[H]e stuck the needle time and again into the hides of the recalcitrant elephants in the room....Even a lapidary line like, "Now let's clear a few things up..." was barbed, since it referred to the shameless distortions that the Republican Party – and its house demagogues on Fox News – had inflicted on the health care reform process.
At the same time, he made a series of proposals that Republicans should love – like a new generation of nuclear power and judicious offshore drilling, like a capital gains tax holiday for small businesses, free-trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Korea. We'll see if they're willing to take yes for an answer.
South Korea...and Korea?
Klein's Anita Dunn song and dance (or screech and reach) against the GOP-FNC Complex should be considered as the Democratic response to the Republican response.
He didn’t find it bizarre that Obama would both say the people were tired of partisanship, and then dish the partisan attacks out:
But in the end – the very end – the eloquence and sense of purpose was riveting. The President described, as accurately as I've seen it done, the cynicism sapping the Republic – which also was a tacit attack on the Republicans in the room. He admitted that he'd had a tough year, had made mistakes...but he remained resolute."I won't quit," he said. He encouraged the Congress not to quit, not to run away from the tough decisions, either -- if previous Congresses had done that 50, 100, 200 years ago, "We wouldn't be here."
This was Obama at his best. He wasn't cuddly, but who cares? He was smart and he was funny -- and he was drop-dead serious about the country.
Klein is a thoroughly typical liberal journalist with his arrogant assumption that Republican opposition to health "reform" and other Obama initiatives couldn't possibly be driven by idealism.
