President Obama’s jobs speech will now take place September 8, the night after the GOP debate and the same time as the Saints-Packers season opener. So unless NFL spokesman Greg Aiello has any complaints, we can all put this gratuitously dramatic late-summer controversy behind us:
The [White House] press secretary sent a statement Wednesday night urging leaders to focus full attention on the needs of the American public.
“The President is focused on the urgent need to create jobs and grow our economy, so he welcomes the opportunity to address a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, September 8 and challenge our nation’s leaders to start focusing 100 percent of their attention on doing whatever they can to help the American people,” the statement said.
At HotAir, Allahpundit wonders whether Obama “was trying to bait Boehner or some other prominent Republican into getting angry so that he could point to it and run through his tired ‘adult in the room’ shtick.” If that was the plan, Boehner kept his cool and handled the situation well. In the end, Obama likely realized he wasn’t going to win this fight, and took the easy out Boehner gave him. By keeping politics out of his request yesterday, and making legitimate points about security, the House Speaker let the president back down from the September 7 date while still keeping his dignity. Though Obama’s critics on the left probably aren’t going to see it that way.