If Boehner is incapable of stating his case then he needs to be replaced. He gave a 2-minute response and then makes way for Reid & Pelosi.
— Moira Fitzgerald (@Moira1987) October 2, 2013
Then Reid and Pelosi stand there for 15 mins making their case. Stupid. If I were Boehner I'd make the media idiots stand there all night!
— Moira Fitzgerald (@Moira1987) October 2, 2013
Boehner comes out and basically says "They won't negotiate." Then leaves. Reid & Pelosi come out and explain that he's not serious about it.
— Moira Fitzgerald (@Moira1987) October 2, 2013
This is so typical! You NEVER EVER leave blanks open that the enemy can then fill in however they want and at their leisure.
— Moira Fitzgerald (@Moira1987) October 2, 2013
Maybe if Boehner wants to be a gentleman about it all he can just go ahead and volunteer to put the KICK ME sign on his own freaking back!
— Moira Fitzgerald (@Moira1987) October 2, 2013
If Boehner spent even HALF as much time going after Dems as RINOs like McCain & Peter King do bashing Conservatives I'd think better of him.
— Moira Fitzgerald (@Moira1987) October 2, 2013
That was me ranting a week ago Wednesday after John Boehner refused to elaborate about what went on in a meeting with Obama and the Democrat leaders at the White House. He later revealed how intransigent they had been during the meeting but as I explained in my tweets I felt he needed to state his case in the immediacy of the moment.
I got some pushback from people who thought Boehner did it right by providing a headline: Obama will not negotiate. I maintain that the headline was not meant as a rebuke to the Dear Leader but rather the Establishment Media using Boehner's quote to signal to his liberal base that Obama wasn't going to cave. So, no, I don't think it was effective messaging on Boehner's part.
Fast forward to this past Tuesday and the esteemed Thomas Sowell, one of the Conservative movement's greatest minds, agrees with me.
Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, epitomized what has been wrong with the Republicans for decades when he emerged from a White House meeting last Wednesday, went over to the assembled microphones, briefly expressed his disgust with the Democrats' intransigence and walked on away.
We are in the midst of a national crisis, immediately affecting millions of Americans and potentially affecting the kind of country this will become if ObamaCare goes into effect — and yet, with multiple television network cameras focused on Speaker Boehner as he emerged from the White House, he couldn't be bothered to prepare a statement that would help clarify a confused situation, full of fallacies and lies.
Boehner was not unique in having a blind spot when it comes to recognizing the importance of articulation and the need to put some serious time and effort into presenting your case in a way that people outside the Beltway would understand. On the contrary, he has been all too typical of Republican leaders in recent decades.I think that grassroots frustration with the GOP establishment is based in part on the repeated failures to articulate a winning message, even in self-defense. This would partly explain the fascination with men like Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and other "wacko birds" by the base: they are very good at expressing themselves and Conservative principles. Obviously not everybody agrees with everything they say but if not, it isn't for a lack of communication skills.
Our leaders can't win the argument if they can't even make the argument. And if you want an example of how to deliver a powerful message then just watch the video below. I wish we could clone Bill Whittle. We need a clone army of Bill Whittles.
