2011 State of the Union Speech
Well, it was a pretty bland evening. And that’s a good thing, what with the Tucson Massacre and all, which came on the heels of ten years of mutual hatred bordering on open warfare in this country.
Obama did a good job of speaking in generalities that most of us can agree on. He referred to our global competitive disadvantage as a “Sputnik moment” (which somebody else already used a month or two ago). My personal favorite phrase of Obama’s, referring to two years of shouting over “Obamacare,” was “Let’s fix what needs fixing, and move forward.”
In the few moments between Obama’s SOTU speech and Paul Ryan’s rebuttal, I remembered why I hardly ever listen to news “analysis” on TV. I forget who the blubbering heads were, but their consensus was that Obama “forgot” to mention gun control. This was his brief window — a golden opportunity — to captivate the nation with an impassioned plea for gun control. And that was when I turned off the TV, thinking “oooookey, well I guess I forgot too.”
And then came Paul Ryan. He seemed almost likeable, in that class nerd/Howdy Doody sort of way. (He and Bobby Jindal must have had the same public speaking instructor.) I was prepared to hate him, based on his most famous quote: “We need a better senate, and we need Obama out of the White House.” But, as the Biblethumping community always says (as if they actually meant it), “hate the sin, love the sinner.”
He was nowhere near as combative or obnoxious as I expected, but of course he had to trot out the Far Right’s done-to-death “failed stimulus” soundbite. Maybe some of the thousands of people whose jobs were SAVED by that “failed stimulus” would have a different description, and/or a few colorful expletives for Paul Ryan.
And since the Teabag Nation is so far to the right they make most Republicans (i.e. RINOs) look like Communists, tonight’s format was changed from good cop / bad cop to good cop, bad cop and badass rogue motherfucker you don’t EVEN want to fuck with.
Enter Michele Bachmann. Paul Ryan’s wimpy milquetoast response was the exact kind of spineless “apologizing for America” wussery that our Founding Fathers warned us about.
If you do a search, you’ll probably find a video of Michele Bachman’s “He-Man Rebuttal to the Pussy Rebuttal” speech. But be warned: Do NOT look into those eyes, or — or…you…will…become…one…of…THEM…Yes Master, I am ready. We must get on with Our Mission…
Labels: failed stimulus, Michele Bachmann, Paul Ryan rebuttal, President Obama State of the Union speech, SOTU, Sputnik moment, State of the Union 2011
posted by Tom Harper @ 8:54 PM
9 Comments:
I have missed SOTU speeches before, but never on purpose. Last night I purposefully skipped it. I skipped it because I was sure I would be disappointed and after watching the camera pan over the leaders of my country, I would just get pissed off all over again. Until Obama decides to grow a set and stand up to the Bullying Right and until the Right decide to actually work for the country instead of themselves, I will turn off the tube when one of them poisons my home with their image. Useless and dangerous, the whole lot of them.
Tom you can never prove that jobs were saved. It's just another Democrat talking point. can bet if Bush had made that claim your post would be "Bush lies"
but this was the best line of the night if you ask me:
"It's no coincidence that trust in government is at an all time low when the size of the government is at an all-time high."
Lisa
You wasted your time with that when you could have been watching the 8-36, oops, 8-37 Cadavaliers?
You weren't reading between the lines with Ryan's speech. He's still on point with republican talking points. They'd like nothing more than lower corporate taxes to near zero, privatize social security and give grandma a voucher for health care that wouldn't cover anything. My biggest gripe is that Obama will go right along with them on much of this. How exactly do they expect government to invest without spending money? And the republican agenda on cuts is not pretty. But of course we can't touch Defense or Homeland Security spending where over half of our tax dollars are spent even though we're fighting two unfunded wars.
They have blame Obama but Bush spent more than all presidents combined and most was off the books.
I think Obama made a good general-outline drawn in generalities-type speech.It's what SOTU addresses must be these days.
Ryan is an idiot. I suspect he really believes more and bigger doses of what brought our economy down will fix it. Kind of like if you run your car 60,000 miles without an oil change, the warning light comes on, it's belching blue smoke, the thing to do is floor it and drive another 500 miles.
Bachmann is an opportunistic lunatic. She should be doing cover stories for The Star or National Enquirer. You know, "280-Pound Pregnant Male Wrestler Gives Birth to Twins!"
Wasn't it swell of the Fox wannabes at CNN to broadcast Bachmann's lunacy? The Conservative News Network's desperation is getting to be embarrassing. Sort of like seeing the nice lady you had for a teacher in third grade, now retired, was just busted for passing bad checks at the mall.
Amusing about how the factcheck-proven job savings from the stimulus gets the scorn. What was the stimulus needed for again? Oh, yeah, the job-killing economic crash caused by the failed presidency of GWB. The stimulus gets the blame and the eco-catastrophe that required stimulus is ignored.
Narrow minds, narrow views.
MRM: I like it for the annual ritual and the entertainment value.
Lisa: I think people are more concerned with how well government works, not how big or small it is. Obama said something like that 2 years ago but I don't remember the exact wording.
Randal: Speaking of Cadavaliers -- you should have been Boehner standing motionless and expressionless during the SOTU speech.
Demeur: Oh I know what Ryan was saying. I was just surprised he sugarcoated it with his Howdy Doody imitation. I always pictured him as more of a firebrand.
SW: I think Obama's speech was appropriate. There's a time for fighting fire with fire, but last night wasn't it.
I still haven't watched Bachmann's speech. When I linked to that article, the video wasn't on there yet. Now it's the first thing that comes up, but I don't know if I'll bother watching or not. A person can only listen to so much teabagging in one day.
Dave: You liberal elitists are all the same -- Blame Bush :)
I thought that giving a speech designed to be pretty hard to make a decent rebuttal to was a good idea. The GOP has moved the political spectrum so far to the right that I for one don't mind so much when the president has to take a centrist stand in order to help convince more independent voters that they might just want to vote Democrat next time around.
Sure, it does seem the Dems are becoming Republican Lite any more... but in nearly all cases, I prefer the centrists over those on the far right, who have made it so that a far left candidate is almost akin to an atheist in the minds of voters.
If the president is a centrist, that means he will be working across the aisle with the other guys, whether we like it or not. Recent polls have suggested that is one of the main things Americans want, for Congress to work together. Obama and the Dems will give a bit and move to the center. If the other guys refuse to, they will be the ones seem as refuseniks and do-nothings, and they will be out of office in a couple of short years.
I would prefer to see someone stand up to the GOP and be more combative with them, but I also think things need to heal a bit. Get Obama re-elected, and get a Democratic Congress back, and then move ahead with a few of the things the Dems tried to do before getting derailed this time... but next time, do it in a more incremental manner. There are ways to get things done. I'm not sure the health care reform was the best thing to do during a time of recession when people were upset and angry about jobs, but now in hindsight it was the only window of opportunity we had for health care reform.
Disgusting stuff, this politic! 8-)
Snave: You're right, it's disgusting stuff. I don't know why I keep wallowing in all this political filth. Some sick part of me must like it.
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