An unimportant conflict

So, Mr. Obama has rescheduled his very important speech on jobs that he announced was to be on Wednesday, September 7th. That announcement caused a bit of a kerfluffle because it would be on the same night as the Republican debate. An obvious political conflict. Not just for those who are political junkies (that 10% of the population) but for NBC which was to air the Republican debate. Speaker of the House John Boehner objected, as did a few others, and the White House announced that it is moving the president's speech to Thursday, the 8th.

A smart move. But one wonders. Was this all contrived? Was the announcement made without checking what else is scheduled for that evening? Could the White House be that uninterested that they weren't aware of the debate being scheduled for that night?It would boggle the mind if they weren't aware of it. Of course they knew it, the initial scheduling was intentional.

Normally, an informal request by the White House is made of the Senate and the House (meaning Reid and Boehner) for a joint session, it is accepted, and then the announcement is made. That obviously did not happen. And that would be on purpose.

There have been numerous commentaries about this with Democrats minimizing the conflict and the Republicans maximizing it. Where you stand (politically) greatly influences your level of interest and concern.

What I saw was presidential arrogance. Then I started to consider the strategy involved. Politicians are people and, therefore, do stupid things occasionally. That's why they hire consultants to run campaigns, speechwriters, and lawyers. It would be hard for me to imagine that no one on the president's staff, no trusted adviser, brought up the conflict with the date. If I was president (and pray I never am), I would fire all of them for missing that... and then berate myself for overlooking it.

I think the plan was to make the announcement, have some Republicans (preferably the candidates for the Republican nomination) complain bitterly and make stupid comments, and then "graciously" re-schedule in a couple of days, seemingly befuddled over the whole thing.