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President Obama with Mayor Villaraigosa and Governor Schwarzenegger on March 19th in LA (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
"Hundreds of tickets never made it into the public's hands. Instead, they were distributed to Democratic officeholders and their staffs, community leaders, people connected to Obama's 2008 campaign, Democratic fundraisers and others invited by the White House." After delivering his prepared remarks, Obama told the crowd to feel free to point out his foibles since they hadn't "prescreened anybody," although one audience member did mention that the crowd was full of the President's volunteers.
No one took the opportunity to take him to task; most seemed thrilled to be there in person, and the audience often broke into wild applause. Obama appeared comfortable among his admirers, and accepted a great deal of praise from those chosen to pose questions of him. Is this surprising, though?
"When the president holds events outside Washington, it's customary for his staff to dole out invitations to local supporters," although some are balking at the White House holding back such a hefty portion of the tickets, and question just how "free and open to the public" the event truly was.
Are we okay with a President who emphasizes transparency, but sometimes stacks the deck in his favor? Or is Obama just doing what any visiting President would do when filling a room for a televised event?
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It ain't perfect, but it's sure as hell better than the last 8 years...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153720,00.html
In April 2005, Bush’s security detail threw out three people from an event in Colorado, citing a bumper sticker on their care that read “No More Blood For Oil.” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said that if there’s any evidence people might “disrupt the president,” they “have the right to exclude those people from those events.”
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2005/02/04/fargo/
In early 2005, North Dakota residents were refused entry to a Bush event after their names appeared on a “blacklist” of people banned from the event.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24938-2005Apr4.html
In March 2005, people seeking tickets to a Social Security event were quizzed about their support of Bush and his Social Security plan ahead of time.
Bush even screened the assembled group of soldiers he would meet in Iraq during a 2003 Thanksgiving visit: Soldiers had to fill out a questionnaire asking whether they supported Bush.
It seems entirely appropriate that some seats at a public event like this are given to other political leaders and people who helped Obama get elected. They worked hard to get him into the White House, so it's good for them to get to see the guy doing the job in person. It's also great that people who are completely unconnected to the political process were able to get in, by using the sign-up on the White House website. In all the years of the Bush administration, I don't recall a similar "open call" for any Bush event. The Bush White House went out of its way to prevent attendance by anyone except insiders. Obama is moving in a much better and healthier direction by giving only some of the seats to friends and political connections, and opening the rest to anyone who wants to go. (And I know they did, because a completely non-political friend of mine signed up on the website, was picked, and went.)
I think it was less about stacking the deck in his favor, and more about being nice to the folks who've been nice to him. If I were a really active volunteer, I'd feel slighted if I didn't have at least a little better chance of seeing him than a random person.
If he wants to be nice to those that were nice to him, that is fine. But to market an event for the democratic grassroots apparatus as a public town hall that is free and open to pressing questions is deceptive.
I was worried during his campaign and disappointed to see him use some of the powers expanded in the last 8 years, instead of reject them outright. While he may use them in ways I find appropriate, for long-term governance and consistent, progressive, political development in our country, it is terrible. The most successful countries move ahead in a steady line instead of pulling all in one direction or the other every time there is a change of power.
I'm not a registered democrat but I somehow won those tickets, so it definitely wasn't just given out to the love fest crowd. And had I gotten picked to ask a question, I would definitely have had some tough topics for him. It was kind of hilarious when folks in the stands started booing a little when Villaraigosa and Schwarzenegger came out. So it wasn't all love in there to be sure.
I talked to a friend who was volunteering that day, and according to him, about 35,000 people signed up online for the lottery, and only about 500 were given out. And of those, only about 2-300 actually got seats, since we were some of the last to get seated even though at least 200 people were behind us in line. But you gotta figure, the kind of folks who would register for the lottery and then show up early enough to get in were probably not coming to give the guy a hard time, or were too caught up in the excitement to really come up with critical, substantive questions.
It was free; it was open to the public.
Words do indeed matter, but if you're going to insist on people being responsible for whet they say, it's good to pay attention to what they actually said, rather than criticizing them for for failing to live up to some fantasy of what you imagine they might have implied.
Yes, in addition to the tickets given to the lucky winners of a free public lottery whose applicants were not in any way pre-screened, there were also tickets given to supporters and party loyalists.
But no one ever claimed otherwise; and anyone who imagines that there wouldn't be seats reserved for campaign supporters and party retainers is living in an unrealistic fantasy-land of their own devising.
Criticizing the president for failing to live up to unrealistic fantasies that bear no real resemblance to actual promises made seems to be a popular sport at the moment, and it's certainly a good way of getting a bit of media attention - the press loves a cranky contrarian - but it's not really a helpful contribution to the public discourse.
And anyone connected with a reputable university's Institute of Public Affairs should know that. Presidents must endure that sort of nonsense, but Jaime Regalado owes the public an apology for letting his ego get the better of him.
LA MapNerd: I think it was in 19th grade when I was required to learn the difference between diction and connotation. To ignore the common understanding within a cultural aspect of the issue is irresponsible.
In addition, this is like saying it is not deceptive when movies ads credit reviewers as saying "...the best movie of 2009," when the full review excerpt is "this may not be the best movie of 2009." Technically yes, the reviewer did say that, but there is a larger context.
And by 19th, I definitely mean 10th.
I was personally a little disappointed that the ticket offer didn't really pan out. As much of an Obama fan I am I still have criticism, which I believe is healthy for democracy. Packing a town hall full of fanboys that won't utter a conflicting word... not so much.
Obama told the crowd to feel free to point out his foibles since they hadn't "prescreened anybody,"
I actually laughed when I heard that.
Anyone who thinks Obama is different than any other president in this regard is being incredibly naïve.
No doubt if he was forced to deal with the same level of constant interruptions from deranged protestors, Obama's team would be controlling these events just as tightly if not more so.
Frankly, it seems to me like they already are, only in a more deceitful subtle way.