My latest column in my university’s newspaper is up today, here at The Eagle. This week, I’m focusing on communications and Congress, dealing with their incredible PR crisis and communicating with their constituents. They’ve got a lot of problems–not least their abysmal polling data and poor chances for reelection, on both sides–but I came up with a few suggestions they could do to communicate better and, along the way, move toward a more open government.
The full column is below the cut. Check it out and let me know what you think.
Could we be seeing a new Obama this week? There’s no question the American public has seen a complete about-face in strategy for our young President, in only a matter of days. There’s no question that last week–filled with “Republican outrage”, a “disastrous” election in Massachusetts for the Democrats, and the “final demise” of health care reform–was a miserable week to be a Democrat. And there’s no question the Obama administration figured this out, and with the hiring of David Plouffe at the end of the week as a formal adviser, they’ve also acted on it.
This week is proof. Wednesday night’s State of the Union speech was not a complete revolution in the rhetoric, but it was far more detailed, passionate, and blunt than I think anyone really expected. And the American public seem to have received it well, with 83% of speech watchers approving of his proposals.
Thursday we saw the bold announcement of a new high-speed rail proposal, utilizing $8 billion of stimulus funds. This announcement is a huge deal for each state involved, and is a pretty well-supported investment. God knows I can’t wait for a high-speed trip to NYC from DC.
Finally, in one of the most glorious demonstrations of American democracy I’ve ever seen in my lifetime, we had a direct question and answer session with President Obama and House Republicans Friday afternoon. Not only was it pleasantly surprising to see the GOP actually invite our Democratic President to come speak with them but, to put it bluntly, he absolutely schooled them.
He shot down their accusations. He legitimized and substantiated his proposals. He took them to task for their ridiculous politicizing and demonization of his policies. He did everything right. Have you seen it? You need to. Especially if you’re a Republican. I’ll join with journalists all over the Internet calling for this to be a regular occurrence. Let’s make “question time” happen all the time. Hell, let’s put it in the Constitution. Anything to make this kind of reasoned, even, logical debate happen more often and in public.
Have you seen the video? Watch it below. Miss the State of the Union? Check out the video embedded above.
In the end, it’s been a good week for Democrats. And it’s been a great week for Obama. I don’t know if I’d call this Obama v2.0 as much as a return to Obama v1.0, after a regression to Obama v0.5.
Consider this a rebound. Obama is back in the game. Maybe it was a wake-up call from Massachusetts, maybe it was advice from David Plouffe, or maybe it was simply Obama deciding it was time to change the way he’s been doing things. Regardless, I like it. I think this is a good thing for Democrats, a good thing for Obama, and a good thing for America. And look at how quickly the past week has changed things–if nothing else, this week should teach us all that things in politics can change incredibly quickly. We’ve got about ten months between now and November, I have no doubt Republicans will have good weeks and Democrats will have good weeks. Here’s hoping we can see more “question time”-style debate, more civil debate and more productivity on Capitol Hill between now and then, too.
Edit: Thanks so much to Andi Narvaez (@andinarvaez) for the tip on “Rebound” instead of “Reboot”. Flows much better, and certainly more contextually appropriate given his appearance at today’s Georgetown v. Duke game.
