President Obama will apparently continue to avoid human contact with Capitol Hill to a far greater degree than his predecessors, viewing phone calls and speeches to those outside Washington as better ways to press his positions.
While both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton relished schmoozing with their Congressional counterparts and met regularly with leaders of Congress – as well as backbenchers – from both Parties, Obama rarely gets together even with top Democrats.
When both Bush and Clinton were in the Oval Office, lawmakers could regularly be seen streaming up the West Wing driveway to meet them. Not so for Obama.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Monday suggested the practice would continue:
I think that the reality of modern-day Washington is a little different than it was in 1801, to use a timely example. And so the notion that you can solve all problems over a cocktail I think is a little overrated . . . I know there’s a school of thought that imagines that meetings are the sole way to accomplish a deal.
Obama has met only once with Republican leaders since being reelected three weeks ago and has no public plans for specific future gatherings, even as desperate talks to avoid the “fiscal cliff” continue.
Meanwhile, he’s been golfing twice since the election.
Obama barely met with Congressional leaders at all for much of 2012, preferring to concentrate on getting reelected instead of trying to avoid a last minute crunch to avoid the fiscal cliff’s massive spending cuts.
Carney said Obama spoke by phone over the weekend with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and added that the president does anticipate further meetings “at the appropriate time.”
74 thoughts on “Obama Continues to Avoid Meeting Congress in the Flesh”
What timing. I was just thinking yesterday about this (in more of a business sense though). As much as I hate it, schmoozing and meeting face to face is the best way to get stuff done. I don’t think that will EVER change. The fact that the white house equates this with something only done two centuries ago would lower my opinion of them, if it could go any lower. Look for more pathetic ineffective phone calls and letters to both our allies and enemies.
Thanks, you beat me to it. Anyone who has had to WORK for a living knows this. And ONCE AGAIN this just demonstrates BO’s total lack of any qualifications to be a leader of ANYTHING.
Why Working to solve the problems that he and his DEMWITS have Created since 2007 might Intefere with WH DInners… GOLF .. and campaigning…oh yes that is his Stated MISSION…Govermning is just for TROLLS like His Cabinet Members who seem to be happy imitating the Former USSR POLITBURO members who actually FLUCKED UP EVERYTHING THEY GOT THEIR HANDS ON… GORBY found that out!!!
I mean really, why should he meet with elected lawmakers? Too much trouble, too much work for someone who has such a lazy mind and demeanor. Barack Obama is a snake who relishes in conning the American people.
He can let the press do his dirty work. They do an admirable job for him too. They do his heavy lifting and polish his tarnished image. The last 2 presidential elections prove it.
My theory is this – disable the leftist press and the left in government will lose a large part of their power.
1801?
The man has no people skills but he sure does know how to game.
Yep.
self appointed Dicatators need NO people Skills….. thaey just try to Silence anyone who dares to oppose their DICTATORIAL WAYS via their Surrogates ( Soros, TRUMKS, Carney typors and FLUKE types and send out Liars like Jarrett and Rice)
“And so the notion that you can solve all problems over a cocktail I think is a little overrated . . .”
No doubt Boehner is crying in his highball over that proclamation.
Tip O’Neill and the Reagan adminstration did just fine by using people skills.
Obama and his clods have none of those.
Bawling Boehner is no Tip O’Neill. He is a party hack who cares only about himself and his fiefdom over the House conservatives. While Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan did not trust or even like each other, at least they were able to discuss the issues of the day. Marxist ideologues like Obama don’t possess people skills. They rule with an iron fist and wimps like Boehner will never stand up to them.
O’Neill and Reagan did like each other personally. And Boehner is not the problem. Never has been. It’s the nuts in his own party who rather default on our loans then compromise a bit.
You are wrong on all counts, and there is no compromising with Marxists.
Black Friday: Treasury Borrowed $211.69 Per U.S. Household on Day After Thanksgiving | CNS News
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/black-fr…
CNSNews.com was launched on June 16, 1998 as a news source for individuals, news organizations and broadcasters who put a higher premium on balance than spin and seek news that’s ignored or under-reported as a result of media bias by omission.
Obama has no plans to actually work WITH republicans, so meeting with them would just WASTE his time. Better spent on the greens perfecting his putt.
I don’t think he has a plan to work at all. Just another 4 years of vacation for him.
I absolutely cannot stand this man. I can’t stand to look at him, his voice grates on every fiber of my being and even his name drives me up a wall. I’m finding myself having horrible thoughts about him. I just hope we survive the next 4 years. I no longer read a lot of the websites that I used to like going on or newspapers. Plus, I have stopped watching the news because his face and voice are all over it. I have not given up on my country, just the idiot that we have in the white house. I hate wishing my life away but 2016 can’t get here fast enough and I just hope and pray he doesn’t destroy the country before it gets here. This man is a sleazy evil lying little man and it’s gonna be a long 4 years!!
I felt that way about Clinton, and BO is about 10 times worse. I plan on using my remote as much as possible. But I will also try to keep up with the damage his minions are trying to afflict on us by ready those blogs I respect and trust. My only news comes from Fox. I don’t even bother with local news.
All my news and information comes from the internet and talk radio.
And we should be surprised? I see where he is going to meet with small business leaders and then he is heading out to some manufacturing plant to talk about the fiscal cliff and tax increases for the rich and don’t forget, these mean Republicans who want to extend the tax cuts across the board may be hurting Christmas shopping if a deal isn’t reach. He is taking his “case” to the “people”. How millions of people can’t see through this BS is amazing to me. With all the hits made on President Bush by the Press, I find it interesting that both he and Bill Clinton knew the importance of interacting with Congress and they were two totally different people. Part of the problem with all our technology – while it is great to have, the loss of personal contact is taking its toll on getting things done. Unfortunately the younger generation sees no benefit to talking face to face. At work sometimes there are so many e-mails going back and forth, you find yourself standing up and walking over to a co-worker to talk to them face to face about an issue or procedure rather than doing everything by e-mail. I use technology and love its benefits, but I also am a person who wants to have interaction and dialogue with co-workers.
Another 4 years of the same lazy slacker. Why would we expect anything different? His only passion is reading speeches from TOTUS in different cities each week/day. If he were employed in the private sector he’d be fired.
Too bad free contraceptives weren’t available to his mother.
Did you see–that Sandra what’s-her-name is TIME Person of the Year.
Star, I have to say I did laugh at how pitiful our so called news has been reduced.
You have GOT to be kidding me.
I think she is just nominated at this point. Or did they actually choose her?
Ooops–maybe nominated. Sorry.
What is TIME magazine? (lol)
LOL–where it Tina Brown when we need her?
Same schtick from the last four years, leading from behind. This hack has zero leadership or people skills and is basically a lazy bastard. 2012 is no different than 1801. You have to be engaged with others to get things done. He is a ruler, not a leader.
well he did say before the elections that he would travel more if re-elected. Looks like this will be his chance to test it out as he “takes it to the people”. If he can’t go to the Hill or invite members over to do a “face to face”, then why go on the road at all. Do town hall meetings remote with a big screen TV and a mini TOTUS at the places he wants to visit (TOTUS is a prop / joke). Saves fuel, wear and tear on AF1, and a ton of $$$ on protection / staff deployment.
oppss.. sorry, wanted this as a new post ;-)
Remember when Valerie Jarrett appeared on MTP just before the Inauguration and said ‘Obama will take power and be ready to rule on
day one”?
Barry envisions himself as an imperial leader, so why should he take the chance of tainting his self-image by hobnobbing with the riff-raff in the senate? Barry has no interest in deal-making; he’d rather just issue edicts from the heavens and let the peons down in the valley fight amongst themselves.
Let us all take a moment of silence and prostrate ourselves before our lord and master, the almighty, all-knowing, all-transcendent, King Hussein Barack Obama. Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!
On another blog, he was called “god of the ignorant, monarch of the stupid.”
Yessir !
What’s his excuse for not working oow that he can’t campaign anymore? He doesn’t have one, other than the fact that he has nothing but utter distain for Congress and the Constitution. He wants the perks but he doesn’t want the work;
Valerie Jarrett let it slip that he would be spending MORE time travelling the second time around – he is ‘energized’ when he’s out amongst the people! Congress needs to act now and limit his use of AF1 and all taxpayer funded activities. The guy is a frigging megalomaniac.
Who do these people think they are – Carney with his 1801 remark! How about moving them out of WH – it’s not 1801 anymore. They can run the country from Chicago – home sweet home.
The Pravda article got it right – Obama is a Communist who was elected by a bunch of illiterates. Bye-bye American Pie!
Yes, Dopey Opie, there is a long tradition of doing business over a cup of tea or dinner. Ask the Japanese.
Pretty soon, all we will see are huge pictures of Obama everywhere. His eyes will follow you whereever you go.
And we’ll be guzzling that last bottle of Victory gin.
Yep, also won’t be long before Fast and Furious and the Benghazi Massacre are tossed down the memory hole by some newspeak bureaucrat in the Ministry of Truth.
VIctory gin? How about Vichy water, seeing as how the Democrat Senate acts like the Vichy government now that Obama’s conquest is complete…
I can see this playing out badly in the next few weeks. Mr. O will travel for 2-3 weeks to “take it to the people”, then it’s Christmas break time and he will probably travel somewhere for the holidays with family. As we edge to the cliff’s edge, there will be a huge scramble to get something done in DC but I have a bad feeling it’s not going to go well. Meanwhile Mr. O will say Hey, I did my part, it’s the House (mainly the GOP) who failed to compromise. But then, who knows, the GOP may roll over and give away the barn and parts of the house.
The president always reminds me of the snippy-snoot no one sits with in the cafeteria, although they all want to be known as his friend. A pardox. He was never a Senate insider…or interested in the ways of Congress as many up there are. He is distant, a grandstander…
During the ’08 campaign I remember Senator Hatch and another Senator griping about Obama always trying to horn in on their impromptu Q and A sessions with reporters on the steps of the Capitol Bldg. after their daily sessions ended. One Senator even went as far to say that Obama would try to take credit for legislation he had nothing to do with! He was always after the publicity and photo op. They joked about how he would see a gaggle of reporters and make a mad dash in record time. He was consistently late or absent from Senate hearings but always present when the cameras were there.
“He was never a Senate insider.”
Neither was Kennedy when he was in the senate or for that matter, Lincoln when he spent his one term in the US House. So I don’t think it’s fair to bash him for not being a Senate insider nor do I think it’s even fair to bash him for being distant. As a matter of fact, many successful presidents were describe as distant including Reagan. Being distant allows them to look at an issue more logically and not get emotionally involved therefore they are more likely to come up with better solutions.
What I do think is fair criticism and something I do find a big fault in Obama is his inability to lead and work with Congress. He does not put any value into personal relationships and while I’ll concede GWB put too much value into it, Obama puts hardly any and it is one of the reasons why he has really failed in working with Congress even when it was the Democrats hand. Reagan might have been distant at times and was shy to the point it was painful, but he valued relationships with members on Capital Hill from the Speaker Of The House all the way down to some lonely Representative from Montana that he spoke with regularly when he was pushing his big iniatitves through Congress like the Social Security Act of 1983. But isn’t new news. The joke in Washington DC for the past 4 years is Obama’s idea of torture is meeting with Congressional members even within his own party.
I think of Obama has not the kid at the end of the cafeteria table but rather the snotty screenwriter who thinks because he wrote it so well in his mind that it will just magically appear on screen exactly the way he wrote it and with absolute no work involved.
What I do think is fair criticism and something I do find a big fault in Obama is his inability to lead and work with Congress.
That would go with being an insider interested in the culture and ways of Congress…I did say I was not responding to you any more, though. Ooops.
“That would go with being an insider interested in the culture and ways of Congress”
Again, that is historically wrong. Many presidents were not “Congressional Insiders” but worked very well the legislative branch. Ronald Reagan is a good example along with FDR.
“…I did say I was not responding to you any more, though. Ooops”
Of course not since I do not believe someone has the right to say what a good “Republican” is nor do I believe that someone should make opinions based off anything other then fact and reasons. Not wants. That is why I knew Obama was going to win the election when everyone else here was talking “Romney Landslide”. :)
Well, it was really because you said the same things over and over..along with a snide personal insult to the person you were answering…
A creature of the Congress, specifically the Senate, would be able to negotiate, would even know how…would have the markers to call in or favors to grant etc. Of course, in that health thing, they did grant favors paid by the taxpayers. That is close to horsetrading despite how much we regretted it. Doubt we will see that again–just the threats (cancelling Christmas, blather blather) and posturing (obstructionist Republicans).
I think that he’s figured out that he can fool the people easier than he can fool congress.
If all else fails, he can just send Michelle and the girls out onto the road.
…and we wonder what Republicans mean when they talk about “a failure to lead”?
Do you think that BO will meet with the Cabinet during the next 4 years? I doubt it. That means work. All he can do is talk.
Depends on the Cabinets make up. If they all shoot hoops and play golf, or are willing to have huge parties with champagne and beluga then yes he will meet with them. Otherwise – no.
He won’t meet with Congress for some simple reasons.
1. He only garnered 26% of the eligible voters, therefore he knows that he has no mandate to govern.
2. If he met with the fiscal conservatives they would eat him alive. He cannot make a cogent argument about the economics of the country without having TOTUS or some flack talking in his ear.
3. If he allows things to progress as they are, and we do fall off the cliff, so to speak, he can pillory the GOP for causing it, thereby not having to take responsibility for his lack of leadership.
4. If he were to actually offer up a budget, the American people would see what he is trying to do to the country, and the uproar from the thinking portion of the populace would be deafening.
5. His “taking it to the people” tour is really taking it to the lemmings tour, and snapping it off in the backside of the rest of us.
YOU NAILED IT RIGHT THERE !
DITTO, DITTO, DITTO.
I was waiting for someone to carve through the BS.
Well said Shofar.
One of the main reasons Obama won’t meet with Congrees is because he has utter contempt for Congress and thus the American people who Congress ( the House) represents.
The other reason he never meets or engages with people is that he is a know nothing empty suit who is deeply ignorant of economics, business, geopolitics, etc… So much of what Obama “knows” is utter rubbish. Obama is nothing more than a lying con artist who has perfected the art of BS to the ignorant masses.
Obama sees himself as a sort of demigod ruling by decree. He has serious psycological issues and truley beleives he is the smartest person in the history of the world.
Emperor Narcissus Maximus needs a controlled atmosphere.
I don’t think it’s that but rather he is a powerpoints type of guy instead of being the type who just wants to sit at a table and hash out issues.
I always said that the President of the United States is often a reflection of society. Ironic our president is Mr. Powerpoints since so many are like that in professional working world. Perhaps Obama should spend sometime at the Apple Management Training Program where they learn to do the complete opposite and it’s one of the many reasons why Apple has more money on hand then any company in history. :)
Obama’s modus operandi is to divide and conquer. His only ‘power point’ is selling class warfare – pitting blacks/hispanics against whites, rich against poor, and so on. Destroying capitalism is his game. Redistribution is his goal. Dictators do not sit down at the table to hash things out – they don’t unclench their fists.
Ditto +++
That is how he lost the US House in 2010 and has not been able to get anything of importance passed in over 2 years. If he keeps this up, he will lose the US Senate as well since there are some very prime seats up in 2014 that the GOP can pick up (if they actually don’t shoot themselves in the chest like they did in 2012 by putting awful candidates).
Even dictators know they have to work with other parties in order to get stuff done. Hell, Emperor Palpatine had the Imperial Senate. :)
Palpatine ultimately dissolved the Senate and ruled directly though planetary governors. This became possible only after demostrating the efficacy of the Death Star on Alderaan, thus cowing opposition though threat of physical force.
What, then, is Obama’s “Death Star”? The threat of urban riots? The Fiscal Cliff? Or maybe we’ll find out about that “civilian national security force”, the FEMA camps, and where all those bullets that NOAA and Social Security purchased are about this term…
Obama is a reflection of American society in that we have our first “American Idol” president. He is good looking, has a great smile, dresses exceptionally well and is dumb as a rock.
He is the most lazy, both intelectually and phyically, president this country has ever had. While at U of Chicago, he produced zero scholorship and did the bare minimum to stay employed. He also never engaged with his fellow academics. Judging by his daily schedule at the Whitehouse, he works at most a few hours a day if at all.
He has had 4 years and the only idea in his head is to repeal the Bush tax cuts on families making $250 K or over. THATS IT…HIS ONLY IDEA in regards to the budget and taxes! Its not even an original idea.
“A powerpoints type of guy.” That is hysterical. Do you really believe that? Obama is the laziest, most self-indulgent, indifferent and intellectually dishonest president we have had in the last 100 years. I doubt that fruitcake could even work the remote during a presentation. Hillary probably has to repeatedly tell him which buttons to push.
I have always thought that Obama reminds me of Commodus in the movie Gladiator. I can just see him there in the West Wing with ValJar twirling his golf club saying “maybe we should just do away with Congress” ValJar responds “once you are relected you won’t have to deal with them at all. There is no need to disband them and risk a revolution when you can just ignore them and rule by decree”
I think the reluctance to meet face-to-face probably goes back to his upbringing.
Meeting with someone with real ideas and solutions would just make Obama feel inadequate and inferiour. Also, it might hinder his agenda of destroying the American economy.
He’s obviously a racist.
U.S. House U.S. Senate
White 361 96
Sadly when Obama was in the Hart Senate building he was one of the staffers biggest punch lines along with Mikulski from Maryland. Both intellectuals in their own minds but in the company of others incompetent and woefully lacking. Wish I had a recording of my session with Obama after a meeting. He thought I was an NIH doctor or administrator and he came with with some random questions about appropriations and what Senators were “pro health.” Sadly Kennedy was the only pro health Senator as he had a staffer that was the go to person for health and medical issues. Say what you want about Kennedy but on healthcare he walked the walk.
Again, if you’re Obama, what is to be gained by meeting with Congressional leaders? The answer? Nothing – absolutely nothing. The fiscal cliff? “Not my problem” says Obama – that’s a congressional issue. If Obama were to step in, he’d take the focus off the Congressional Republicans.
Rest assured – no matter what they do, the GOP will take the fall – either for the raised spending limit, increased taxes, program cuts, tax shock if rates change on Jan 1 or, most likely, all of the above. Clearly, the majority of the American people don’t hold Obama accountable for anything and Obama and the MSM can make the buck seems to stop with congressional Republicans.
There is no reason for Obama to meet with Congress. Reid and Pelosi will hammer through whatever they want, without ever producing a budget. And Mr. Revenge will be out redistributing booty from those who work and who have succeeded. If all else fails, the Supreme Court will back him up and the Executive Order knows no bounds. But Carney is wrong. It’s not that this isn’t 1801, it ‘s that this is no longer a United States of America that works with checks and balances.
Pingback: Obama Continues to Avoid Meeting Congress in the Flesh « Evil of indifference
” …. it was in 1801, to use a timely example.”
What makes 1801 a timely example?
I scratched my head on that one too. Jefferson defeating Adams for the presidency? The end of the Federalist era? Curiouser and curiouser…
bECAUSE???? HE IS JUST CHICKEN SH-T!!! that is why he avoids Confrontations… he is a pOS and we KNOW IT!!!
During my college days I have seen black girls and men kicked it
and much of the time the girls finish up to love the bloke and all of a sudden he’ll just call time. ” Well, that’s because
Scorpio teaches you something you need to learn. goes wrong irrespective of who caused it, the woman hopes you would be
there to guide her steps, or what else do you think is taking responsibility.
Whoa! This is a particular of the extremely helpful sites We’ve at any time arrive across for this subject. Basically Spectacular. I’m additionally an authority within this subject so i could comprehend your energy.
Comments are closed.