Will President Obama Address Congress?

Bob Cesca writes a quick post:

Today on The Ed Show, Jonathan Alter predicted that the president will deliver a rousing address to a joint session of Congress about healthcare reform sometime in the next six weeks or so.

Here's what I wrote back on July 2:

Maybe even do one of those big Hollywood movie style presidential speeches, like the one at the end of The Contender in which President Jeff Bridges calls out that slippery douche Congressman Gary Oldman in front of a joint session.

If this health care battle has a joint session in its future, I doubt whatever the President decides to say will change any minds, for or against a public option. Overall, the American public is still in favor of a public option (I don't believe the new controversial NBC/WSJ poll for a second). Those who want it, those who need it, are still going to be in favor of it. Those who have been misinformed, well, we all know they're too stubborn to learn the truth and know any better. Besides, when you bring a gun to a health care debate, I'm guessing you might have another agenda.

Whether President Obama is heard by the American public if he does decide to call a joint session of Congress is most likely irrelevant. It's whether he's heard by the members in the chamber that's important, and all too often we've seen something that is universally important to all the citizens of this country, something as important as helping your fellow man through accessible health care, spun by the politicians and pundits within minutes of it's conclusion to blue and red, to liberal and conservative, to truth and fiction.

Here's that final scene from The Contender that Bob mentioned.



I watch these political movies over and over again and always hope for a moment like this in real life instead of the screen, where the sham of "my good friend on the other side of the aisle" is dropped like so much dead weight around our necks, where truth triumphs over political convenience, where liars are called liars.

I hope it happens in my lifetime.