A day after reluctantly accepting an invitation to speak to a Joint Session of Congress next Thursday, September 8, President Obama agreed to start his jobs and economic growth speech at 7 pm Eastern Time, to avoid any conflict with the opening game of the NFL season.
"Our focus from the beginning was to have the President have the opportunity to speak to the American people and to Congress, in front of Congress, at the soonest possible date upon Congress’s return from its long recess," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, who went to great lengths to avoid adding any fuel to the fire on this story.
"What flap?" Carney asked to knowing laughter from reporters in the White House Briefing Room.
"Wednesday seemed to be the best option," Carney said. "When that wasn’t available -- or when that seemed to be a problem, Thursday was fine with us."
Political Washington was filled with lots of second guessing on what the White House was trying to achieve with their surprise request to speak at the same time as a scheduled GOP Presidential debate - especially when the White House then quickly backed down.
"I can assure you that, for all you football fans, that he will be completed before kickoff between the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers," said Carney, doing his best to avoid answering repeated questions on the Speech Spat.
So, with the speech starting at 7pm Eastern, that means many people West of the Mississippi River might not even be home to watch, as they drive home, eat dinner, ferry their kids around and more.
As for what the President will propose in his speech, Carney wasn't revealing much on Thursday, as the White House will have the next six days to fine tune the speech and all of the details.
"It will be a collection of proposals that, again, should have bipartisan support, have had a similar -- at similar times have had bipartisan support," said Carney.
