At least that was the title of the main twitter thread during Barack Obama’s speech tonight: #NSOTU
Here are are a few of my moment to moment thoughts—or demi-thoughts:
Among my favorite lines:
“…..dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It’s not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country – and this country needs and values the talents of every American.”
(What’re yours?)
PS: At the LA Times, Doyle McManus has a nice piece on Obama’s oratory.
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Forget the pre-speech nattering. Important issue? Michelle’s GREAT navy blue sleeveless, above the knee dress. (Priorities, people!)
Repubs are twittering about Capt. Sully being there. Okay. Reasonable. For me it’s the dress, for them it’s the hero. We can cheer both.
Not to be mean, but it’s a relief not to see Cheney behind the president with his snarl/grimace/smile.
“We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before. ….The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don’t lie beyond our reach.”
Okay Obama’s listened. He has to be positive so we don’t all shoot ourselves. Or stay in bed. Sad, but psychologically true.
“In other words, we have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election.”
TRANSLATION: Dear America: Read Emotional Intelligence, damnit.
“Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity.”
TRANSLATION: We aren’t going to die, as long as you get with the program, people. (Whew!)
“Nobody messes with Joe. “ Good reframing of Biden’s personality. If you can’t fix it, feature it. Okay, that works.
John Boehner looks like he’s reading a novel while Obama’s talking. Ayn Rand? No, maybe it’s that program that was handed out. I hope it’s the program.
Note to Joe Lieberman. Spit out the gum BEFORE the speech next time.
“This is not about helping banks, it’s about helping people.” (Line of the night, thus far.)
Energy….Health care…Education. E! H! E! Hey! E! H! E! Hey! Go Barack
I can actually see people twittering. More Repubs than Dems. Then the tweets turn up on my Twitter feed. Weird. The U.S. Congress has just turned at 13.
Okay, everyone stood up and applauded for education—as freaking well they should with a freaking 50 percent dropout rate.
They’re actually cheering about not passing along the debts. But they don’t cheer bringing the def. down? Fascinating.
Do you think this is like the party where everyone’s noisier when they’ve had a couple of drinks? (And what drinks are they serving?)
Somebody on Twitter said that Pelosi was dressed in Soylent Green. That’s harsh.
We love the bank president giving away the bonus. And we love the girl who wrote Obama. “We are not quitters.” Brilliant.
If Obama speaks to the better angels of all in the congress, will you answer from your better angels, dearest Republicans? We need to know.
After I wrote that, @Johnculberson…twittered back: “We all need to do our best to work together wherever we can for the good of the nation.” Okay, Culberson, I’m holding you to it, “whenever we can” notwithstanding.
Jindal’s on: Dear Bobby, during Katrina the gov’t was run by greedy, mendacious weasels. There’s a difference.
Props to NOLA for their charter schools. No argument there. Credit where credit is due.
Yeah, yeah, Bobby Jindal is a winning enough guy. And this was a thankless job. But he had nothing to say. Nothing. Zero. Except to say, NO, to Obama. And simply being a contra isn’t good enough in this desperate fiscal/political climate.
David Gergen reminded the viewers that that nasty ol’ unneeded Fed Gov’t gave $175 billion for Katrina recovery (and counting). Reality check, Bob, hon.
The line that still rings is this one: “It’s time for America to lead again.” Is that exceptionalist in some deep, dark way? No. Leading is a good thing…. if one moves toward the light. Hell, somebody’s got to.
Over all, a stunning, strong-minded, inspiring speech. Thank you, Barack.
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PS: It is important to note that as we cheered Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, we also just learned that his salary has been cut 40 percent, and that his pension has been terminated. Meanwhile, in 2005 when US Airways filed for bankruptcy, the company wanted to keep its exec bonuses. Fortunately the judge said NO. Heck of a job, private enterprise.
(Photo by Evan Vucci / AP)
“Not to be mean, but it’s a relief not to see Cheney behind the president with is snarl/grimace/smile.”
BINGO !! My very first comment to my gf when we were watching!!!
But more important: I am not a naive young kid who thinks that our new President is going to spread some magic pixie dust and solve all of our problems. BUT – in spite of the precarious position that we find ourselves in (on the edge of ruin), I KNOW that our President and his entire team are laser focused on fixing what ails us. I do not worry about them saying one thing publicly and then making back room deals with their fat cat friends that will lead us (the vast middle class) to perpetual ruin.
I can also not remember a President “working the room” the way Obama did. For crying out loud, this is the House of Representatives! There were House members that came and grabbed seats along the entrance (there is no assigned seating) at 8am in the morning and stayed put all day SO THEY COULD SHAKE OBAMA’S HAND WHEN HE ENTERED!
One of the Repubs whose tweets I followed said he got his program signed….and he sounded really pleased. Then he remembered himself and became cranky again. But I think the real moment was the first one.
What Obama proposed and what he was supposed to discuss were two entirely different things. Making plans for a big government takeover in the next few years does nothing to address the short-term economic problems and employment issues that we face today.
No doubt you’ve seen the tidal wave of opinion that Bobby Jindal is Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock’s evil twin. I saw it almost simultaneously on Sullivan and Ezra Klein’s post-speech blogs, but apparently it started on Twitter within minutes of Jindal’s opening lines.
Smiley-con David Brooks on Jindal – not pretty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X27UIt0RuMw
Obama is the President of the United States and has the highest standards to meet. Making fun of an Jindal is a weak defense of Obama’s non-plan to help the economy.
Fact-Checking The Speech: Some Claims Aren’t Completely True
Translation: I don’t understand human nature, economics or history, but whatever happened, it wasn’t my fault. (A theme repeated numerous times by Obama since his election).
The best thing we would do for education in this country is to cut public funding about 40%. We have seen the effects of continuously pouring more and more money into it: the mess we have now. The US spends far more per pupil than any other major country and gets the worst results.
Now we get the eerie Botox grin and unblinking eyes next to the dopey guy with the Hollywood teeth. I take Darth Cheney any day.
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He had a lot to say, and it was good. His delivery was poor however, and not up to his normal standards.
Conservative David Brooks on Jindal:
I’m thinking more of Macbeth’s speech that starts “Life is but a walking shadow.”
I seem to remember Bill Clinton making a horrible speech at the Democratic Convention when he was a governor. That sure was a disaster for the party.