Now That's What I'm Talking About!

Yesterday for those with Cable, we observed a very rare sight in American politics...a Direct back and forth between the President of the United States and Republican members of the House of Representatives...trully amazing!

Being a history and political science major, it reminded me a session of "Question Time" in Great Britain (in which members of the House of Commons direct question the Prime Minister) and is something we just don't see in America these days..we're used to the President saying something...the Republicans making a statement later denouncing it and then the President will counter later and so on and so forth...but this usually takes all day and isn't very exciting...what happened yesterday on the other hand was very interesting...The President was invited to the Republicans getaway in Baltimore and shocked everyone not only by showing up but by letting Cable news broadcast it Live!

As we watched..the President made his case for many of his political programs and ask the Republicans why they didn't support them..asking them point blank why they would challenge the Stimulus but at the same time appear at public project openings in their states that were paid for by the Stimulus?...He then did something that Republican House members were still talking about today..he stated that he had read Republican proposals and acknowledged them and even admitted many of them had a lot of potential..

Overall after watching this event..I wondered..why don't they do this more often? While not exciting to many in the average public..for those of us who pay attention to politics this kind of close quarters political combat Live on television is very refreshing and (like Presidential debates) helps voters better understand the interaction between our President and members of Congress...to think if they did this on a regular basis, politically biased pundits could be put out of a job! Ok maybe not but isn't that a nice thought?

Such events make our political system seem a bit more transparent and should be do more often (maybe not as often as Question Time in the U.K. but still) and lets hope it does!