Obama, Democrats and Media Steal SOTU Defeat From the Jaws of Victory
Prior to calls for civility and what turned out to be a disastrous "date night" for the Democrats, Barack Obama was nicely set up to catapult himself into a fabulous 2011 approaching next year's reelection campaign with an enviable head of steam.
Having been all but considered dead - am I allowed to say that post-Tucson? - after his shellacking at the polls in November, the President eked out win after win in the lame duck session, and did a very admirable job with his memorial speech.
Even conservatives like syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer were singing his praises.
The nation was also getting a proverbial thrill back up its collective leg according to polls making the coincidence of all these stars aligning so perfectly right before the State of the Union address almost Capraesque.
Mix in some better-than-expected economic numbers, a continued rally in the stock market along with some increased optimism by business leaders, and the President had the ball teed up nicely for a long drive down the middle of the eighteenth fairway with a two-struck lead through 71 holes.
To the shocked groans from the crowd, Obama proceeded to slice into the water on the right ending his dream of winning the event in regulation.
How could this have possibly happened?
The President, the Democrats, and the media over-clubbed: they played their post-Tucson civility hand too far with their call for members of Congress to pair up with the opposite team rather than sit on separate sides of the aisle.
All of this sappy togetherness translated into a dead House totally taking Obama off his game.
The man needs hoots and hollers from the crowd to feed his intensity as well as his ego, like what happened in that arena in Tucson two weeks ago
Instead he played in front of couples acting respectfully as if attending the ballet.
This was an environment all wrong for such an attention-seeking ham.
The cheers, shouts, boos, and even "You lies" from last year better fuel his fire. Without them, he looked quite the empty suit Tuesday night.
Ditto the actual text of his address which had all the excitement of a scoreless soccer match with no shots on goal. So dull was the supposedly master orator that even devout fans like NBC's Andrea Mitchell and MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell were un-enthralled.
When a liberal President can't please them, you know he bombed.
It's too early to tell how the public saw it, but it seems quite possible Obama, the Democrats, and the media may have just spent all the political capital they had attained the last two months conceivably ceding momentum back to the Republicans.
That's quite a feat when you consider it took them four years to accomplish this after taking by Congress in 2006.
I guess they're getting better at fumbling the ball on the opposing team's one yard line.
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Comments
I wonder if the date-night
Submitted by Hunter12 on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 4:42pm.
I wonder if the date-night seating didn't play into the hands of the Republicans before the night was over. If you're supposed to be a cheerleader and your team in getting a shellacking, it's hard to pop up by yourself in the middle of an opposing crowd and start a wave for your guy. If you're sitting in a block of fellow believers, you can look at the guys around you and fuel an ovation by dragging the people next to you up with a look or a physical nudge. The same thing goes for rounds of applause. There were a lot fewer Dims there last night than in the previous few years. By seeking to disguise their dimished numbers by dispersing, they may have screwed up royal.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." - Sir Winston Churchill
YOU LIE!!
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 4:57pm.
The tepid reception was due in great measure to certain things you can't say at a SOTU.
All about the Indies
Submitted by bkeyser on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 6:37pm.
The poll numbers will be the key. He won't lose his base because, well, they're simply sheep. He could launch a military strike on Canada and they'd stand behind him as long as he says he's planning on ending oil-drilling there after we take over.
It seemed to me to be all about Independents. He'll never win over Tea Partiers or Libertarians (unless he EO's legalized pot, of course) so he didn't say anything for them. And for everything sensible that he did say -reducing the corporate tax rate, for example- he said something equally nutty like high-speed rail.
He won't sign off on Tort Reform but tried to indicate he's open to compromise.
I'll be surprised if he signs off on eliminating the 1099 debacle in the PPACA just because a lot of the money Dems "raised" to bring the whole shebang in under the $900B threshold goes bye-bye. Couple that with the fact that the doc-fix in MediCare is never gonna happen, and bending the cost curve suddnely takes on a whole new meaning- one the lib press can't spin.
I'm sure the White House still thinks "green jobs" is a winning position with everyone but wingnuts, though they're notoriously slow on recognizing the true pulse of the nation.
And all the education reform talk was just that: talk. No way the NEA and AFT allows any meaningful change since teachers will bear the brunt of the blame and the costs. And in all the education reform talk he never said the word "voucher" or the phrase "school choice" so you know the teachers unions are still calling the shots there. But Indies -those voters who tend to ride the wind more than others- might just buy the "change" montra like they did in '08; at least the White House hopes so.
So, I saw it as a hugely disappointing speech for Liberals and Progressives (notice no mention of GITMO); okay for Greenies since they really only bother with their one issue; perplexing for gays since they only got the military reference which is one the bottom of their list of gotta-haves; and laughable for Conservatives who know he didn't mean any of it. It's the Indies that might be fooled though, and if so, it'll show up as a poll bounce.
Tell you what i did see
Submitted by Boudin on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 6:56pm.
Last night Sean's focus group kinda said it all for me. The folks get it.
A group of maybe 40 or 50---
Submitted by matthewdean on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 7:21pm.
of whom, around 20 or so said they voted for Obama. When asked if they would vote for him in 2012, only seven of that group said yes.
All of them were Black.
Elephant in the room, anyone?
Good to see some consistency in the electorate.
Right?
MD
→ MD
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 7:35pm.
Doubtless those who would vote for him again are judging Obama on the content of his character.
Undoubtedly, Cool---
Submitted by matthewdean on Wed, 01/26/2011 - 8:22pm.
undoubtedly. The LOTUS is indeed, a character. :o)Tuesday is the night...
Submitted by bigdaddy on Thu, 01/27/2011 - 3:55am.
....that I shampoo the cat and watch paint dry so I was unable to get away to watch it.
His speeches all sound like how the adults talk in the old Charlie Brown cartoons, "Moah, moah, moahhhhh!"
Meow, meow
Submitted by Tomorama on Thu, 01/27/2011 - 5:05pm.
BD, Thanks for the chuckle.....