Obama Breaks Precedent by Childishly Upstaging Clinton’s Foreign Policy Speech

It’s good to know I wasn’t the only one yesterday who noticed how President Obama upstaged Secretary Clinton’s major foreign policy speech with his little event on health care reform in the Rose Garden.

Ken Bazinet at The Mouth of the Potomac (the Daily News) nails the embarrassingly childish behavior of the leader of the free world:

Aides to Secretary of State Clinton have been hyping her foreign policy speech today as a breakout party, where she would promote President Obama’s overseas agenda and re-assert her diplomatic bonafides.

The upbeat advance press for Clinton’s speech was breathtaking and it appeared she would be the story of the day. But then President Obama scheduled an event at the same hour in the Rose Garden, appearing with nurses to attack insurance companies over what he sees as lousy health care coverage.

Not surprisingly, the cable news networks carried Obama’s remarks live as Clinton began to speak. Fortunately for Clinton, at least one cable network eventually flashed to her, but not until after the President stopped speaking.

Naturally, the White House said it was sheer coincidence and there was no intention to play dueling speeches.

Here’s a pathetic excuse from an Obama apologist:

“We can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can do a speech on foreign policy and health care at the same time,” said an administration official, who insisted White House press aides had dedicated a significant amount of time urging reporters to cover Clinton’s speech.

But eventually the truth comes out:

But one veteran of the Clinton White House tells The Mouth, “In other administrations when the President was speaking no one else in the administration was allowed to speak. Alternatively, if another administration official was already scheduled to speak at an event, the White House press office made sure the President spoke either before or after and not during.”

Our source puts the blame mostly on the White House. “At the very least it’s complete non-coordination between the White House communications and press operation and Cabinet agencies — in this case a high profile department and Cabinet secretary giving a major address outlining the President’s agenda,” the source said. “It does not make sense for the President to drown out his secretary of state when she is trying to line up influential and public support for his foreign policy. Scheduling matters.”

It could also be that Hillary's 70+percent job approval rating has begun to annoy Obama as his own rating has dropped into the 50s lately.