Presidential Question Time? Would it work in USA?
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Very few modern US Presidents
would have survived the rough and tumble of
Question Time
In the British Parliament, every Tuesday for 30 minutes, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has to stand in front of the Members of Parliament (MPs) and answer questions. Most of the questions come from the leader of the Conservative opposition, David Cameron, he gets six questions only, then in the remaining time other MPs get their chance. Remember that the Prime Minister is not the Head of State, but CEO only, so a little more aggression is allowed. In the American system the President is both CEO and Head of State.
Considering the success of President Obama’s recent appearances at the House Republican’s Retreat, there has been a call for more of the same. Be careful America this is what could happen.
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SJ….. RAHR!!! dude! Rahr.
@Gwen,
I hear you, but always remember just how low the bar is lowered for Republicans on the intellectual front when there is a debate. The stupidities of the GOP candidates is always forgiven, explained, excused and ultimately rationalized.
Back in 2008 I wrote the following on Random Thoughts about 2000 The Bush Gore debates (I was writing about the Biden Palin debates by contrast)
http://hamsandwich66.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-dream-of-bloodbath-and-hope-for.html
I wrote:
“What if instead of “sighing” back during the 2000 presidential debates, Al Gore had responded to George W. Bush’s “sound bite” rebuttals with something along the lines of:
“FUZZY MATH?” did you just say “fuzzy math” to me, you goldbricking idiot?!
Don’t stand there smiling at me.
Maybe percentages blow your mind, maybe numbers confuse a simpleton like you, maybe people have let you get by with that kind of nonsense when you were daddy’s little boy at Yale, but you are addressing the nation right now, you dumbass. I guess math certainly is “fuzzy”, if you’re too stupid to grasp what a percentage is.
Yeah, you keep smiling. Tell me, is that the same stupid smile you gave the professors at Yale when they looked at your papers and wondered -even with your father’s name- just how an empty headed moron like you slid under their doors? Get off this stage and go fetch somebody else for me to debate if you’re gonna get thrown by every figure I mention to you. Idiot.”
**Yes. That’s the stuff.**
I long for an America where the stupid, the dense, and the dimwitted are not emboldened to present their opinions as facts or convictions. I long for an America where idiots are afraid to speak up, are running for their very lives and live in constant fear and embarrassment.
Sadly, I live in this America. I live in a nation where halfwits are encouraged to run for the highest office in the land, and sometimes win.”
Now if President Obama had it in him to eviscerate a “lobbyist in Republican clothing” like John Boehner for example, like my fantasy Al Gore on George W. Bush smackdown?
–Hell yeah Gwen.
Let them all bring it. I suspect that there’s less to Eric Cantor than meets the eye, that his core is made of styrofoam, and that the interior of his skull is a dark lightless place.
-SJ
First of all… I don’t think the Republican speakers in our House could keep up with our President at who hit who like a Parlimentary ruckus. Not on one their most brilliant days…! Bee; Ah, I AM one of those callers. LOL And I am still standing with the Democratic Party, bitching and twisting the quite a bit these days… but I do so with good personal integrity. If I should doubt that, I’ll stop working for the Party. I certainly ‘get’ your disapproval, though! There are far less people in the UK… groups and individuals stand out much easier over there. Tony Blair was a failure as PM. He disappointed the people more so in his support of Bush. He badly miscalculated Bush… which, actually, made him a rather inept politician. @Holte: gee, I think if Obama were debating the Republicans on a regular basis, things would begin to change very quickly. He’s the only President I’ve observed that could make that work. And why not? Debate sharpens and keeps sharp mental acuity… something totally devoid in the REpublican Party presently. SJ’s point as to service to lies is valid. Still, did anyone take a good look at that video of the President at the Repub brunch? He rebuked and exposed them. Easily… so much so that Fox cut away from it. I say to SJ, the Repubs aren’t quick enough to smoothly lie their way away from the prepared lies… that much we witnessed. While the GOP presses lies they have been caught in, it would seem just as important to take every opportunity to create public forums where they are repeatedly exposed. With so many citizens, it’s hard in this country, folks get ‘riled up’. Stupid people don’t like being called for it… so they pick fights. Intelligent people try to reason. I don’t think it boils down to ‘about sex or marriage’ I think it comes to the above…stupid vs intelligent. I guess it’s that intelligent has to get loud. Or at least, more visible and outspoken. As the President is moving towards. Great question / post, HOLTE!
@Holte,
I guess but that footage has some real zingers in there from the UK, I doubt we’d even have that here. Americans don’t do reduction well, any summarizing we do here is generally in the service of a lie.
You know Holte, every once in a while I see news footage from some legislature overseas breaking out into a brawl with chair swinging, eye gouging (The last time I think was in Singapore) –like serious politician-on-politician grievous bodily harm… and I feel a little jealous I have to say.
Not that I care to see our Congress or Senate lose their minds like that, but some acknowledgement from Democrats of just how angry they are about all the bullshit coming from the Republicans for over a year now would be appreciated.
@Vig,
-exactly right.
I think we also don’t call politicians on it when we care to remember what they’ve done. The bigger/more profound the betrayal, the smaller the outcry in America… unless it’s about sex or marriage of course.
-SJ
A very excellent point, SJ. The American sheeple don’t have memories like the Brits. That’s what I hear you sayin’…
@Holte,
I don’t think Q&A would work here for the simple reason that voters don’t hold politicians responsible when they openly lie about something important or complicated (an extramarital blow job however might bring down a whole administration) so Boehner or some other lobbyist posing as a Senator would just get up there and ask the President questions with entirely false premises, like claiming this administration has spent more in one year, than the previous one did in 8 etc.:
The GOP consistently repeats this lie, even after being called on it, when Rep. Hensarling had the nerve to say it to the President’s face. The President embarrassed him with the facts, but Eric Cantor and others repeat the lie every chance they get. Q&A would just be another platform for their distortion, you can lie while asking a question after all.
btw -Last night, Rachel Maddow did an incredible job of exposing Republican hypocrisy, I’ll post on it momentarily.
-SJ
SJ – Question Time wouldn’t work here, but honestly for the most part, it doesn’t work in the UK either, it has become a sideshow and more of a ritual than anything, all it really does it educate politicians on how to think on their feet and how to deflect and ignore the questions asked.
The continued Republican lies you speak of are totally ignored by the Corporate Media, MSNBC apart, and it more of a slur on on so-called journalists. The Fourth Estate is no more.
Gordie Brown, IMO is a careerist politician devoid of vision and charisma. He was the poodle’s poodle. He amounts to little more than a bad joke. Everyone in the U.K. knows he’s walking around with a fork in his back. That said, Holte Ender’s caution is correct for two reasons. One, The American Presidency has more ‘royalty’ attached to the office than does the British Prime Minister’s office. It would be demeaning for the POTUS to appear before Congress on a regular basis and have “Liar” shouted at him by retards. (Yes, I use that term advisedly.) Second, I’ve had it up to here with our Explainer-In-Chief extending his hand across the aisle, in an appeal for Bipartisanship. Maybe I’m okay with him extending his hand across the aisle; I just want his hand to be holding a hammer.
VIGILANTE – You are right about Brown, especially in the charisma department. Question time couldn’t and shouldn’t happen here, the American system is designed to have more checks and balances, although sometimes I wonder if there shouldn’t be checks and balances to check the checks and balances.
I’m with Vigil on this one. I am sick and tired of this bi-partisan bull shit. He tried it and it didn’t work. Now is the time for the BIG HAMMER!! He has spent a lot of his political capital on this nonsense and if he isn’t careful he may not get it back.
As to the British system, it wouldn’t work here anymore than it would work with the Queen. America’s royalty is wrapped up in the POTUS, as opposed to an actual monarchy.
MIKE – Vigil is right about quitting being Mr. Reachout, initially it was the right thing to do and now moving on without bi-partisan support is the right thing to do.
Obama’s meeting with the Republicans was a good one off thing, something to do once a Presidency. All the scrapping should be between the Congressional membership.
Like I told the little girl who called me looking for a donation for the DNC. “sugar, when the rest of the dems take those blue dogs out into the back Capital alley and knock the snot out of them a couple of times, I’ll thinking about donating again.”
She laughed. She thought it was funny.
“Sug, I’m not kidding. That is what it will take right now for me to donate again anytime soon.”
Then I hung up. They haven’t called back for the past few weeks.
BEE – If you donated $20 in the past, they will spend $50 to get you to give another $20.
I just love the cut-and-thrust of a hearty parliamentary question period. It freakin’ rawks. And it’s an important part of accountability in the British parliamentary system. I’m not saying it’s the way the U.S. should go, but the U.S. system has put the president way above it all. He doesn’t get called to account by legislators the way the PM is in Britain or Canada.
STIMPSON – Question Time certainly highlights the differences between the Parliamentary and the US Presidential system of democracy. Both have pluses and minuses, neither is perfect, both systems should be tinkered with to make everyone involved more accountable.
What I’d like to see is a genuine fist-a-cuff between the Yellow Dog Dems and the rest of the critters.
It could be a pay-per-view event. No polite exchanges, no insults, no shouting.
Just a free-for-all brawling brouhaha.
🙂
HILL – I’m guessing if the big fight could be arranged, the Chicken-Hawks would turn into Chicken-Shits.