How I spent my Friday evening.

Arctic winds and subzero temperatures?  Staying in sounds right.  What's on TV?  Nothing good- the Celtics were losing to the Hawks, nothing good on HBO....what's this on C-SPAN?  A question and answer session between the President and the Republican caucus?  I admit it.  I geeked out and watched the whole thing. 

Here's C-SPAN's video footage of the event.  Here's a transcript.

-----

There were times where I felt like Dr. Phil and Oprah should have been moderating.  The subtext of the debate was the highlight of the night.  Here's how it went:

Republicans:  'You don't listen to us and do what we say!'
Obama:  'I don't listen to you if you call me names'.
Republicans:  'Here's our idea which is way better than yours.  Why don't you do it?'
Obama (smirking): 'Because we won in 2008 and you didn't.  And you're still calling me names.'

-----

So how successful was this event for Obama?  Fox News cut away from live coverage with 20 minutes left to go.  MSNBC combined Keith Olberman's prime time show with Rachel Maddow's to broadcast the whole thing with a lot of high praise for Obama.  Fox News didn't show it at all and went ahead with their usual Bill O'Reilly fluff.  I think that says a lot about how well Obama handled the rhetorical grenades lobbed at him from the Republican caucus.  Mike Madden at Salon.com had the best wrap up.