While most in the Obama-loving media took a predictable victory lap for the President's State of the Union address this week, Politico's Evan Thomas was not impressed.
Appearing on PBS's Inside Washington, Thomas said, "It was a disheartening speech. It was a pathetic speech...He is running on sort of cheap pandering" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
GORDON PETERSON, HOST: The President lays down the markers for his reelection campaign. We call it the State of the Union address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well while a growing number of Americans barely get by, or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R-ARIZONA): I think it was a great campaign speech, obviously stoking the class warfare issue, but, you know, this may be a little different take than you are getting from others, but I was astounded by his praise for Iraq since Iraq is unraveling.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
PETERSON: Senator John McCain’s take on the State of the Union speech. Evan, you agree with any of that?
EVAN THOMAS, POLITICO: Yeah, I agree with all of it. It was a disheartening speech. It was a pathetic speech, really. I mean, here he’s got, the President of the United States needs a mandate for rebuilding the infrastructure, for getting control of the deficit, for tax reform. So what does he talk about? Raising taxes on millionaires, which I guess you have to do, but it is a tiny problem compared to all the others. And so he is running on sort of cheap pandering. And I’m sure the speech was well written, and it was sort of vaguely moving at the end when he talked about the military, but it was overall a pathetic speech.
What's interesting is that's likely what Americans would have universally heard about this address from the media if Obama were a Republican.
Just another example of what a difference a "D" makes.
Kudos for Thomas for having the nerve to say what most of his colleagues refused to.
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