If the package Obama outlined last night was actually a compromise that Obama got the Republican Congressional leadership to agree to, I might even consider this fairly poorly designed plan a decent deal. The problem is that this jobs package isn’t going to pass, so this speech wasn’t about policy, it was about messaging. In the middle of what should have been a speech about getting Americans back to work, Obama very publicly endorsed putting Medicare and Medicaid on the deficit-reduction chopping block.

President Obama has requested a joint session of Congress to address them on the issue of jobs creation. The time he chose for this speech is September 7th at 8 pm, which happens to be the exact same time as the next Republican Presidential primary debate.