Keller @ Large: Obama Needs To Be At His Most Persuasive On Syria
BOSTON (CBS) - You will be seeing a lot of the president Monday, as he does a round of TV interviews at the start of a full-court press for congressional authorization to attack Syria.
The result of these interviews, and a presidential address to the nation Tuesday night, will be approval of what the administration wants, predicts White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.
Meanwhile, a USA Today survey finds that "only a small fraction" of Congress are openly supporting military action against Assad.
Listen to Jon's commentary:
Keller at Large Sept 9 2013
That is putting an awfully heavy burden on presidential rhetoric to reverse what seems like an overwhelming political backlash against his plan.
Perhaps there are more open minds than it seems. If you're one of them, what do you need to hear from the president over the next two days to bring you around?
It's not as if his core argument hasn't already been made repeatedly by Sec. of State Kerry and the president himself.
Syria broke the rules by using chemical weapons. The video of the carnage is revolting. They have to be punished, and since no one else will do it, we and the French have to.
But that doesn't seem to be working.
The cliché of the moment is that the public is "war-weary." Maybe some of us are also shock-weary and outrage-weary, so deluged with horrifying video and foreign atrocities that they're starting to lose impact.
Perhaps others are rhetoric-weary and spin-weary, having heard a few too many speeches and self-serving platitudes out of Washington, especially on foreign policy.
Whatever the reasons, the president will need to be at his most persuasive to turn this around.
Hard to do, if the audience isn't really tuning in.
You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.
