It’s official: summer vacation is over and Congress is back in session, preparing to pick up where they left off. This week, President Obama will attempt to take back control of the health care debate in a prime-time speech Wednesday night.
Joining us for a round table discussion on what awaits the President this week – from health care to Afghanistan to the overall happiness of the nation – is Peter Baker, White House correspondent for The New York Times; Jay Newton-Small, Washington reporter for Time Magazine; and Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.
The Takeaway is a national morning news program that invites listeners to be part of the American conversation. Hosts John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee, along with partners The New York Times, BBC World Service, WNYC, Public Radio International and WGBH Boston, deliver news and analysis and help you prepare for the day ahead.
The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
Major funding provided by:
"I suppose it's perfectly accepatable for a Republican President to address school children but not acceptable for an African- American President?"
Actually, his race has nothing to do with it. It's a tradition: When George H.W. Bush spoke to schoolchildren in 1991, the Democrats were in an uproar over it. Try to think outside of your Democratic, partisan box for once. With that said, racists see racism everywhere, even when there is none.
Why do we have to reach out to "conservatives" for a consensus they clearly do not want to reach?
The administration should use their congressional advantage to pass the legislation they have promised and that they owe the people who voted them into office. It is perfectly normal in every other major country for the party in power to put their program into effect. That happens because they have parliamentary systems instead of presidential ones, so the prime minister automatically has a parliamentary majority or she/he would not be in that position in the first place. We are in the felicitous situation where the president and congressional majority agree on something, so it is perfectly natural and fitting that the Congress go ahead and pass the legislation the majority want and that the President sign it into law. If that turns out to be a bad idea, let the Republicans undo it when they have the presidency and congressional majorities.
Does no one rememeber that President Bush was actually reading to a classroom of schoolchildren when the airplanes hit on Spetember 11? I suppose it's perfectly accepatable for a Republican President to address school children but not acceptable for an African- American President? (And I am quite aware of my mixed comparision.)
BTW Do all the people who oppose Obama's speech expect their children to grow up to be Levi Johnston?