I watched the SOTU with the Philly Chapter of Drinking Liberally and it was hard to hear over the loud jeering. So, I thought I’d go over to the National Review to see what really happened…ya know…from a Republican point of view.
Brit Hume reported that the president was interrupted by applause 61 times last night. But I prefer to judge a State of the Union by the non-applause, which can only be appreciated on TV. Think of Rep. John Lewis’s refusal to stand up when the president talked about “our love of freedom.” Or Harry Reid’s tactless decision to remain seated during the acknowledgement of Roberts and Alito. Or Charles Rangel’s hand-sitting act when Bush declared that the U.S. will never surrender to evil. Who couldn’t enjoy watching the entire Democratic side of the room lock their keisters in place when the words “Patriot Act” or “tax cuts” were mentioned. Or the sphinx-like stare of some unnamed diplomat in Arab headdress when Bush talked about the “unstable” nations of the Middle East. Then there was the tempest-tossed visage and contorted smile of Kathleen Blanco, Louisiana’s dysfunctional governor, when Bush riffed on Katrina. Hillary Clinton retained her trademark humorlessness when her husband’s name was the punch line of the speech’s one genuine joke. And, of course, there were all those idiotic grimaces on Democratic faces when they applauded the failure to reform Social Security. For all these reasons, the SOU has to be considered a success. Even at his most conciliatory, Bush continues to annoy all the right people.
— Daniel Casse is a senior director of the White House Writers Group.
Daniel Casse is known for dubbing George W. Bush as a “strong-government conservative”. I’ve thought about that term, and I’m pretty sure it is a synonym for “authoritarian asshole”. Casse probably didn’t like the polling on that one, though. As for the rest of Casse’s critique, eh, I guess I just didn’t see it that way. Democrats are already about as pissed as we can get. But what would have really annoyed us would have been an effective SOTU speech that moved Bush’s poll numbers.
You have to go back to 1999 to see how this is properly done. See, first you impeach the President. You should have allowed us to do this already. Then the President gives a rousing speech to thunderous applause and the American people shake their heads in awe at the President’s moxie and political skills. At this point the opposing party gets truly annoyed.
Last night we got nothing but a few laughs.
…I think the president misjudged the political moment last night. By putting foreign-policy front and center and tacking on a domestic affairs “to do” list at the end, he lost an opportunity to convince his restive base that his is truly a conservative administration.- Mona Charen, a nationally syndicated columnist, is author, most recently, of Do-Gooders: How Liberals Hurt Those They Claim to Help (And the Rest of Us).
…as soon as the president turned to domestic issues the speech quickly degenerated. More government-funded research into producing ethanol “not just from corn but from wood chips and stalks of switch grass” will surely go down as one of the lamest ideas ever to come out of a Republican State of the Union address.- — Linda Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity and was director of public liaison in the Reagan White House.
I think all that was reported re: Medicare D forced him to turn to domestic issues. After all, he and the repubs carried on about how much better this would be and it tuned out to be a disaster. But, as I have read, he ignored the specifics and emphasized health care in general terms…
Needs to be called on that one, IMO.
not to destroy my husband’s viewing of it, he had already had to turn up the volume once because of my mutterings. When the Dems all stood up applauding that Social Security reform went no place last year I had a bit of hope for the future. They arrested Cindy Sheehan who had a ticket and a “bad” Tshirt, and I had a bit of hope for the future. Bush started doing that grinding jaw thing after the Dems applauded the failure of S.S. reform (I think they’ll have to up those SSRI’s again) and I had a bit of hope for the future. I’m fully prepared for the “alien” to be birthed soon right out of the middle of Cheney’s chest and for the nation to recognize BushCo for the demons from hell that they are and join in fighting them with us!
it was because I couldn’t hear over all the booing and jeering (including my own), but I thought the speech was funny. Funny in a ridiculous kind of way.
The reviews from the Republicans are almost universally bad. I don’t find that annoying at all.
Cabingirl says that it is better to watch with a large group of fun happy people. I had to curse through it in order to not turn the set off because it was soooo ridiculous…….and if I had turned the set off I would have missed the Dems cheering themselves and the country for SS reform BushCo style’s failure. I would have missed that face that Hillary makes when she despises something being said over a PA system….that face where her cheeks freeze into those orbs sitting on her cheek bones and they get really red. Don’t like it though that a cameraman decides who’s response to the speech I need to focus on different times.
I must say, it was nice sitting with 25 or so like-minded people [right with Cabingirl and Booman!] hooting and hollering at the screen.
Nice little rant!
>> This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fall >> in the same week. As Air America Radio pointed out, “It is an ironic >> juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to
>> a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other >> involves a groundhog.”
Fuck B*sh!
Too many people took me at my word that I’d posted the actual SOTU video, and so never clicked on it to see for themselves.
My daughter sent this to me. That’s a big clue.
Shame on you! Shame! Shame! And on your daughter too for misleading us like this! 😉
I actually remember this article 13 years later because of the asinine pantyhose remarks. Some things just stick with you.
BYLINE: Special to The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON, Aug. 14
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when young Republicans easily roamed the halls of the White House, confident in their place at the center of power.
But now, while their Democratic counterparts occupy prime positions in the new Administration — the personal aide to President Clinton, for example, is a mere 24 years old — Republicans in their 20’s are toiling in obscurity, struggling to get their own businesses started or scrambling for jobs. Sort of the way young Democrats used to.
“Many young Republicans lived in this extraordinary fantasy world of Federal power for 12 years, and then suddenly, it vanished,” said Daniel Casse, who spent his late 20’s as an special assistant to President George Bush. “For many people, these last few months have been very difficult — and humbling.”
The job market offers slim pickings for young conservatives looking for work. When Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas State Treasurer, was elected to the Senate two months ago, for example, the resumes of roughly 500 young people rained down on her office.
Different View on Job
“It’s been frustrating,” said Peter Weber, a 29-year-old Bush castaway who has been looking for a job since January. “There have been times when I’ve said to myself, ‘Did I do the right thing for the last five years?’ But this is the price you pay.”
The Republican outcasts also feel that many of the young Clinton Administration aides do not seem to appreciate the grandeur of their new posts.
“They make it seem like working in the White House is no big deal, whereas every day I’d walk in and think ‘I can’t believe I’m here,’ ” said Kirstin Hyde, 26, who was an assistant in the Bush press office and now works for Senator Bob Dole, the minority leader. “They just seem to be hanging out, as if the White House were just a building.”
But perhaps nowhere is the contempt for young Democrats more evident than in a discussion of this city’s changing fashion standards. “No woman in the Bush Administration would ever go into the White House without pantyhose,” Ms. Hyde said. “Even in the wee hours of the night. Even on the weekends.”
Young Republicans, like old ones, are also caught up in a struggle to define the soul of the Republican Party in the aftermath of the cold war’s end. Some political consultants have suggested that young people, who are less set in their ways, will be more apt to focus on domestic issues.
Just ask J. T. Taylor, a 27-year-old assistant to the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. “We’re not just a bunch of stiffs in Brooks Brothers suits — well, actually, I guess all I own are Brooks Brothers suits — but we’re not all just concerned about where the next cocktail party is,” he said. “There are a bunch of us who are seriously concerned about the future of our country, the direction of our inner cities, racial problems.”
But divisive social issues like abortion are still as nettling for young Republicans as they are for their elders. “There’s never any discussion about what we disagree on,” said Audrey Merkin, the executive director of the Young Republican National Federation, “We don’t discuss social issues.”
But no matter what the fate of the party, most young conservatives say — as the defeated frequently do — that they have more perspective now.
“Of course, there’s nothing that can possibly replace the experience of working in the White House,” Ms. Hyde said, “but this is forcing me to meet new people, to get a fresh view on things. Here on the Hill, it’s easier to look at the bigger picture. At the White House, I often felt removed.”
And others have noticed that their evenings out are now more interesting.
“The conversations are more engaging now,” said Craig Pattee, 28, who used to work at the Education Department and still has a six-foot-tall picture of President George Bush on his living room wall. “Before, when we went to a bar, all we ever talked about was who we worked for.”
William Kristol, the chief of staff to former Vice President Dan Quayle, says that in a perverse way the defeat of Mr. Bush may even have improved the integrity of young Republicans.
“Over the past 12 years, some of the young conservatives were here only because conservatives were in power, not necessarily because they believed in conservative ideas,” he said. “Today, we’re not in power, so we tend to attract, well, a better brand of young person.”
Those non-applause moments sound delightful to me. I bet Casse didn’t enjoy them as much as he pretends.
I couldn’t tell you if they were really delightful, as I skipped the SOTU. I heard two sentences on the radio while in the car, but I was forced to turn it off because I don’t approve of driving while disgusted.
But I will watch the video of the Democrats applauding the sinking of Social Security gutting if someone posts it!
I worked late and missed the whole thing. It’s probably just as well, since I need to refill my blood pressure medication and things are crazy enough in my life that I can’t afford to have a stroke.
Heard minutes on the radio now and then just to make sure there were no surprises — and no, it was just the standard drone of a tedious fool. From the equally dull but mercifully shorter drone of the pundits, I guess I didn’t miss anything.
I’ve been looking for viewership numbers but haven’t come up with any. Anybody? My bet is that they were near record lows — not many people outside the shorn-again really think this Commander of Thieves has anything worth hearing.
If you’re as sick as I am of the punditry’s servile flattery for Bush’s lame effort, a wonderfully clear-eyed take from AP’s veteran White House correspondent Ron Fournier is just what you’ve been looking for. I mean, jeez, the guy actually took an event and put it in context. Kinda gets you remembering what reporting was sometimes like before the cablejerks corrupted it beyond recognition.
If Dems can’t run on that they need to get out of the road.
thinking that our own Auntie Peachy has written something that made the big time.
What a letdown to discover that it is only the boring old Associated Press.
If Dems can’t run on that they need to get out of the road.
Irony: that AP article was actually on the comcast news page last nite. Then a large part of the network went down!
http://tinyurl.com/cgwla
gotta read between the lines re: that one, IMO.
.
Unwanted publicity, the best you can get after Cindy Sheehan has been active demonstrating during recent weeks in Washington D.C. with little press coverage. Of course, the arrest is covered extensively by Crooks & Liars (apparently were hacked last night before coverage of SOTU).
Cindy Sheehan even got coverage in Dutch news items today, including a short interview where she explained the text of her t-shirt and her recent activities leading the Iraq peace movement. Cindy was invited to demonstrate in The Hague where parliament is about to decide a two-year military mission to Uruzgan province of Afghanistan with EU and NATO partners. It will be a clear majority in Dutch parliament, including the opposition Labor party PvdA of Wouter Bos, to vote for troop deployment.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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