Obama Lunches With Progressive Pundits: Maddow, Robinson, Collins

[kpete]

Source: Huffington Post

Obama Lunches With Progressive Pundits: Maddow, Robinson, Collins



President Obama met for lunch on Thursday with a group of predominantly progressive columnists to discuss a range of topics, chief among them the oil spill in the Gulf.

Attendees included Gail Collins of the New York Times, Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and Gerald Seib, the Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, all of whom were spotted leaving the West Wing at roughly 1:45 p.m.

The lunch lasted more than an hour, said a White House spokesman. But no further details were offered. For full disclosure, Huffington Post co-founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington was invited to attend but could not make it due to a scheduling conflict.

These types of meetings happen irregularly at the White House, though it has been some time since the president sat down for a discussion with progressive pundits.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/obama-lunches-with-progre_n_616105.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Aside from heartburn, I wonder if anything will come of this.

[Inuca]

2. You think the food was not healthy? Or of poor quality? n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

7. yeah. that is what I meant..

[bc3000]

3. Let's hope they talked and Obama listened.

rather than the other way around.

[stray cat]

5. after all no one could ever learn anything from Obama?

do you really think pundits are the fount of all knowledge and are all knowing?

[gateley]

8. It's good for Obama to get feedback from those other than in his circle IMO. The

same for any leader of a country or a company.

[depakid]

26. +1,000

[bc3000]

10. Certainly not about what's going on in the Gulf

He's been a step behind anyone with access to news. He has obviously become too insulated. His speech from the oval office demonstrated that he still does not grasp the enormity of this disaster.

[TomCADem]

19. Yes, They Should LIsten To Local Pols Like Jindal and Barbour Who Say Drilling Is Safe

And, Barbour even compared the spill to harmless motor boat sheen. So, why should progressives care about what President Obama has to say out in Washington. They should hear it from the horse's mouth: Haley Barbour and Bobby Jindal.

:sarcasm:

[boppers]

20. "His speech from the oval office demonstrated that he still does not grasp the enormity"...

How so?

[Divine Discontent]

4. well, we know he more than likely didn't see Rachel's speech, but I hope she stated her opinion to

him on how things should be handled.

For any rational person, the first couple of weeks after the massive spill erupted was the time to have accurate facts - the US govt trusted BP to provide them.....


:rofl:


sorry. what a pathetic action.

[Iliyah]

12. At least

he's there with them, and he probably did watch her speech, he watches all the media including fake news. Bush and crew only stayed with pro-bushies, ie fake news and other outlets, at least Pres O sometime walks into the lion's den.

As much oil that is gushing from several leaks there is no way you can't stop all the oil from coming onto the shores, and it looks like the clean up people about 20,000 - 30,000 are doing some good. And if any pollster ever calls me about this I would give Pres O a positive check. Some of my family lives there and they feel the government is trying, unlike Bush's Katrina wherein there are still streets and neighbors still look like Katrina just hit.

[Divine Discontent]

16. hope so. what's funny is that anytime talking heads make a great comment on tv, the biggest

cheerleaders on here mock people and the talking head, saying "like the president would even waste his time with that!", I wonder if they think that now after he talks about basketball so much, and as you said, he does watch the things on tv. They're trying to clean it up, and the effort needs to grow to such a level that no one could question that they're seriously trying. It's horrible down here, and I hope they really can pull this off.

[Auggie]

6. Very interesting... the big question, of course, is why?

I expect Rachel will tell us

[wordpix]

29. maybe he needs help from his base now for the mid-terms & beyond?

Getting the backing of repukes isn't working for now. :eyes:

[Bitwit1234]

9. Guess the republicans will complain rush and drudge weren't included

but we all remember when Bush had his lunch with all the right wing talk show pundits. Not one of the Democrats were invited. But I suppose that's was different King Bush had the lunch.

[AsahinaKimi]

11. I was kinda hoping to hear

That Obama wanted a copy of Rachael Maddow's "Fake" President Speech, just to take notes from.

[arikara]

27. I hope he hires her

to be a speechwriter. That was good.

[FirstTimeVoterAt37]

13. I suspect we'll get the story tonight

If anybody is going to lay it straight it'll be Rachel. I have to say I'm impressed that the president made a point of lunching with non-apologetic progressives, you'd think they (I, we, whatever) were radioactive most of the time. And the nasty part of me really wants to brave freeperland to watch the heads exploding, but I don't think I'm up for that.

[Fearless]

14. Sounds like an attempt at qwelling dissent from the left...

Let's hope it doesn't work.

[TomCADem]

21. Yeah, Dubya Was So Receptive To Criticism From The Left...

Sadly, as you note, if it "sounds like an attempt at qwelling dissent from the left...," the this suggests that only person smart enough to spot this trap was Arriana, so she turned down the invitation. Maybe, in the future, progressives will turn down such overtures from the President in the future, which is what those who think this is an attempt to silent the left would want.

[lostnfound]

15. It's terrific and wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall.

All that smartness in one place, and a chance for the President to hear from the progressives represented by one or two of their best and brightest.

[wordpix]

17. glad he invited Rachel - I think she'd make a great president ---and not a fake one

:woohoo:

[Iowa]

18. I'd vote for her in a heartbeat.

[Fearless]

23. +100000

[TomCADem]

22. Because Orly Taitz Is Right?

Just wondering who you are referring to as a "fake" President. Birtherism on DU. Unbelievable.

[Fearless]

24. She did a self-named "fake presidential address" on her show last night.

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Um, I think "fake president"is a reference to Rachel Maddow

one of those liberal pundits who had lunch with Obama

[ProudDad]

28. Funny. I've never seen "Progressive" and the "Wall Street Journal"

mentioned in the same sentence before...

How droll...

Guess Mr. Seib is a "liberal"?