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What can today’s Obama-Romney lunch accomplish?
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In this Oct. 22, 2012 file photo, Mitt Romney and President Obama walk past each other on stage at the end of the last debate at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
Following up on an offer he made in his re-election victory speech earlier this month, President Obama has invited GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney to sit down with him for a private lunch at the White House on Thursday.
“It will be the first opportunity they have had to visit since the election,” the White House said in a statement announcing the meeting. “There will be no press coverage of the meeting.”
Obama and Romney spoke on Election Night, and Obama praised him in his victory speech and in a post-election news conference. “We may have battled fiercely, but it’s only because we love this country deeply, and we care so strongly about its future. From George to Lenore to their son Mitt, the Romney family has chosen to give back to America through public service, and that is a legacy that we honor and applaud tonight,” Obama told supporters at his victory party in Chicago. “In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward.”
Romney has kept a low-profile since losing the election. But on a conference call with donors following his defeat, the former Massachusetts governor said the president was reelected because of “gifts” to Latinos, African Americans and young voters. The rhetoric was criticized by Obama administration officials as well as some Republicans.
White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Wednesday that there is no specific agenda for Thursday’s lunch meeting.
What do you think Thursday’s lunch could accomplish? And what do you think it actually WILL accomplish?
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During lunch, Romney will not be able to make a public statement. That’s good.
Very very little that COULD be accomplished and even less that will be accomplished. The beat goes on.
One would hope these two highly educated, moral family men could sit down and agree on many things to make this country run better. Put them in a room alone, no one else to steer the direction or tone of the conversation. I believe they could move mountains if the course was straight ahead and not to the left or right.
Kathy, no matter how many things they might agree on, the mountain they would have to move is Congress, and a mountain is not easily moved. These two men alone have limited mountain-moving capabilities. They need to convince the American people to push hard on the mountain.
Huh, so BO’s first two years when DEMs controlled everything, what did they accomplish, other than destroying our healthcare? It should have been easy since apparently now it’s a mountain.
First of all this is now, now then, and the subject is today’s meeting right? If you are talking about the 110th Congress it started with the Senate 49-49,2 and the House 236-199, so to say the Democrats “controlled everything” is a stretch. As far as “destroying our healthcare” I guess we’re one of the lucky ones having seen no degradation in our 2012 care and seeing our upcoming 2013 coverage little changed. What, specifically, “now it’s a mountain”, are you talking about ?
“seeing our upcoming 2013 coverage little changed.”
Okay, so you’re a union/public sector employee. That’s good to know, not quite a surprise but it explains a lot. See at my company my HSA went up $22 a paycheck. I realize for some $500 a year isn’t that much but for me it is. As far as the “mountain”, you brought that up not me. Also, they had majorities in both houses and didn’t do anything other than destroy our healthcare system. You can announce who’s who, but overall they had control. Sorry I called you on it.
$22 a paycheck with the AKA. Can you document what it would have went up (or down) without the AKA ? “. . . destroy the healthcare system.” If that were true why haven’t healthcare stocks collapsed ? They haven’t — they’ve held up quite well. “Destroy . . . ” is pure nonsense.
Here is a link to check some mutual funds. Just click on the funds to see the graphs.
http://search.fidelity.com/search/getFundFactsResults?question=healthcare&refpr=rmf1&refpr=MFRes_001&MFff=healthcare&x=14&y=18
“ACA” not “AKA” (also know as)
Smith,
The mandatory enrollment part of ACA won’t kick in for another year.
The cost of health care and health insurance has been going up for a long time. How come it took an effort on the part of the federal government to bring those costs under control for conservatives to notice?
Would it be too boring to point out that the idea for the insurance mandate originated with the Heritage Foundation, was implemented in Massachusetts when by Romney when he was governor, has been in place in other countries—like Germany—for decades and the sky didn’t fall and the world didn’t end
” . . . won’t kick in for another year.” The ACA launched a preemptive strike against the likes of Abernathy.
The only thing that will be accomplished today is, this give President Obama a chance to flaunt to romney a big white house he wasn’t able to buy or live in with all his money.
I bet if they put their minds to it they could down at least 3 dozen chicken wings between the two of them. That’s about the most I’d expect them to accomplish in the meeting.