Lights, Camera, ‘Question Time’!

On first glance, it would also lessen the ability of the president to control the debate, subjecting him to the randomness of whichever questions happen to get asked. (Just as campaign-debate questions have since 1960.) But this is a good thing. Presidents aspire to a sense of control that is usually an illusion. "Events are in the saddle and tend to ride mankind," Ralph Waldo Emerson said. The trick is to get on top of those events. Having to plan for the questions from members of Congress would have the same effect as preparing for a press conference or campaign debate; the discipline better informs the president about what's going on in the government and the country. Then, when the cameras roll, the president has a chance to show his mastery over Congress and to move his agenda. Question Time thus becomes another tool for communicating and for making one's own luck.

When I asked Obama's campaign about the idea, I got a hedged answer. That's too bad, because it could be a fresh and exciting way for Obama to convey that he's serious about genuine structural change in the way Washington works. The press should press him to match McCain on this one, and prove that he trusts transparency, whatever the risks. McCain would be the most superstitious president since FDR. He insists on lucky shoes, lucky coins, lucky everything. Obama religiously plays basketball on the morning of every primary—skill meets superstition. To fulfill the unrealistic expectations now attached to him, he needs to try new games of chance, like the ones he has won before.

© 2008