Suppose that, for whatever contrived reason we can come up with, that you are going to be able to have dinner at the White House with President Obama. Not some big public event either, but an intimate, private dinner with the Obamas (you are permitted to bring your own SO if you have one).
What would you say to him? What would you ask him about? What would you voice disapproval about?
This is your chance, maybe the only chance you’ll ever have, to get into the ear of the most powerful person in the world. Joke answers are ok, but I’d like people to try to think seriously about it. Imagine you really do have Obama’s ear for an hour or two. What would you really want to say?
Personally, I think I would tell him to swing his dick a little more, and stop trying so hard to reach out for bipartisanship with a party that clearly has no interst in it.
I’d also tell him to be more aggressive about responding to and refuting right wing media attacks. I think I’d even tell him to go on Fox News to personally refute them face to face.
I’m not just asking for responses from Obama fans, by the way, if you think he’s a Marxist, Socialist Muslim who’s wrecking America, feel free to post as well. What would you actually say to him face to face?
“Um, are you going to finish that?”
Seriously, I would ask him if, deep down, he still has the same hopeful attitude toward America that he had before he became president.
I’d want to know, truthfully (and cross my heart and hope to die, I would swear to never tell a soul) what he thinks about the Tea Party, Beck, Limbaugh, Malkin, Coulter, Palin, Bachmann and all the other people who are apparently walking around an open-air insane asylum of their own minds.
I would want to ask him about a timetable for repealing DOMA, and DADT. I’d want to hear his ideas about the next Supreme Court Justice he is thinking about nominating.
I’d want to hear his justification for off-shore drilling, and why he didn’t try to make a deal with the right-wing that he’d okay SOME off-shore drilling in exchange for a lot MORE investment in green/renewable energy and technology.
And I’d want to talk about sports :), but not for very long. I can talk about sports with my friends.
That was more or less what I thought of when I read the title. He needs to realize that attempts at bipartisanship are worse than useless with people who have no interest in meeting him halfway, or at all. He needs to realize that the majority of the Republicans are not just his rivals, are not the Loyal Opposition; they are his enemies. They hate, fear and despise him, personally, and they feel no loyalty towards the country only themselves.
If it came to that, I’d remind him of the Clinton/Wallace interview,which as far as I know helped Clinton look like a statesman and Wallace like a pussy.
I’d tell him to stop blaming the banks exclusively for the housing bubble colllapse of the past couple of years. They had a role to play, sure, but nobody seems to be telling under-water borrowers that they also should have shown some restraint by buying houses they could afford with mortgages whose long-term rates they could handle.
BOT, I probably would talk about kids and education and getting rid of the No Child Left Behind crap and Tenure nonsense. Go to a four day school week year round.
This summer time off crap is garbage and outdated.
I wholeheartedly disagree. Kids need time to be kids. We already overschedule them enough as it is.
I assume that just because I bring up a topic to Mr. Obama, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll answer me. However, I’d like to ask him why he’s moving in a different direction with NASA, dialing down plans to go to the moon and Mars. Space exploration should be one of humanity’s top priorities.
I’d also ask him why the Democrats consistently try to achieve bipartisanship with the Republicans, when the Grand Obstructionist Party is obviously doing everything they can to stonewall the Dems.
And I’d probably talk to him about football at some point.
ETA: I would like to make a point to him that I am one of millions of Americans who know he has the country’s best interests at heart. He came into the presidency with more problems and a more hostile political climate than any previous president. Many others and I recognize that he’s trying his best to figure it all out.
I think after some policy issues I’d ask him about the kids. I wonder if the experience has been good for both of them. Also my daughter would killl me (she’s ten) if I didn’t bring her so she could play with his girls.
I’d also ask him how he feels when the First Lady is attacked… and being a fellow Chicagoan I’d bring him some italian ice and Harold’s fried Chicken… (it’s soo good it’s worth the stereotype!!!)
OK, look. The US budget is, what, in the trillions now? Just sneak in, say, 10 million for me. That’s all I’ll need to set me up for life. Help a fellow American out, huh?
I wouldn’t have dinner with the President. It would attract a lot of media attention and I like my private life, it would also give me no personal benefit. I bet that cop that had “beers with Obama and Biden” in the grand scheme of things would probably have avoided all that attention (obviously that’s a slightly different situation, but a personal dinner with the President by a random citizen is noteworthy enough that it would probably get news attention.)
I say it would give me no personal benefit because Obama is President of the United States, his decisions are made by committee; and he isn’t going to take any suggestions from one single person very seriously, even if he does give them a polite nod.
“Why are you shielding banks and would-be homeowners from the repercussions of their own bad decisions about lending and borrowing by bailing them out?”
I’d definitely tell him to grow a pair and stop trying to get the Republicans on board. Let them swing. Then I’d ask for seonds, because the White House chef is a genius and the food must be mighty tasty.
I’d make a heartfelt case for him to repeal the Hughes amendment to the 1986 FOPA, and to legalize or at least decriminalize marijuana on a federal level. Maybe even regulate the stuff to increase tax revenues.
I think he feels a responsibility to at least try with the bipartisan stuff: it always seemed to get applause during the campaign, and it makes him look like the grown-up.
Besides, if he said something like, “All right. That’s it. I’ve had it with these people,” then the other side would just go nuts and redouble their efforts. It wouldn’t make the situation better. All he can do is try to keep the Democrats in line and pass stuff without any Republican help.
I’d be too bashful to try to give him advice or ask for anything. I’m sure he’s heard all the arguments on all the issues. Let the man eat his dinner! I would ask questions like those already mentioned, though, just for my own information.