from ABCNews.

It gets at a point I was just making to Russ From Winterset in emails: Many people find it charming and authentic that Palin is planning her campaign (or non-campaign) at a kitchen table with her husband and a very small number of confidantes, but that leads to a disorganized sort of disorganization.

But then it goes on to the O'Donnell matter:

According to rally organizers, O'Donnell reached out to the Tea Party of America and asked to speak. Crow agreed, and on Monday she was invited to speak. Crow said that almost immediately, the group received negative e-mails and at that point "panicked" and decided to rescind the invitation. (They added that O'Donnell's team was "less than truthful" about her current relationship with Palin, implying it was closer than it actually is.) On Tuesday, Crow said he decided to re-invite O'Donnell because "it was the right thing to do and we made a mistake." O'Donnell tweeted that she "humbly re-accepted the re-invitation" to speak.

But then that offer was rescinded. And Palin's team confirmed the former Alaska governor was indeed back on board.

Did anyone in this Tea Party of America think about asking Palin about that? Or are we operating on the Honor System here? (True Conservatives always tell the truth!)

Honestly. I don't get it. Naiete is not a virtue.

More on that:

Then on Wednesday, Palin's team "put the event on hold" and one of the things on Crow's list of "mistakes" that he needed to correct was informing O'Donnell that she was back off. Crow said that he "found out we in fact had been lied to by her [O'Donnell's] people and we didn't want to participate. I didn't want to expose the governor to that sort of stuff."

It seems O'Donnell stretched the current relationship she has with Palin, whose endorsement led to her beating Rep. Mike Castle in the 2010 Delaware senate race. One of the Tea Party of America organizers said it's just not the case: "I can tell you that the governor and Ms. O'Donnell have not spoken in a year, but that's none of my business."

O'Donnell did not return requests for comment left with her publicity firm.

It gets very difficult when so many of your political allies are swearing someone must be a wonderful, sweet woman, and yet the vibe you've always gotten is "shifty fame-hound."

Clarification: I am referring to O'Donnell. I've said it. I will keep on saying it. You cannot judge a candidate solely on ideology unless you have some master plan to insure that only your ideological sole-mates vote.

Meanwhile, Jim DeMint says he'll do what he can to block the Joint Address, in the Senate.

“The president should pick another night. I’m planning to watch the Republican primary debate … and the president should watch it, too,”

The iconic South Carolina conservative said. “If he has a jobs proposal, put it in writing, give us a cost estimate, and send it over. I want to read the bill, not listen to talking points off a TelePrompter. If he insists on playing politics by picking the night of the GOP debate, I will object to the session.”

A lone determined senator can tie the chamber in knots for days, and the House and Senate must both pass a concurrent resolution to allow for the president to speak to a joint session.

Mark Levin says he hears Obama may just do an Oval Office address if Congress balks. This could work for him. It was speculated the whole point of calling a Joint Session was to force networks to cover him. And they are getting tired of giving him very pricey prime-time slots to speak in. But a Joint Session is fairly rare and networks wouldn't balk for that kind of speech.

However, now that he's raised the stakes for this, it could be that a simple White House address would get covered by everyone.

All Obama really needs is a chair, a desk, a camera, and a pair of teleprompters (plus a back-up emergency teleprompter, of course).

That's unconfirmed, though; Levin isn't certain of it. The Right Scoop passed that tidbit along.

Boehner denies he ever agreed to the Wednesday date for the speech. The White House "notified" him they were seeking that time, then announced it to the press, before Boehner had answered.

posted by Ace at 08:40 PM

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