Avlon: Boehner, Obama Need a Cigarette Summit
John Avlon writes at CNN.com:
On Tuesday afternoon, President Obama will meet with Republican Congressional leaders for the first time since the midterm election. The White House meeting had been dubbed the "Slurpee summit," but it's going to take something stronger than a flavored ice shake to cut through the deep distrust that's accumulated between these two parties.
The Kool-Aid that gets passed around Washington most often these days is the belief that our political opponents are sworn enemies. It is an idea compounded by partisan media that demonizes even minor disagreements.
But it wasn't always this way. In the past, Democrats and Republicans could disagree on policies throughout the day, then meet together for a drink or dinner. Their children went to school together. Their families saw each other on the weekends or at worship services. But now congressmen fly home from Washington as often as possible.
There is very little time for across-the-aisle socializing and much more time for accusing opponents of being socialist. Our political leaders don't get to know each other as people.
That's where the cigarette comes in. It's a strange fact that Obama and speaker-elect John Boehner have been known to smoke, while the majority of Americans have given up this once common vice. It is a streak of illogic and self-destructiveness in otherwise disciplined and ambitious men who have climbed to the top of their field without wheezing.
So if Boehner and Obama are both going to be tempted to sneak out for a smoke at some point during their bipartisan summit, here's a suggestion: Do it together. Have an honest off-the-record conversation and get to know each other as individuals.
These two men come from very different backgrounds. Boehner was one of a dozen children whose father ran a bar in Ohio; Obama was raised by a single mother in Hawaii after his father returned to Africa. But they are both examples of the American dream, and they both love their country. Sharing a smoke is an opportunity to acknowledge that they're both hugely accomplished but still flawed individuals.
It's an opportunity to admit that, yes, they have serious philosophical differences but that, for the good of the country, they need to find a way to work together, and that begins with a conversation.
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