President Obama Tuesday night butted in to Marco Rubio’s Republican response to his State of the Union address, staging a conference call with supporters just as Rubio was making his remarks.
The call, organized for Obama’s millions-strong populist group Organizing for Action, was scheduled to begin right after Obama finished his address, which is when Rubio’s response began. The call kept untold numbers of Obama supporters from tuning in to the opposition.
OFA members – who formerly comprised the grassroots arm of the Obama 2012 campaign – were summoned to the call by emails from the group’s leadership. The email list is said to include more than 20 million people.
This is part of the text from one of the emails, this one sent by OFA Executive Director Jon Carson:
This Tuesday, after the President finishes delivering the State of the Union from the Capitol, he’d like to jump on the phone for a special online call with the folks building this organization.
You’re going to want to be a part of this. The call will start at 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time — sign up here.
On the call, the President will talk about his plan for moving this country forward — and how you can help put his words into action.
While the opposition response does not hold quite the same status as the State of the Union itself, preempting it with a presidential event can be viewed as a classless and petty impingement on one of the year’s most important moments of civic discourse.
In this case, not only did Obama’s call draw people away from a chance to hear the Republican point of view, it helped reduce the audience for Rubio, who is viewed as one of the leading contenders to recapture the White House for Republicans.
H/T to Boker Tov, Boulder!
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Expect anything different from this clown?
Where is the debate / applause / whatever on Rubio and the content of his speech? Oh, no posts, no headlines, no digging down, etc. lets talk about BO stealing the show…. Geez….
I watched him, Rubio, and then watched Fox cover it. They looked as depressed and underwhelmed as MSNBC was after the first debate… And, rightfully so…
Time will tell.
Keith, I’d call it egalitarian in the sense that they have no class but yet wage class warfare.
20 million lemmings, following their saviour, right over the cliff. Hope they enjoy the fall.
not surprised. I was waiting for an announcement that Mr.O authorized a drone strike on the cabin where Dorner was hold up due to his cutting into the SOTUA.
Yup, classless and petty. Did you expect anything else?
Obama proves again that he is the most narcissistic president in history.
The cultists could care less what Rubio said. All they can talk about is that he took a drink of water, not the message he was trying to send. Style over substance is what rules the cult of personality.
They fear Rubio so death by a thousand cuts!
On the upside Susan, I’ve seen the Rubio video all over the place on twitter and FB, which is probably getting him more viewers than the actual response. Also, clips of his morning interviews on the news shows make him sparkle. Cute sense of humor :D
After watching several of Rubio’s interviews today, I agree with you, Denise. At least he can be self-deprecating, unlike Preezy Revenge. Rubio admits he’s fallible, just like the rest of we human beings. From the peanut gallery comments below, one can see just how much of a threat he is to the cult of personality. They’re trying to Palinize him.
Susan. There are threats everywhere. The closet, under the bed, and even from the peanut gallery! It is awkwardly pleasing to witness the GOP progress on getting it wrong.
To what Denise quipped, Rubio sparkled… Yes, yes he did. Boy did he sparkle. Content? No. Pace? No. Delivery? No. Context? No. Form? No. Substance? No. Up beat? No. Focused? No. On point? No. New ideas? No. New commitments? No. New anything? No.
Rubio’s speech was full of something… Ah, sparkle.
Rubio has 2 years to mature and grow. We’ll see how he chooses to progress…
Yeah, I guess we cultists are to blame for your boy, the fake Castro refugee’s flop sweat and lunge for that slurp of water. And if Keith’s conspiracy theory is correct, didn’t he do Marquito a favor by drawing viewers away from his lousy performance?
While the Dems might be worried about SenRubio and a fresh, new face in Presidential politics, the OFA is all about 2014′s Congressional elections.
If the Dems can recapture the House, then it’s game on for the progressives.
There won’t be any way to stop them from all of their secret and not-so-secret ambitions to change or enact anything they want for MrO’s last two years in office..
The President’s supporters who stayed on the phone lines waiting to hear a pre-recorded message from their hero wouldn’t have listened to or even cared what SenRubio had to say last night.
Yep. Same people would have probably listened to 15 minutes of Bo (to be clear, the dog) barking if BO (to be clear, the snake) asked them too.
I thought Rubio made good points and I also thought Fox did him no favors repeating endlessly that the president had an audience, etc. So he sipped water. Big deal. The sweat dabbing sort of made me cringe…but hey, I would rather have someone a little awkward and new than a cynical preacher-voiced pol spouting the same old.
And what is UP with all the president’s gray hair–grizzled or gravitas?
Super bitch Stephanie Cutter is working on OFA, and I read the other day that she has no regrets calling Romney a felon. Unfortunately, politicians, including the victims themselves, do not want to challenge slander like this and give it extra shelf life, but I wish Romney would take her to civil court.
I just wish Ms. Cutter was a conservative. She looks too feminine to be a democrat.
Classless and petty; Two words we would have never heard if it had been President Romney’s SOTU.
I can almost hear Jay Carney saying (with a straight face)….”but, but, we really had no idea what the Republican schedule for a response was last night”.
Remember, when Obama does it, it’s not STOU. It’s STFU to ALL his “Enemies”, including the half of the country they represent.
That applies to Rubio as well.
Yeah, I know, SOTU, not STOU. Either way, it’s STFU from Li’l Caesar.
I am so-so on these abbrevs.
“Classless and petty” Doesn’t that describe Obama to a tee?
The Obama drones must be shielded from the truth lest they wake from their slumber.
Way to keep it classy, Mr. President…
the republican party needs to hire someone from the chicago area to fight ‘fire with fire’
The stink of fear is like a wave emanating from the left.
If King Craptastic and his Court Jesters did not fear the right, they would not perform these and other circus tricks to try and prevent Americans from learning the truth.
This is a classic… “Stink of fear”? From the Dems? Hah, ha, ha… Oh, you are serious…
Push reset button: The Dems are giddy with delight. The “stench” resides where the fear resides… Right now, that is the far right. The mainstream GOP is just fine and want to lick their wounds and move on – the right course of action – to fight another day. The far right wackos are fit to be tied.
The anger-filled, paranoid, ghost whacking crew of the far right keeps tacking to the extreme. Bad idea, but they can not help it – currently in self destruct mode… Ultimately, the money will dry up and cooler heads will prevail and we will be back to normal… The buying and selling of Congress…the deal making…the usual scandals…
You do have a right to your view point, no matter how misguidedt it is.
If Obama et al were not afraid of defection from their ranks, and if they really believed their policies were accepted by “most Americans,” they would not seek to silence the right, they would not keep a stranglehold on the media. They would tolerate view points that were not in necessarily in agreement with theirs. They would not call those who disagreed with them, enemies. They would not suggest that Americans bring a gun to a knife fight, or for Americans to get in each others faces when disagreements arise.
Barack Obama has divided this country, he has promoted strife and dissension and violence amongst American citizens.
The right will prevail and Obama’s chickens will come home to roost one day.
Well,Verita. That settles it then. Thanks for clarifying your thought process.
Peace out.
~ RT
Oh, RT – take your meds. You’ll be alright in a few days.
All the material to work with JP, and you go with Meds? We could talk healthcare…. Or not… Funny…
Peace out!
Yes, you seem to define health care as an issue, then why not take advantage of ObamaCare and get those free meds while you can, RT. Makes for a more peaceful day for those around you.
No need, thanks JP.
Classless is too positive of a word to use with this bunch.