by Mark Silva
The president of the United States was "heckled'' - not at a town hall, but from the floor of the Congress - the president was reminded in an interview aired tonight.
""Actually, my town meetings, people were extraordinarily courteous,'' President Barack Obama replied with laughter, acknowledging that he was "surprised'' by Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during the president's address to a joint session of Congress, but not surprised, in a way, because of the way the 24-hour news cycle is driving the debate.
Outbursts like Wilson's feed "the circus;'' Obama said in an interview that CBS News' 60 Minutes aired tonight.
"See, this is part of what happens,'' he said. "I mean, it becomes a big circus instead of us focusing on health care. You know, this is a story that people will run with for a week. In the meantime, we stopped having a serious debate about how are we going to make sure that insurance companies who don't treat their customers right are checked. That's the conversation I want to have...
"The truth of the matter is that there has been, I think, a coarsening of our political dialog that I've been running against since I got into politics,'' Obama said in an interview with CBS News' Steve Kroft.
"I mean, I still remember in the speech that I gave announcing that I was running for President. I said, "We can disagree without being disagreeable." And I think that the vast majority of the American people, that's exactly what they want,'' Obama said in a segment of the interview that was not aired but can be read at CBS News' Website. "You know, they want people to be polite; they want people to listen to each other. They want people to engage in serious, vigorous debate, and passionate debate. But they want to make sure that it doesn't get personal. That people's motives aren't questioned. ''
So his goal of bringing civility back to Washington is a "work in progress?''' the president was asked.
"It's still a work in progress,' Obama said with a wide smile. "No doubt about it.''
Comments
BHO ignores the 24 hr news cycle at his own risk.
Even Bill Clinton figured out he had to respond within hours, and strongly, or the weird charge would become the truth.
Kerry ignored the Swift Boaters for months, and it probably cost him the election in 04.
BHO gave a good speech in the JS last week, but it should have come 3 months earlier.
Posted by: C.Morrisā§ | September 13, 2009 8:45 PM
My problem is that it seems the media is more than willing to "report" on the "conflict" in the issue than the substance of it. Sarah's "death panel" went on and still goes on, yet no reporting on the actual claim of "death panels" was truly addressed. Joe Wilson shouts "you lie" to the president of the United States in a joint session and all we hear is praise from some and denouncing from others yet no reports on the actual truth of the issue. It seems we are willing to let the conflict continue to fill up a 24 cycle for viewers and less enlightening of the American public.
Posted by: bill r. | September 13, 2009 9:27 PM
Obama gave a mediocre speech now forgotten. Joe Wilson lives on. Obama skipped town to avoid the Tea Party demonstrators.
Posted by: Pete | September 13, 2009 9:57 PM
Obama is still in campaign mode. He said he was going to united people if elected but he's probably the biggest divider possible.
What Wilson did was wrong, but Obama spends quite a bit of time attacking his opponents directly. At least Bush stayed above the fray.
Posted by: Alz | September 13, 2009 10:35 PM
Actually the real circus is the one in the White House and Obimbo is the chief clown.
Posted by: John D | September 13, 2009 10:44 PM
Obama would be well served discussing the need for civility with the likes of Pelosi, Reed and Durbin.
The GOP does not have a patent on jerks.
Posted by: Pete | September 13, 2009 11:16 PM
The 24-hour news cycle unloaded the pallets, caressed the cargo billow, and ate all your orchid seedlings.
Posted by: Shimmy | September 13, 2009 11:32 PM
BHO risks his sanity keeping track of the 24 hr. cycle.
Posted by: canoer | September 13, 2009 11:43 PM
This President is a dork. I can't wait to see the Russians start pushing him around and him letting them do it. Matter of time.
Posted by: Antek | September 14, 2009 12:23 AM
So where are the frothing and foaming at the mouth Teabaggers with their signs THANKING PRESIDENT OBAMA for keeping us safe LONGER than Bu$hco kept us safe?
For all their babbling about Bu$hco "keeping us safe", they allowed us to get hit on 9/11, right? Well, the Obama Admin has actually kept the Teabagging clowns safe LONGER than Bu$hco.
The Teabagging GOPer's purposely forget that Bush Jr said to the CIA "All right, you've covered you arse!!!" when given the memo that said "Bin Laden determined to attack within the United States!".
That's Right Baby! Shrub Jr. and The Dick Cheney Dropped the National Security Ball less than 10 months into their administration!
.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061901211.html
Posted by: moreofthesame | September 14, 2009 1:04 AM
TEABAGGERS LIE ABOUT THE ATTENDANCE AT THEIR ASTROTURFED "PROTEST" SATURDAY IN DC - FreedomWorks Misquotes ABC News on Tea Bagger Turnout
Whackjob Michelle Malkin is claiming 2 million turned out in Washington, D.C. today to "celebrate" the day after 9/11. The organizers, Freedom Works claimed that ABC News was estimating 1 to 1.5 MILLION turned out.
Uhhh...actually? ABC News didn't say that at all.
They said 60,000-70,000.
Oops.
According to ABC News:
"Conservative activists, who organized a march on the U.S. Capitol today in protest of the Obama administration's health care agenda and government spending, erroneously attributed reports on the size of the crowds to ABC News.
Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, the group that organized the event, said on stage at the rally that ABC News was reporting that 1 million to 1.5 million people were in attendance.
At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large."
.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/protest-crowd-size-estimate-falsely-attributed-abc-news/story?id=8558055
I can believe they turned out 60,000 or even 70,000 people. They probably photoshopped the crowds to make them look bigger. But deliberately misquoting ABC News? Really?
Did these Teabagger idiots really think they'd just let that one go?
They keep crowing about how "well organized" the tea baggers are. I'd say they are good at rallying a solid core of right wing whackos, after all, they have a huge anti health care lobbying group (Freedom Works organizing it for them and a fake news outlet (Faux "News") giving them free publicity in the days leading up to this. The Teabaggers are obviously to stupid to realize that they're being led around by the nose by the very same corporations who are keeping them dumb and poor. But when those numbers didn't approach what they fantasized about, they are reduced to lying about it even when there's no question that they're going to get called on it.
Maybe after 8 years of a Bush administration that was capable of getting away with murder, both figuratively AND literally, in broad daylight and under the glare of media scrutiny, the Right must think they can just do and say whatever they want and nobody will notice.
NEWSFLASH TEABAGGERS: You're liars and we notice.
Posted by: ThepartyofOWE | September 14, 2009 2:51 AM
And who is keeping this story of Joe Wilson going? Speaker Dimwit. She is going to discipline Joe Wilson in the house and waste more time. Wilson has apologized to the president and the president accepted. Time to move-on.
Then Congress can decide if teh gov't knows how to manage any social program that meets the customers' needs and is under budget. - They won't. They can also review all the various state run healthcare plans and see if they find one that isn't busting the state's budget. - They won't find one here either.
Posted by: Terry | September 14, 2009 8:35 AM
Ultimate fighting shows how attracted people are to the attack mode. This partly explains why GOP rotten lies attract so many stupid people who simply do not recognize their own interest which is that Obama has the public welfare - their welfare - in mind. They will not come round until the Democratic side fights back hard instead of being polite in the face of Ultimate abuse. There are enough ignorant fools out there to be quite worrisome. They can not recognize real patriotism, all the while chanting hateful slogans they coopt from patriotic language.
Posted by: justin starkweather | September 14, 2009 9:04 AM
As is the usual rants, foaming at the mouth Obamabots cannot support president Obama on issues with facts.
They simply call nasty names, make spurious claims, fire up the spin cycle of rhetoric and blame, blame blame everyone but the guy in charge.
Everyone not in the "goose step" parade, falling all over the great ones shadow are; racist, anti-American, terrorist loving pukes and of course the mother of all hate-filled slander "Bush lovers".
The campaigning is over, leadership is required and our president has no leadership skills. It's a sad testimony to the Obama administration that he can't even keep his own party flunkies in line.
Republicans are not to blame for president Obama's failures. Democrats have ALL THE POWER they need to pass anything legislation they want. If he were a true leader with the United States of America his top priority, the majority of his own party would fall in line.
Posted by: springfield | September 14, 2009 9:57 AM
Obama objects to coarsening political speech?
Physician, heal thyself.
Obama is the one who called Bill Clinton a "bald faced liar" (Richard Wolfe, Newsweek reporter, in the book "Renegade") who was always "just lying."
Or how about the Democratic Party website highlighting what they term "Republican Lies"? http://voices.washingtonpost.com/health-care-reform/2009/08/democrats_launch_web_site_targ.html
I could go on with a million examples of coarseness that Obama's media allies will ignore or dismiss.
Posted by: No longer a Democrat | September 14, 2009 12:48 PM