President Barack Obama’s losing duel over the timing of his jobs speech vs. the GOP presidential debate prompted radio talker Rush Limbaugh to call the whole brouhaha a joke.
“It’s not presidential, but as a practical joker, I love this,” Limbaugh said on his show today. “Unfortunately, this is not the kind of behavior you want from the president of the United States, and it is, nevertheless, what we’ve got.”
After a Republican outcry Wednesday against the White House's Sept. 7 choice for Obama's televised address to a joint session of Congress, Obama moved it back a night. The original date had put it head to head with the televised Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library in California.
“This was a great move,” Limbaugh said of the plan to “upstage” the Republican Party. “This attempt to make Republicans looks unreasonable failed spectacularly.”
Instead of competing against the televised NBC-Politico forum, Obama will compete against the National Football League’s opener, Limbaugh said, although indications are that the president’s speech will be over before the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers play the New Orleans Saints.
“That’s where he’s going to look small,” Limbaugh said. “With the doubt through the summer that there might not be a season . . . the last thing people want is for the president to interrupt it.”
The president’s jobs address will be a “campaign speech,” Limbaugh said. “We’re not going to hear anything new. Obama’s not going to say anything important . . . he’s not going to say anything helpful.”
Finally, Limbaugh lauded House Speaker John Boehner for demanding that the president switch dates.
“If it were up to me . . . Boehner would have refused to let Obama address the joint session of Congress at all,” Limbaugh said, adding, “I think Boehner did the right thing. Obama’s up against the National Football League.”
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