Posted on 04/29/2009 12:42:59 PM PDT by kristinn
New York, New York – April 29th, 2009 - The National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition (http://www.nationwideteapartycoalition.com) today accepted President Obama`s invitation "to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we are going to stabilize Social Security.”
The invitation was extended by the President at a Town Hall Meeting held in Arnold, Missouri today (http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21870.html). Michael Patrick Leahy, a member of the National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, said " We want to broaden the scope to address the President`s runaway march to socialist-statism, and the rampant across the board irresponsible spending he is promoting with his $787 Billion Stimulus Plan and his $1 Trillion Annual Deficit, his takeover of General Motors, Chrysler and the Banks ."
Kellen Giuda, organizer of the New York City Tea party attended by 12,000 and of Parcbench (http://www.parcbench.com) said, “I think a constructive dialogue with the President would be a great opportunity for him to acknowledge that, yes, many Americans have a problem with the way Washington is handling our taxpayer dollars and also that we are concerned about health care and social security reform. I am happy he is open to a discussion. The Tea Parties are protesting against fiscal irresponsibility and any dialogue we can have will hopefully bring a better public understanding of our country`s finances. Health care and social security reform is a large concern to us."
The National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition includes 25 of the more than 900 local organizers of the April 15, 2009 Tax Day Tea Parties held across the country, which were attended by more than 1 million Americans. Members of the National Leadership Team includes Judson Phillips, organizer of the Nashville Tea Party attended by 10,000, James Dickey, organizer of the Dallas Tea Party, attended by 5,000, and JoAnn Abbot, organizer of the Washington, DC Tea Party attended by more than 3,000. The full list of the 25 members of the National Leadership Team of the Nationwide Tea Party Coalition can be found at http://www.nationwideteapartycoalition.com/about.php
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Exactly. Axelrod, and Gibbels (Gibbs), and Rahm will eat these people for lunch, and in the process destroy the entire movement... (Does anyone know if Bob aka Thomas Paine on YouTube ever went to meet Obama? I know Obama offered, and there was a thread here warning him not to go... Just curious what happened with that)
Now, if we want to “get” Obama - as in expose him - we will somehow have to define the issue, make it “simple” but strong like “he is subverting the Constitution with all of his policies”, and then put HIM on the defensive. Make him explain HOW these new policies and laws AREN’T Unconstitutional, or what in the Constitution gives him the right to do some of the things he’s already done (like take over the management of GM)... His answers to those questions — just like when Joe the Plumber asked about redistribution of wealth — would be worth their weight in Gold, IMHO.
Don’t ask me exactly how we get him to come to US though. We’re playing with the “big boys” here, and it won’t be easy, that’s for sure...
And, thank you for pulling out that part of my post... I knew what I was trying to say, but I had so many things I wanted to express that it was hard to get it all out coherently! LOL
I believe that's why Rush didn't get involved with his local party. Better to have it be what it was, a true grassroots effort. No need to give it a single figurehead that could be attacked.
Good posts, all.
These protests were about much more than taxes. And our local one was organized by the college Republicans. You might not like that...but SOMEONE had to say where and when.
Our congressman is Phil Hare and it was outside his office. His soon to be opponent has commented on Hare’s statements after the teaparty.
http://www.bobby2010.com/blog/?p=17
The opposition and the media are the ones that tried to make this about one issue. Taxes. It was about much more.
They have to be concerned.
As I said, I’ve no problem with someone meeting with Obama as long as it is videotaped and disseminated for access to all tea-partiers. And it is made clear that there is no central organization for the tea parties.
It would be more interesting than watching a press conference with a bunch of softball questions.
Here is an email I just sent to one of our fellow Freepers:
As you know, I was an organizer of the LA tea parties in Los Angeles on Feb. 27th and April 15th, and am an organizer of the July 4th tea party in LA. I was contacted by Michael Leahy of TCOT who asked if I was interested in having my name on a letter challenging Obama to meet with us. I said sure. Why not?
The fact is that there will be no meeting, and there never was going to be a meeting.
We knew that Obama wouldn’t meet with us when we sent the letter. The purpose was to show that he is a liar and that when he said he wished the tea party people would meet with him and come up with ideas on how to solve the health care problems and social security problems, he was bluffing. We decided to call his bluff.
Now we have his recorded statement that he wished we would contact him. We accepted his invitation in writing. He will not respond and we can use that in the future.
No one on the list claims that we are speaking for any tea party organizers other than ourselves. We came up with a name for a coalition so that the press would feel that there was a legitimate organization requesting to meet with Obama, at his suggestion. No one in this group is trying to usurp the leadership of the tea party movement, which is truly a grass-roots movement. There is no national leadership group.
Tell everyone not to get their pants in an uproar, we knew nothing would come of it, and we didn’t mean to frighten or offend any of our fellow tea party organizers. This was solely a press play to call his bluff.
By the way, as you know, I am a member of Free Republic, and few people are more conservative than me. That is in response to the people who said that we were all RINOs.
The fact is that there will be no meeting, and there never was going to be a meeting.
We knew that Obama wouldn’t meet with us when we sent the letter. The purpose was to show that he is a liar and that when he said he wished the tea party people would meet with him and come up with ideas on how to solve the health care problems and social security problems, he was bluffing. We decided to call his bluff.
Now we have his recorded statement that he wished we would contact him. We accepted his invitation in writing. He will not respond and we can use that in the future.
No one on the list claims that we are speaking for any tea party organizers other than ourselves. We came up with a name for a coalition so that the press would feel that there was a legitimate organization requesting to meet with Obama, at his suggestion. No one in this group is trying to usurp the leadership of the tea party movement, which is truly a grass-roots movement. There is no national leadership group.
Tell everyone not to get their pants in an uproar, we knew nothing would come of it, and we didn’t mean to frighten or offend any of our fellow tea party organizers. This was solely a press play to call his bluff.
By the way, as you know, I am a member of Free Republic, and few people are more conservative than me. That is in response to the people who said that we were all RINOs.
Leahy has stated on his blog that he wants a CONCON.
You need to be open about this, I don't think many Freepers will support the CONCON idea. It is deadly dangerous to our Nation.
Thanks for the PING...
Thanks for the PING...
imho,
The ONLY reason OThuga would meet with such Patriots would be
to collect information
with which to hurt them as individuals and as a movement.
That’s the ONLY reason I can imagine that he’d bother.
He doesn’t give a flip about public opinion on the matter.
He’s Jr God, in his view. He couldn’t be bothered to “stoop” to those he’s not tall enough to lick the bottoms of their shoes.
Yep, Michael Patrick Leahey????? I know people have the same name; but this? Also, I would like to know who they are and when this little conversation is going to take place.
I agree.
Zero and the MSM mocked the tea parties. Why suddenly are they meaningful enough to invite leaders of the movement to the White House? It’s a set up, IMO. I was at the Sacramento Tea Party and Mark Meckler was introduced as helping to set up the Sacramento Tea Party among others. Was he invited to the WH?
FreeRepublic definition of "Conservative":
"Whatever it is, it sure as hell ain't YOU!!!"
Exactly. I don’t know these people and I am not sure I like them meeting with Obama.
DING DING DING DING!!! We have a WINNAH, no more calls, please!
We were WARNED about false-flag ops among the Tea Party Movement, and lo and behold...
What leadership? I didn’t vote for any steenking leadership.
Some of the largest tea parties were in:
San Antonio
Atlanta
Sacramento
I don’t see any names for those cities in the list; Mark Meckler helped lead the Sacramento Tea Party and his name is no where on that list.
Obama is using a PR ploy to neuter the movement before it expands. I see Axelrod being behind this photo op.
Don’t do it, kristinn.
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