State of play -- live-blogging the SOTU
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State of play -- live-blogging the SOTU
10:20 p.m.: Thank you, Mr. President, and good night.
This was clearly the best speech of Obama's presidency, not that there was much to compete against, and probably his best speech since the race speech in Philadelphia, which was nearly two years ago. Watching Rachel Maddow now on MSNBC -- she referred to his "playful feistiness," which I do think is the operative phrase for the night.
But at the end of the day, it's still a speech. In a matter of hours, everyone will probably be back in the trenches and we'll see how politically viable any of these ideas are. It was smart, politically, for Obama to upload all the most populist stuff in the front, when more people are paying attention. Certainly he's hoping the anti-banker stuff will be remembered.
I also think he did a good job dealing with the GOP, calling for bipartisanship a lot but challenging them to support things that Republicans should support -- tax cuts, hello? -- and challenging them to applaud things like...health care. Just watched Chris Matthews going off on the GOP as a party that " sits on his keiser and chuckles in the middle of a recession."
Speaking of Republicans, here is Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell, with a live audience, looking a lot less deadly that the awful Bobby Jindal moment last year. He is hammering the GOP message that is working so well -- anti-deficit, anti-spending, anti-health care. I'd be interested to know where he comes up with his info that America has the best health care in the world.
9:59 p.m.: Sorry for the gap -- believe it or not I was also writing the speech story for the newspaper on deadline. Welcome to newspaper world, 2010. Anyway, I think on the whole Obama is both feistier and looser than he's been his entire presidency, and these are good things. But when we wake up tomorrow he'll still have his "59-vote minority."
To Democrats: "People expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills?" Yup. Gives GOP "responsibility" because of its filibusters -- probably will get grief for that.
It was fascinating to see the lack of applause for the spending freeze and for the bipartisan deficit commission that no one seems to want -- why were these bad and unpopular ideas even in there?
9:43 p.m.: The audacity of...cash? Plans for college tuition tax credits, etc., don't sound the fiscal restraint that was ballyhooed. POTUS gets a good laugh for saying that health care reform wasn't good politics. Man, Michele still looks...not happy.
9:35 p.m. Yes, nukes, and a partial shout out to "drill baby drill." Hard to disagree on the nukes -- risks are greatly outweighed by risks from greehouse gases. Bonus points for direct challenge to climate-change deniers.
9:31 p.m.: "China's out there creating jobs" -- ouch!
Why does ever-nodding Biden remind me of Ed McMahon back there -- waiting for him to say, "You are correct, sir!"
9:24 p.m.: First shout-out to Philly! Somewhere in this town, someone is making windows with stimulus cash. Good for them.
Obama calls for a new jobs bill...good luck with that. He is more combative and looser than he's been in a while -- it's the "No Excuses" tour.
Lots of Tim Geithner reaction shots -- the guy looks dazed and confused. Also, a shout-out to community banks -- Arianna Huffington must be doing handstands right now. No capital gains taxes on small businesses...sounds very Bushian.
9:17 p.m.: Obama says he's "never been more hopeful" than he is now. Good line, but are you feeling it? He said he "hated" the bank bailout, but U-rate might be double. Calls it "the last administration's efforts" -- yup. People still hate it, though.
9:10 p.m. Looks like Obama just bowed to Joe Biden. Why is he always apologizing for America>
And the state of the union is....strong! OK, good nigh...oh, wait, there's more.
9:06 p.m. Breaking news: Obama stuns world with red tie -- why is his wife glaring at him?
Speaking of substance, here's what the president will say on health care:
“By the time I’m finished speaking tonight, more Americans will have lost their health insurance,” Obama said. “Millions will lose it this year. Our deficit will grow. Premiums will go up. Co-pays will go up. Patients will be denied the care they need. Small business owners will continue to drop coverage altogether. I will not walk away from these Americans. And neither should the people in this chamber.”
OK, but what are you going to do?
8:57 p.m.: I suppose I should blog something about the First Lady's dress -- but hey, I'm not a fashion writer. Looks nice enough.
Luckiest woman tonight is...Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She's more concerned about the state of the union...of Yemen, at a conference she's attending in London/
8:45 p.m.: Keith Olbermann calls on Obama to mimic FDR's famed 1936 speech bashing "economic royalists." I agree! Here's an excerpt from 74 years ago:
These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike.
Uh, look...Obama's not going to say that.
8:30 p.m. Cueless pundit Mark Halperin said on MSNBC that Obama’s prepared remarks were more Dukakis, the failed 1988 Democratic hopeful, than Ronald Reagan. Replied “Hardball” host Chris Matthews of the comparison to the former Massachusetts governor” “That’s cruel. That capital punishment. Don’t put him in the tank...literally.”
Hey guys, Dukakis was surely a weak candidate -- but he's a decent fellow who's still around. Don't talk about him like he was a serial killer.
Welcome to Attytood's long-awaited live blogging of President Obama's first State of the Union (really, it just feels like he's already done four or five of these). You know the drill -- pithy and usually inane observations, appearing in reverse order.
So the two options on philly.com for the 0bama SOTU address are Dick Polman and Will The Shill Bunch - two 0bamatons.... Another reason I will never pay one dime for either paper. No diversity of thought. Unfair and unbalanced.— fafafooey
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President Obama has given more speeches in the last year than Will Bunch has sold books.— Mr. Smith- He's wearing a red tie because he sounds like a republican. All I've heard so far is tax cuts. Ohh...and how tax cuts lead to job creation.— dragoon6
- SOTU address: Let me be clear. Everything bad is Bush's Fault, everything I do is good and working. At least that's what the teleprompter says. Good night.— fafafooey
- Geithner got the stuffing knocked out of him by the House Financial Services Committee this morning, with the usual grandstanding by people who don't understand financial services. Dude just wants to go home.— BlairW
- This is an awfully cocky speech for a guy who hasn't really accomplished all that much. And I hope Pelosi breaks a hip leaping up to start her self-congratulatory applause.— BlairW
- any fact checking on the story of the Philadelphia window maker mentioned at the beginning of the speech?— cscoville
- Yo fafa ... what do YOO mean no diversity of thought? They have "Man on Dog" Santorum, Smerconish (SP?) and the King of All Torture Justifiers fer chrissakes ... how many bozos do you want to balanxe the intelligent commentary from Bunch and Polman
- LOVE that Alito shook his head and clearly said "That's not true" when Barry tried to throw SCOTUS under the bus. Love it.— BlairW
- I cannot believe the hubris of this President. He just loves to hear himself talk and he thinks we believe him because he said it is true. LMAO.— msvndy
- GOP = Hate. tsk, tsk— luvgia
- I need a barf bag watching the republican governor from Virginia...what's his name....speak. He sounds and looks like one of those husbands straight out of the movie Stepford Wives. Does he spend his weekends in Stepford, CT?— CommonSense in Philly
- Mr. Baseball, you mean Santorum who writes something about once a month (then gets attacked by the other columnists), and you mean the Smerconish that endorsed 0bama last year? What a balance. Compared to Will The Shill who writes an opinion blog every day plus then writes "news" articles (no conflict there...), Polman who is a mean spirited Democrat bootlicker, Fatima Ali, John Baer, Karen Heller, Elmer Smith, Harold Jackson, Mark Bowden, and Trudy Rubin... all dyed-in-the-wool liberals. Yeah, that's some balance.— fafafooey
- Democrats = Hate. So sad.— fafafooey
- CommonSense in Philly: DITTO!— luvgia
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So much hate from the right for the President of the United States. When life is this empty for most of them hate fills their lives and gives them purpose. That's why they love to come here every day and spew their hate for Will, emptying the hate that fills their souls is the definition of their lives. They really must hate the country to work so hard to undermine its leader.
The speech encouraged me. Someone like bill atk. missed the inspirational part, which ALWAYS comes at the end. But once again I thought that for the most part the Republic response showed more agreement with Obama than disagreement. There were only a couple of places in McDonnel's speech where he suggested something different from what Obama proposed--and in at least one of those, his "facts" about Obama's policies were clearly wrong.- "Well, she thought she married a man, not an empty suit wimp." And b. atk. knows his men. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
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- ---}}} This clown is as self-centered as a spoiled child. 'I', 'Me', 'My'...my God, {{{---}}}} And once again, batboy proves that he has yet to find a clue: --snip-- Howard Fineman counted the pronouns in the presidents U.N. speech and concluded that he is too impressed with his own aura. Other columnists have sounded the same note. George Will said that Obama was inordinately fond of the first-person-singular pronoun and described him as ego tripping when he used those pronouns 26 times in his speech to the Olympic Committee at Copenhagen.... It turned out that Clinton and the two Bush's all used first-person pronouns anywhere from 50 to 70 percent more often than Obama does. Stanley Fish took up the same motif in the New York Times. He counted the first-person-singular pronouns in Obama's speech on the General Motors bankruptcy and announced that it signaled the emergence of an imperial I... Obama actually used those first-person pronouns less frequently in the GM speech than he did in his speeches in Grand Park or at the Democratic Convention. ...those misperceptions suggest that Will and Fish are suffering from what psychologists call confirmation bias. If you're convinced that Obama is uppity or arrogant, you're going to fix on every pronoun that seems to confirm that opinion. But you cant help thinking that there's a measure of projection here as well. --snip--— Talking point sleuth
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- Obama = Contradictions. (where were you tonight Joe Wilson?)— keapitreal
- Ok, Barry. You talked a decent game. Now make it happen. So far you have delivered on: no seat at the table for lobbyists-failed, no earmarks-failed, posting legislation online-failed, debates broadcast on Cspan-failed, no tax increases on the middle class-failed, an end to business as usual in DC-failed. At this point, if he delivers on one single thing from the SOTU I will consider Obama Year 2 an improvement.— pjsz1261
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- JohnGualt and keapitreal: Don't ever enter any spelling bees.
- "And who is this insignificant little twit to be browbeating the Supreme Court." He's the President of the United States, that's who. Why didn't you just add "boy" to the sentence?
- "the prez better hope the "birthers" don't get a case before the scotus...you don't just go attacking another branch without expecting some push back...he sure is one dumb genius" So you're saying our right wing activist Supreme Court would rule out of malice than out of an objective sense of justice and rule of law? What a surprise.
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- why is he so worried about blaming others? where are the solutions?— B-Rooster
- Oh, I'm sorry JohnGault. Obama = LIES (better?)— keapitreal
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This is a failed president. He uses his only gift, public speaking as a dodge to deflect the failure of his year in office. The American public never asked to turn America into a Marxist state. Now, desparate, Obama is trying to use all the words he can muster to spin this and obfuscate from reality. But here's the final reality: Obama has resorted to lying to frequently and so often, that anything that comes forth from the PPH ( Presidential Pie Hole) is suspect. Who can belive this man. His mentors were communists like Franklin Marshal Davis and Saul Alinsky. He can wrap himself in sheep's clothing, and try to sound reasonable for a this speech, but his history and associations are there for all to see in the books he himself penned! All you need do is buy and read his books to see the plan he has to deconstruct our nations, and refashion it in the image of his Marxist friends.— Yermak29- Comment removed.
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- I thought American Idol was from LA last nite.....— AngryWhiteMale
- No shout out about the Toyota recall?— AngryWhiteMale
- Still cant get past the make-up...oh, thats Pelosi....— AngryWhiteMale
Will, good job babysitting the kids last night. Republicans not cheering tax cuts. Priceless.- "Just when you think democrats can't sink any lower, this joker offends/ interferes with/ insults the judiciary, a co-equal branch of government in the hallowed chambers of our government." . . . . . . I guess you can tear down another myth, Will. Reagan never criticized Roe v Wade.
- Oops... http://www.entertonement.com/clips/mqhktrhfsv--Unborn-childrenRonald-Reagan-The-Evil-Empire-Politics-News-
- "Obama is a someone we have never seen before in the Presidency: a completely soulless man." Don't know about that. We've had nothing but white men as presidents. And as everyone who has seen them dance knows, white men don't have soul.
- "Should be picking cotton", "he's a boy". Yet the right claims not to be motivated by race. RRRRRRRRRRiiiigghht
- John Boy: You need to stop with the weed. It is really making you paranoid.
- "any fact checking on the story of the Philadelphia window maker mentioned at the beginning of the speech?" . . . . . . http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20090823_Nowhere_but_up__Window-maker_feels_stimulus_.html
- LOL! John Gualt, please do keep posting. Oh, and Yermak29 and batboy do keep posting as well. It just hilarious when RG claims that folks like y'all don't exist.— Talking point sleuth
- "Don't know about that. We've had nothing but white men as presidents. And as everyone who has seen them dance knows, white men don't have soul". Hook,line.sinker.— (reeducated)Yankee Air Pirate
- "This is an all time low for the American political system with this monkey running the show. Have fun growing watermelons and cooking fried chicken for the next occupants in the White House come 2012 Massa Obama and Lady Horse Michelle." . . . . . . . . . And there's your Republican response to the SOTU.
- Next MSL we'll be hearing how it is the Democrats who are the true racists and not the right wing
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- "Another reason I will never pay one dime for either paper." . . . . . . That hardly explains why you read it online. Are terrorists holding an Uzi to your head?
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- 71% polled last night now believe Obama's moving the country in the right direction (CNN/ORC). So, you're right BOHICA, you should be sad.
- "Now, if only we can silence, demote or be rid of the McCains and Grahams who are unreliable at best." . . . . . . . Channeling Dick the Butcher?
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- Wow, batty, you're right - desperate times call for desperate spin. I state a fact, you quote spin.
- "All to try and save the incompetent little boy they elected. lol" You mean cotton pickin, watermelon eating, barbeque chicken eating boy, don't you? *Note to censors: if you can't figure it out for yourselves, the above is meant as sarcasm. Except for right wing posters, who post it as "humor". Hopefully you can distinguish this and not censor me. Thank you*
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- The telepromter shots are old and sort of ridiculous. the last guy couldn't get a sentence out even with the teleprompter.— gee1971
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No Bill he needs a f**kin life— PAEnglish
So when BillHicks makes a SARCASTIC racist comment, he needs to get a life. But when enoughalready007 makes a racist comment, it is a hoax planted by a left winger. Got it. "Sadly, what I saw last night was a president full of arrogance, pride and an unwillingness to learn from his mistakes." I didn't even know W was in the audience!— one_eyed_jack
"This is an all time low for the American political system with this monkey running the show. Have fun growing watermelons and cooking fried chicken for the next occupants in the White House come 2012 Massa Obama and Lady Horse Michelle." . . . . . . . . . And there's your Republican response to the SOTU".......MSL why is every idiotic racist comment automatically REPUBLICAN??? You obviously are not naive enough to believe that everyone with a D or I on their voter registration isn't racist.— bird11- Comment removed.
- "MSL why is every idiotic racist comment automatically REPUBLICAN???" . . . . . . LOL, only every idiotic racist comment used to attack Obama, birdie, but don't let context get in the way of your own assumptions.
- MSL - you don't think racist democrats or independents hate Obama? I would think racism trumps party affiliation IMHO.— bird11
- "MSL - you don't think racist democrats or independents hate Obama?" . . . . . . Careful birdie. That could undermine the GOPs talking points about the Massachusetts miracle and their beloved tea party crowd.
- "That could undermine the GOPs talking points about the Massachusetts miracle and their beloved tea party crowd." MSL only if you believe these people became racist after November 2008.— bird11
I have to laugh...What a bunch of haters here. Marxist this, socialist that, all without a single fact other than what their leaders Rush and Glen spout. You people are really pathetic. I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK...from wingnuts and obstructionist and America haters who couldnt give a fig about anyone other then themselves.— Les Ismore
Obama is a disgraceful huckster.— ocjones- Does anyone else here feel comforted by the fact that Chris Matthews was able to overlook Obama's blackness for a whole hour?— ocjones
- Look at what Obama does, not what he says: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/78509-after-obama-rips-k-street-administration-invites-lobbyists-to-private-briefings?page=2 "A day after bashing lobbyists, President Barack Obama’s administration has invited K Street insiders to join private briefings on a range of topics addressed in Wednesday’s State of the Union."— db_cooper
- Obama, the ConLaw professor, gets it wrong: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTVkODZiM2M0ODEzOGQ3MTMwYzgzYjNmODBiMzQzZjk= Tonight the president engaged in demogoguery of the worst kind, when he claimed that last week's Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, "open[ed] the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities." The president's statement is false. The Court held that 2 U.S.C. Section 441a, which prohibits all corporate political spending, is unconstitutional. Foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibiting from making "a contribution or donation of money or ather thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election" under 2 U.S.C. Section 441e, which was not at issue in the case. Foreign corporations are also prohibited, under 2 U.S.C. 441e, from making any contribution or donation to any committee of any political party, and they prohibited from making any "expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication."— db_cooper
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- Chris Mathews is a nit-wit!— pj katauskas
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