Will Obama jobs speech conflict with NFL season-opener?
Updated: 2:58 p.m. ET
Now that President Obama has consented to move his jobs speech to from Wednesday, Sept. 7 to Thursday, Sept. 8 - thus avoiding a conflict with the GOP presidential debate on that Wednesday - focus is shifting to whether the president's speech might conflict with another major television event: the NFL's season-opening game.
The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it had requested a joint session of Congress so that the president could deliver a major jobs speech on Sept. 7 - the same night as a long-since-planned Republican presidential debate. But House Speaker John Boehner rebuffed that request, and after a messy back-and-forth between the two camps, Mr. Obama conceded to Boehner's request that he move the speech back one day.
Now, Mr. Obama will deliver his remarks the same night as the first NFL game of the season - between the Greenbay Packers and the New Orleans Saints. The timing of the speech has yet to be solidified, but the White House confirmed that it would not conflict with the game.
"I can assure you, for all you football fans, that he will be completed before kickoff," White House Spokesman Jay Carney said in his Thursday press briefing.
Some speculate that the president will go on at 7:30, an hour before kickoff, which would likely interrupt the NBC pregame show.
According to ProFootballTalk.com, which is part of NBCSports.com, the network is working out a resolution.
"We're aware of the situation and are communicating with the NFL," an NBC spokesperson told the website.
When asked if, given the revised timing of the speech, Mr. Obama's remarks could be considered the "pre-game show," Carney laughed.
"It means that he'll have the opportunity to watch the game like millions of other Americans," he said.
In an apparent attempt to put the scheduling kerfuffle behind the White House, Carney told reporters "you are making so much more of this than is merited" and emphasized that the president's goal was to speak to Congress and the American people - not engage in a political "sideshow."
"Our focus from the beginning was to have the president have the opportunity to speak to the American people and to Congress...at the soonest possible date," Carney said. "When [Wednesday] seemed to be a problem, Thursday was fine with us."
"All we care about here is that we address the issues that are important," he continued.
Dismissing what he described as the press's "obsession" with the scheduling conflict, Carney added that the American people "do not give a lick about what day next week the president speaks before Congress."
"The issues matter far more than this," he said.
