Speech Spat: Obama Irks GOP Over NFL on Jobs Plan Timing

We can give you a one-word reason why President Obama will not accede to House Speaker John Boehner's request this afternoon to move his jobs-plan speech next week to Thursday from Wednesday. Well, actually, it's one acronym: NFL.

As White House staffer Dan Pfeiffer announced on Twitter, Obama scheduled a Joint Session of Congress for the evening of September 7 so that the entire august body could gather, before a nationwide television audience, to hear the president lay out his long-promised new initiative for creating jobs and getting the U.S. economy back on track.

The jobs speech announcement, which followed Obama's call on Congress to pass key transportation measures to protect jobs, raised some eyebrows because the September 7 timing would precisely conflict with a live televised debate of Republican presidential contenders (already rescheduled back in May) at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, to be broadcast on MSNBC.

The Washington Post is already calling it the Speech Spat, and a knock on the Democrats and Republicans.

In pushing back at Obama to move his speech yet again to September 8, Boehner risks getting in hot water with pro-football fans — including many Republicans — because that's the NFL's big kickoff night for the start of its once-threatened 2011/12 season, featuring the last two Super Bowl champions, the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints, playing at Lambeau Field.

Not only that, but there wil be a pre-game show on NBC beginning at 7:30 pm ET with mega-music stars Kid Rock, Lady Antebellum and Maroon 5.

So it's your move, Mr. President: Do you want the wrath of Boehner on your head — even if the Speaker's office failed to notice the conflict — or the wrath of Lombardi? [Update: It's now the 8th and the wrath of Lombardi.]