Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Mefites:
January 25, 2011 6:04 PM Subscribe

President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, as prepared for delivery.
posted by furiousxgeorge (413 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite

Ugh, that ungodly wall of text hurts my brain. Here's a formatted NYT version.
posted by aheckler at 6:06 PM on January 25, 2011

I could just as easily post a link to another version of the President's speech - only this one is formatted with, you know...line breaks.
posted by davidmsc at 6:07 PM on January 25, 2011

I support increased funding for paragraphs.
posted by desjardins at 6:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [56 favorites]

It's an arms race of posted versions of the President's speech! Who is going to raise the bar next?
posted by davidmsc at 6:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Who's the big guy with the beard POTUS hugged?
posted by 2bucksplus at 6:08 PM on January 25, 2011

Screw this, I'll just watch it on TV.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:08 PM on January 25, 2011

The enhanced State of the Union Address (Whitehouse.gov) - has graphs, other content during the address.
posted by cashman at 6:08 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

It's an arms race of posted versions of the President's speech! Who is going to raise the bar next?

I'm just putting the finishing touches on a version where I've bolded all the words I think he should emphasize.
posted by fatbird at 6:08 PM on January 25, 2011 [9 favorites]

The ability of these people to continuously clap upon the president's arrival- what, four minutes now? More??- is actually pretty impressive.
posted by Askiba at 6:09 PM on January 25, 2011

What I don't get is...if the SOTU is always SUCH A BIG DEAL, and they want people to actually watch it and pay attention - they why on earth do they always release the text of the speech ahead of the actual speech?
posted by davidmsc at 6:09 PM on January 25, 2011

I think this is a double from last year, but I can't find a link.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:09 PM on January 25, 2011 [22 favorites]

My fellow Mefites, the state of the edited main link is strong.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:10 PM on January 25, 2011 [14 favorites]

[My fellow Mefites, the state of the edited main link is strong.]

Behind the Times registration wall?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:11 PM on January 25, 2011

SPOILERS!!
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 6:11 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Looks like the conservative Supreme Court Justices followed through on their threat not to show up. Thanks for the class guys, thanks for showing respect for the office of president and your own offices, thanks for breaking a century-old tradition. Schmucks.
posted by orthogonality at 6:11 PM on January 25, 2011 [56 favorites]

I don't dare check, but I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that the talking heads at Fox are going to be focusing on the fact that Obama isn't wearing a ribbon in honor of Rep. Giffords.
posted by dcheeno at 6:11 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

davidmsc, no one can read that much text anymore. I'm waiting for the VH1 version with pop-ups.
posted by desjardins at 6:13 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm just looking forward to Michele Bachmann's Tea Party rebuttal/reaction because she never fails to bring teh crazy.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:13 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

"My fellow Americans..."
"SHOW US YOUR DICK!"
"Fucking Biden, shut up."
"Sorry."
"May I?"
"Please."
"My fellow Americans..."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:13 PM on January 25, 2011 [26 favorites]

What's the over/under on Boehner's tears?
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:14 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

[My fellow Mefites, the state of the edited main link is strong.]

Oh come on, cortex, now my joke doesn't make sense. :(
posted by desjardins at 6:14 PM on January 25, 2011

They why on earth do they always release the text of the speech ahead of the actual speech?

So people have plenty of time to comb it for proof that the president is secretly a Muslim.
posted by drezdn at 6:15 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

I was going to do a little drinking game and watch the SOTU, but I decided to just get drunk and listen to the Penguins game. Then I fell asleep and now I'm sober.
posted by dirigibleman at 6:16 PM on January 25, 2011 [10 favorites]

KXLH link?? Come on Cortex, look how they make the presidential seal look like a halo on him, that one doesn't work at all. You really should have put more thought into this.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:16 PM on January 25, 2011

Do not make me turn this car around.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:17 PM on January 25, 2011 [55 favorites]

God damn, Biden looks like he's thinking about a sandwich.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:18 PM on January 25, 2011 [9 favorites]

Ugh, why is he saying the tax cuts will help grow the economy?
posted by oneirodynia at 6:18 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

What's the over/under on Boehner's tears?

I'll take +40 on combined stifled yawns/rolling of eyes. Barely disguised disdain is on the house.
posted by malocchio at 6:18 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ugh, why is he saying the tax cuts will help grow the economy?

It's the only policy he can pass so he might as well endorse it.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:19 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

I think it's significant to note this is the first State of the Union to have a Black man, a White man, and an Orange man.
posted by CNNInternational at 6:19 PM on January 25, 2011 [102 favorites]

Nice to see Speaker Boehner rockin' the Dale Chihuly glass art on his desk.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:20 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Kerry and McCain are sitting together, I don't know who to feel sorry for.
posted by 2bucksplus at 6:20 PM on January 25, 2011 [9 favorites]

I'm doing the SOTU 2011 Android app, watching live reactions. Pretty interesting.
posted by dejah420 at 6:21 PM on January 25, 2011

John McCain will NOT clap. He's too mavericky and shit.
posted by malocchio at 6:22 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

I swear I went to politicalfilter.com first for the liveblogging. Just sayin'.
posted by malocchio at 6:23 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Did you hear that nation? It was we who invented parking in driveways!
posted by aheckler at 6:23 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

google and facebook... no metafilter?
posted by HuronBob at 6:23 PM on January 25, 2011

Rahm Emanuel is sitting at home thinking, "WTF, Pelosi? Jesus fuck, I don't know who to kill first."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:25 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

OK, I'm happy about the science and education aspect so far.
posted by oneirodynia at 6:26 PM on January 25, 2011

#sotu #stfu
posted by fixedgear at 6:26 PM on January 25, 2011

John McCain will NOT clap. He's too mavericky and shit.

My friends, I spent five years North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, beaten and tortured and forced to clap by and for Communists who weren't born in America! No more of that, my friends!
posted by orthogonality at 6:26 PM on January 25, 2011 [9 favorites]

How unique, a president suggesting energy independence, never heard that before.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:27 PM on January 25, 2011 [14 favorites]

And with "break our dependence on oil," Obama becomes the eighth straight president to use the phrase.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:27 PM on January 25, 2011 [25 favorites]

How unique, a president suggesting energy independence, never heard that before.

Really? I'm pretty sure... oh, I see what you did there.
posted by notion at 6:27 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Clean Coal!
posted by octothorpe at 6:28 PM on January 25, 2011

Yeah, I went to STFU 2011....oops. :(
posted by malocchio at 6:28 PM on January 25, 2011

NCLB is forcing many kids out of school...
posted by HuronBob at 6:28 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Bill Cosby couldn't force parenting to happen, this noob isn't going to be able to do it either..
posted by HuronBob at 6:29 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

The Whitehouse.gov live feed has a weird squish-a-rama aspect ratio going on so Obama looks like he's in the credits of a spaghetti Western.
posted by jamaro at 6:13 PM on January 25 [1 favorite +] [!]

jamaro, you must have it on the Enhanced feed, with graphics popping up along the right side. Click the Standard tab at the top of the video for the normal feed, which is not squished.
posted by palomar at 6:29 PM on January 25, 2011

I'm waiting for the bar to be raised by several infographics. And then the kinetic typography.
posted by nile_red at 6:30 PM on January 25, 2011

Clean Cola!
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:30 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Just in: Maurice Jones-Drew is tweeting, didn't like the crack about the Super Bowl.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:30 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

NKOTB forced many kids out of school??? Oh wait...
posted by davidmsc at 6:30 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Mark Rubio has the exact same express as an 8 year old who is forced to eat his vegetables.
posted by 2bucksplus at 6:31 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

WE DO BIG THINGS.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 6:31 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

john boehner looks bored. and kinda irritated.

He's channeling his inner Tea Party viewer.
posted by sswiller at 6:31 PM on January 25, 2011

Race to the top has pretty much been a money grab by states, with impossible tasks put on the backs of teachers whose pay is being cut!
posted by HuronBob at 6:32 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Biden is thinking he could kick Boehner's ass in a game of Race to the Top. "Back in Scranton, we played with ROCKS!"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:32 PM on January 25, 2011 [7 favorites]

This enhanced version has turned my President into a cartoon elf. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
posted by cmyk at 6:32 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

become a teacher... and we will cut your pay, take away your pension, reduce your benefits...and blame you for everything...
posted by HuronBob at 6:34 PM on January 25, 2011 [36 favorites]

"We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook. "

How far we have fallen
posted by Frank Grimes at 6:35 PM on January 25, 2011 [12 favorites]

More teachers! Freeze spending! Fund Apollo programs! Freeze Spending!
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:35 PM on January 25, 2011 [22 favorites]

Ask any teacher or administrator their thought on race to the top and they'll tell you it's complete crap. Here in the good ole' State of Ohio a number of schools (I want to say 4 or 5) who won the money decided to drop out of the program after they did the number crunching and found that it would actually cost them significantly more money after making provisions to comply with the new requirements.
posted by tgrundke at 6:36 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Get into the fields of math and science, where you'll probably barely make a livable wage while business and finance majors rake in the dough.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 6:36 PM on January 25, 2011 [17 favorites]

MSNBC is telling me to lean forward. With all this scheduled applause, it's like being at church. Lean forward. Clap. Kneel. Genuflect. Lean forward. Stand up. Clap. Sit back down.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:37 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

I know a woman who's been a teacher for thirty-some-odd years. Two years ago doctors found a tumor in her head. Benign, so far, but something to keep an eye on. Shortly after, she was informed that there was not enough cash in the kitty for her to retire and keep her health benefits. Meanwhile the leader of the county school board makes six figures and, I am sure, will never have to worry about how to cover medical copays.

Same as it ever was.
posted by cmyk at 6:39 PM on January 25, 2011 [9 favorites]

private investment to repair roads?
posted by HuronBob at 6:40 PM on January 25, 2011

Reduce the pat down to a joke, great.
posted by greasy_skillet at 6:40 PM on January 25, 2011 [7 favorites]

Terrorists NEVER strike trains, this is a great solution to our overprotective security theatre!
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:40 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I am all about the high-speed trains.
posted by pemberkins at 6:40 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Awww...I think of it more like a night at the Philharmonic. Some people applaud Beethoven, a couple of freaks applaud Stockhausen, but everyone is on their feet for the John Williams Overture!!!
posted by malocchio at 6:41 PM on January 25, 2011

Without the patdown. Someone told him about what happened in Moscow yesterday, right?

Again, Rahm Emanuel's wife just asked him to put down the knife.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:41 PM on January 25, 2011

Trains are nice.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:42 PM on January 25, 2011

It's bad enough we've been getting a shitload of snow here, now all that pie in the sky is going to be falling on us as well....
posted by HuronBob at 6:43 PM on January 25, 2011 [6 favorites]

wow the train pat down thing touched a nerve in mefi land!

No, it touched our crotch.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:43 PM on January 25, 2011 [12 favorites]

John Boehner, single-handedly pulling our nation out of recession through the tanning tax.
posted by triggerfinger at 6:43 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Terrorists never strike trains. Except in Madrid. And London. And Tokyo. But those places don't matter.

"Rahm? Come out of the bathroom, honey."
"Fuck you!"
"Rahm, this is Ari. Come out of the bathroom, baby. You're scaring everyone."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:44 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

I wonder if members of Congress are subject to patdowns. Maybe that's why they thought it was funny.
posted by dcheeno at 6:44 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Without the patdown! LULZ!

Obama is trolling the country. Reminds me of his laughing about marijuana reform.

Nice to hear the initiative to remove oil subsidies though.
posted by formless at 6:44 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Just tuned in. Biden and Boehner look like the comedy and tragedy masks.
posted by milquetoast at 6:45 PM on January 25, 2011 [74 favorites]

Does anyone have the current rulebook for the SOTU drinking game or do you just cry into your drink to dilute it and help it last longer?
posted by loquacious at 6:45 PM on January 25, 2011 [6 favorites]

Boehner looks like he accidentally took an Ambien.
posted by oinopaponton at 6:45 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hm. Speaking as a European who grew up with accessible railroads, would the risk of (horrible but infrequent) terrorist attacks be a convincing argument against building them? I doubt it.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:45 PM on January 25, 2011

BOO BOOKKEEPING!
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:46 PM on January 25, 2011

Biden and Boehner almost had a moment there. It might have been gas.
posted by malocchio at 6:47 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hm. Speaking as a European who grew up with accessible railroads, would the risk of (horrible but infrequent) terrorist attacks be a convincing argument against building them? I doubt it.

Trains are fine for lots of reasons, pat downs aren't one of them. An airport just had a bomb go off in it, transportation security isn't a joke.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:47 PM on January 25, 2011

Does anyone have the current rulebook for the SOTU drinking game or do you just cry into your drink to dilute it and help it last longer?

I've been drinking every time I can tell the difference between Boehner's face and his leather ~~throne~~ chair.
posted by aheckler at 6:47 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'll give $100 to anyone who rips that purple tie off what's-his-name.
posted by HuronBob at 6:47 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Does anyone have the current rulebook for the SOTU

Pick a word and drink. I feel really bad about picking Korea though, I think I'm up to five on that already.
posted by bobo123 at 6:48 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Does anyone have the current rulebook for the SOTU drinking game or do you just cry into your drink to dilute it and help it last longer?

I like this one the most.
posted by dcheeno at 6:48 PM on January 25, 2011

Dwight!
posted by octothorpe at 6:48 PM on January 25, 2011

no no no no freezes what are you doing
posted by Navelgazer at 6:48 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't think he said anything that will give us real change.

I'm sure the folks at FOX News are chortling with glee.
posted by Catblack at 6:49 PM on January 25, 2011

"feel the impact".... was that a pun?
posted by HuronBob at 6:50 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

More plane crash humor, yay.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:50 PM on January 25, 2011

and once train becomes the way to travel, we'll having a pat down then too.

Trains will become the way to travel in this country a few years after we genetically engineer unicorns that eat decayed downtowns and shit railroad tracks.
posted by George_Spiggott at 6:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [60 favorites]

I'm not even watching the farce that is the SoTU. Reading the comments here is a MUCH better use of my time (and damn funny as well!).
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 6:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

or do you just cry into your drink to dilute it and help it last longer?

You cry into your drink to mourn the economy, then realize it's our Sputnik Moment so you spike it with some Adderall. Then you realize that to Win The Future (WTF?) one must be green, so you add a generous dash of Pisang Ambon. Next, you build a railroad and find yourself opposite Eva Marie Saint on a train to Chicago, and you wind up battling villains of ambiguous nationality on Mount Rushmore. Or that's how I think it goes. (File a frivolous lawsuit if you slip on Lincoln's nose.)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:52 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Reduce the pat down to a joke, great.

It is a joke. I laugh every time some makes a hysterical post about it on reddit or whatever.
posted by empath at 6:53 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

He spends the first half talking about investing in America's education and industry, the second half in talking about the painful cuts. You can't have both.

How can you talk about cutting spending without cutting spending on the military?

I'm a huge fan of alternative energy. I'm a huge fan of long-term planning. And yet when I hear a phrase like "setting a new goal: by 2035, 80% of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources" I want to SCREAM. How can anyone possibly make a 25-year energy plan with a straight face? Just like global warning and all these other things, the key feature is that the US really doesn't have to do anything until Mr. Obama is safely out of office. Talking about these things is pointless unless there is money behind them.

I'm all in favour of getting rid of tax loopholes. How dare Mr. Obama talk about do that - then immediately promise to use that money that corporations have been robbing from the people for decades - by lowering the corporate tax rate?
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 6:53 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Nice tax cut policy, if only we could have voted on that when Democrats controlled both houses.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:53 PM on January 25, 2011

I liked NBC's reaction shot on Bernie Sanders during the bit about ending the top-2%-tax-cuts.
posted by Navelgazer at 6:54 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

oh, bi-partisan seating.
posted by clavdivs at 6:54 PM on January 25, 2011

Winning The Future (WTF) is the most glorious troll of all time, unless he changes the presidential seal to something resembling goatse.
posted by desjardins at 6:54 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

Salmon!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:54 PM on January 25, 2011

WAS NOT FUNNY.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 6:54 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Boehner looks like he's sleeping with Prince Valium.
posted by dejah420 at 6:55 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

really, a salmon joke???

Smoked...hell, I can't get the damn things in a pipe.
posted by HuronBob at 6:55 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

Smoked salmon. DUDE.

Biden just changed his dinner order.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:55 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Win The Future = WTF

Ergo, WTF FTW!
posted by bricksNmortar at 6:55 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

smoking!
posted by clavdivs at 6:56 PM on January 25, 2011

How can you talk about cutting spending without cutting spending on the military?

To be fair, that was indeed mentioned.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 6:56 PM on January 25, 2011

McClain Clap!
posted by The Hamms Bear at 6:56 PM on January 25, 2011

Earmarks. Veto. McCain just got his first unassisted hard-on in 3 years.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:56 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

veto??? I'll believe it whenI see it...
posted by HuronBob at 6:57 PM on January 25, 2011

Keeping up with the MeFi thread is enough for me! It doesn't come with the relentless clapping, pats on the back, awkward hugs, more applause and grimaces. It is nice and quiet here on the internets, and I can make up whatever imagery I want in my head.
posted by tarantula at 6:57 PM on January 25, 2011

WTF FTW

Win The Future, Fuck The World?
posted by thetruthisjustalie at 6:57 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

"Smoked!"

President Obama channels Yiddish Vaudeville.
posted by orthogonality at 6:57 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

who is in the bunker?
posted by clavdivs at 6:58 PM on January 25, 2011

Trains are fine for lots of reasons, pat downs aren't one of them. An airport just had a bomb go off in it, transportation security isn't a joke.

Well, he did say without the pat-downs. Whether that holds true remains to be seen, but even then I don't quite see how recent terrorist attacks on public transportation hubs — however ghastly — have any bearing on the intrinsic value of developing a more environment-friendly method of transportation.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:58 PM on January 25, 2011

I like this one the most.

I found that State of the Union drinking game searching earlier today for "state of the union time", to see what time it was on. It was like the 3rd result.

I don't know if that's a bad sign for our country, or an awesome sign.
posted by formless at 6:58 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Where are we going to steal Nazi scientists to get our new Space Race on?! Where Obama?!
posted by geoff. at 6:58 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

fist bump
posted by eddydamascene at 6:58 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

here comes nixon...
posted by clavdivs at 6:58 PM on January 25, 2011

Someone scream "job killer"!

---

I'm a... Job Killer!
Better you than me!
posted by Joe Beese at 7:00 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow, live opinion stream tanked on republican side when Obama mentioned American Muslims
posted by dejah420 at 7:01 PM on January 25, 2011

He's starting to sound about 5 minutes away from a "mission accomplished" speech.
posted by HuronBob at 7:01 PM on January 25, 2011

Hey! He sees the light at the end of the tunnel in Afghanistan!

Maybe those Paris Peace Talks are working out?
posted by orthogonality at 7:01 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow, live opinion stream tanked on republican side when Obama mentioned American Muslims

OMG link please.
posted by 2bucksplus at 7:02 PM on January 25, 2011

Doesn't Obama know that the Best Show is on now?
posted by mullacc at 7:02 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hilary should fire her hairdresser. Wow.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:02 PM on January 25, 2011 [6 favorites]

was that Grace Jones?
posted by HuronBob at 7:02 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

lyndon johnson just ordered a fresca
posted by clavdivs at 7:02 PM on January 25, 2011 [7 favorites]

Wow, live opinion stream tanked on republican side when Obama mentioned American Muslims

Republicans know that "American Terrorist" is a contradiction-in-terms.
posted by orthogonality at 7:03 PM on January 25, 2011

Earmarks. Veto. McCain just got his first unassisted hard-on in 3 years.

MetaFilter: Erect in defiance of God's Will

/Patton Oswald
posted by notion at 7:03 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Look out, Biden's gonna do a shot...
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:04 PM on January 25, 2011

We stand with the people of Tunisia, in words anyway, materially we are doing less than /b/.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:05 PM on January 25, 2011 [8 favorites]

What is with the looking around? Are they looking for the one person who doesn't support our troops?
posted by lizjohn at 7:06 PM on January 25, 2011

We stand with the people of Tunisia, in words anyway, materially we are doing less than /b/.

So do you want us getting involved in the internal affairs of other countries or not? I'm happy with just words.
posted by empath at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2011

Do our men and women in uniform include DEVO?
posted by stargell at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

It's totally weird that there's this huge Republican preamble to the speech about cutting budgets before Obama spoke. The guy even sounded like Obama.
posted by GuyZero at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2011

I noticed the gay / love wording in the text. I think it's one of the few times, if not the first, that a President has said that.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hey, could have called for gay marriage but...whatever.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Argh, was hoping they'd zoom in on McCain for that one. We need crowdsourced control of the camera!
posted by formless at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

ROTFL at stony-faced generals upon mention of DADT repeal
posted by mykescipark at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

The faces of the military dudes cracked me the fuck up. I'm gonna rewind that and watch it again.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 7:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Let's do right by our vets, who should not be sleeping in the streets.
posted by fixedgear at 7:08 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

It is nice and quiet here on the internets, and I can make up whatever imagery I want in my head.

Yeah, that whole Win The Future thing is looking pretty Warhammer 40K from here. Maybe with a dash of Blade Runner.

Attention citizens: Winning The Future awaits you in the off-world colonies! I call on all of our scholams to open their doors to the Imperial Guard!
posted by vorfeed at 7:08 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

BIG AL!
posted by triggerfinger at 7:08 PM on January 25, 2011

I think the military dudes, as nonpartisan, are not supposed to look like they think anything right now.
posted by Medieval Maven at 7:09 PM on January 25, 2011

"I'd trade with Sweden. You know. Bikini team."
"Shut up, Joe."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:09 PM on January 25, 2011 [7 favorites]

Scranton!
posted by octothorpe at 7:09 PM on January 25, 2011

Their faces were even funnier the second time.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 7:09 PM on January 25, 2011

Biden, pleased as punch. Boehner tears, note the time for the office pool tomorrow!
posted by 2bucksplus at 7:09 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm not watching it. Maybe I'll catch it tomorrow or watch the highlights, but it's a dog and pony show. President says Presidential things, many people clap, someone from the opposite party says something, talking heads wet themselves with glee. Rewind, Repeat.

Now, a tag team steel cage death match between with the President and Vice President against leading heads of the opposition parties in the House or Senate? COMEDY GOLD.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:10 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Trains will become the way to travel in this country a few years after we genetically engineer unicorns that eat decayed downtowns and shit railroad tracks.

And then I realized that much of America lives outside the Mid-Atlantic rail corridor. Sometimes when I'm riding the Acella, commuter rail, light rail, underground rail, I just forget the rest of America is just a bunch unemployed rednecks who don't realize that "right to work" is short for "right to work you to death" and can't stand the fact that they might one day pay taxes should they win the lottery.
posted by humanfont at 7:10 PM on January 25, 2011 [11 favorites]

He's trying to make Boehner cry.
posted by MegoSteve at 7:10 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Do you this part about the American Dream was specifically to make Boehner cry on camera?
posted by dcheeno at 7:10 PM on January 25, 2011

Boehner's dad owned a bar? My respect just shot up a little. A little.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:10 PM on January 25, 2011

BIDEN'S JOURNEY MOMENT.

Don't stop believin'.
posted by notion at 7:10 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is the most generic, platitude-filled, steaming pile of excrement speech I've seen in a while. It's sad watching someone grovel.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:10 PM on January 25, 2011 [6 favorites]

I thought Brandon was going to grab her knee for a moment...
posted by HuronBob at 7:11 PM on January 25, 2011

I can't believe he's bringing the Chilean miners into this. Will he recap this season's "The Biggest Loser" next?
posted by GuyZero at 7:11 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Hmmm. So the American Dream is to blame for why Boehner is Speaker of the House instead of still sweeping floors.
posted by Flunkie at 7:11 PM on January 25, 2011 [6 favorites]

Will he recap this season's "The Biggest Loser" next?

I'm hoping for a mention of Jay Cutler's knee...
posted by playertobenamedlater at 7:12 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Dude, the guy he's talking about is pretty much a Real American Badass. I'm FOR that guy.
posted by Medieval Maven at 7:12 PM on January 25, 2011 [8 favorites]

@Boehner: World Of War craft is awesome ok lets go
posted by clavdivs at 7:13 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

France, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Costa Rica, Swaziland...
posted by stargell at 7:13 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Boehner made it to the end without noding off.
posted by Sailormom at 7:13 PM on January 25, 2011

So is it my current anti-Obama bias or was that just godawful? I liked the Tucson speech but...
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:13 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

This is the most generic, platitude-filled, steaming pile of excrement speech I've seen in a while.

Eh, Bush's were worse. Obama's only pointed out audience member a few times. Bush would go through a dozen.

But yeah, for a guy whose prime quality is oration, this speech had no memorable phrases.
posted by orthogonality at 7:13 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Do I stick with PBS or switch to FOX?
posted by The Hamms Bear at 7:14 PM on January 25, 2011

sputnik moment or main bus B overvolt?
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 7:14 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Just so you know, I won't be live-joking the Tea Party response.

Too fucking easy.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:14 PM on January 25, 2011

It's hard to be "memorable" in this day and age....
posted by HuronBob at 7:14 PM on January 25, 2011

It's a bit of a sop to a pretty over-wrought human interest story that got a lot of TV coverage. He did not say much about stopping future deaths of miners in, say, West Virginia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Big_Branch_Mine_disaster which might actually improve the lives of Americans.
posted by GuyZero at 7:15 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Do I stick with PBS or switch to FOX?

CNN is the place, Bachmann incoming.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:15 PM on January 25, 2011

I can tweet the whitehouse... about time!

But will the whitehouse friend me on facebook?
posted by HuronBob at 7:16 PM on January 25, 2011

@Boehner: replace the AE-35 unit.
posted by clavdivs at 7:16 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

So, without looking back at the text, what was his plan to address 10% unemployment?
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:16 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

The two strangest things to me were "I'll veto earmarks" and "limit medical malpractice". It strikes me that the commonality between them is that Republicans complain a whole lot about both, and both in reality are not particularly issues to any meaningful degree, one way or the other. Perhaps it was meant as a jiu jitsu-ish STFU move, taking away something for them to complain about without any terribly significant consequences.

Unfortunately, Republicans won't STFU regardless. Also, I fear that "I'll veto earmarks" will be used by Republicans essentially to call the bluff. A bill that they don't like is going through? Just add an earmark.
posted by Flunkie at 7:16 PM on January 25, 2011 [7 favorites]

That was pretty darn generic. Still think he's a good president but that was pretty flat.
posted by octothorpe at 7:17 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

White House staffers take live questions about the speech: http://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2011 (on phone, sorry for plain url.)
posted by dejah420 at 7:17 PM on January 25, 2011

*sighs*

If ONLY he had announced a 2nd Space Race....
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:18 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

The future is not a gift its an achievement.
posted by Sailormom at 7:18 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

@Boehner: sputnick was my house mascot
posted by clavdivs at 7:18 PM on January 25, 2011

The purpose of the modern SOTU address is to bolster the President's favorability ratings so he can avoid easy fights. Nothing more, nothing less.

Just by being at or above 50% he has (so far) scared off Republican presidential candidates for 2012. Watch them sacrifice someone (Palin?) if he gets to 55%.
posted by 2bucksplus at 7:18 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

We need a State of the Filter address!

Considering that the SOTU is... meh.
posted by Askiba at 7:19 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

The future is not a gift its an achievement.

Smoked salmon makes a great gift.
posted by GuyZero at 7:19 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Please feel free-- as soon as these stony-faced straight men behind me tell you it's OK, not before-- to fight and die for your country as gays and lesbians-- no transfolk or intersexuals need apply, though -- but don't any of you dare get legally married, that's just wrong."

*sigh*
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 7:19 PM on January 25, 2011 [8 favorites]

@Boehner: prep the clown fellas
posted by clavdivs at 7:20 PM on January 25, 2011

A nation of Edisons.
posted by Sailormom at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2011

God this Piers Morgan guy is lame. How did he get a show?

Bring on Bachmann!
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2011

Now I wish I'd played a drinking game.
posted by desjardins at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2011

@Boehner: Palintology heh-heh
posted by clavdivs at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

FWIW I wasn't really impressed by this speech in particular, and while I thought the Tucson speech hit the right notes I was blown off my feet by it.

I think he's tired. Justifiably so, but I think he's tired.

Also, nothing anyone says in or about the center is ever as enthralling or awesome as what people say when they're speaking directly TO YOU OH MY GOD. Which is how I know I and others felt about his speech at the 2004 convention, and during the campaign.

However - a really fucking smart black dude is our President. There are three women on the Supreme Court and the staff he's got about him is diverse. That's progress from White Dude Cabal. There's a lot to be happy with here, it's just hard to remember that when I want the country I want NOW DAMMIT.
posted by Medieval Maven at 7:22 PM on January 25, 2011 [26 favorites]

The earmarks thing will be a convenient excuse to veto anything the GOP passes.
posted by empath at 7:23 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

So is it my current anti-Obama bias or was that just godawful?

Why can't it be both?
posted by Confess, Fletch at 7:23 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Smoked salmon makes a great gift.
posted by GuyZero

Only if you plan ahead.
posted by Sailormom at 7:24 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow. Zero mentions of the poor and middle class.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:24 PM on January 25, 2011 [13 favorites]

Obama: Hey, we've had a few laughs, so this time, for really reals, can we try to play nice?
Bachman: No.
posted by Navelgazer at 7:24 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

@Boehner: there is no cable
posted by clavdivs at 7:24 PM on January 25, 2011

Did he mention campaign finance?
posted by Trochanter at 7:25 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Palin is not going to run for lead sled dog, let alone POTUS.

Let's not let that get in the way of any Palin sacrifice, however. I give you my blessing, Republicans.
posted by wildcrdj at 7:25 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Why do the Republicans get two responses?
posted by octothorpe at 7:26 PM on January 25, 2011

I miss Bobby Jindal's Kenny impression.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:26 PM on January 25, 2011 [9 favorites]

This Republican dude looks like Pinocchio grown up. And kind of talks like it too. I'm just waiting for Gipetto to storm in from the side and chastise him.
posted by cashman at 7:27 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow. Zero mentions of the poor and middle class.

THis is what makes me crazy about the tea party types. Obama is so clearly middle-right. He wants balanced budgets. He is all about trade and employment and driving GDP growth. He knows he can't cut his way to a balanced budget alone so he's got to up income taxes a bit.

But the guy is nowhere within a million miles of being anywhere on the left. I like him a lot, but anyone who calls him a socialist is only demonstrating their own ignorance of what words mean.
posted by GuyZero at 7:27 PM on January 25, 2011 [26 favorites]

I'm actually pretty excited about the new High Speed Department of Salmon.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:27 PM on January 25, 2011 [16 favorites]

Now I wish I'd played a drinking game.

Don't worry, I played for us both.
posted by malocchio at 7:29 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Weelp, so much for everyone getting along.
posted by dejah420 at 7:29 PM on January 25, 2011

Why is Paul Ryan enunciating like a kindergarten teacher? Does he think Americans are stupid?
posted by MegoSteve at 7:30 PM on January 25, 2011

Oh god, Pinocchio is ranting about health care reform. "WE TOTALLY SHOWBOATED THAT ENTIRE ISSUE JUST FOR YOU GUYS HEY DID YOU LIKE IT DO YOU LIKE ME OR DO YOU LIKE ME LIKE ME Y/N"
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 7:30 PM on January 25, 2011

what was it I heard on the radio yesterday... Boehner managed to make the cover of 5 or so weekly national magazines. Nancy Pelosi, first woman speaker of the house, arguably the most politically powerful woman in US history, when she was elected to speaker and during her term? 0
posted by edgeways at 7:30 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Twitter commentators on the state of the union are making my head hurt. Someone serious just complained that he didn't mention Israel and that he did it ON PURPOSE.

Oy vey.
posted by GuyZero at 7:31 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow. Zero mentions of the poor and middle class.

I recognize that some in this Chamber have already proposed deeper cuts, and I'm willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without. But let's make sure that we're not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.
posted by ofthestrait at 7:31 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

It's Eddie Munster!
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:31 PM on January 25, 2011

Why is Paul Ryan enunciating like a kindergarten teacher? Does he think Americans are stupid?

His strategy depends on it.
posted by 2bucksplus at 7:31 PM on January 25, 2011 [31 favorites]

@Boehner: pull the kid, he sounds like a film strip.
posted by clavdivs at 7:31 PM on January 25, 2011

Promote the general welfare, you fuck. You forgot promote the general welfare.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:31 PM on January 25, 2011 [7 favorites]

We will transform salmon into hammocks!
posted by Babblesort at 7:33 PM on January 25, 2011

This hammock sucks.
posted by ofthestrait at 7:33 PM on January 25, 2011

@Boehner: good, hammocks.
posted by clavdivs at 7:33 PM on January 25, 2011

I'm embarrassed that Paul Ryan was my Rep for a year.
posted by drezdn at 7:33 PM on January 25, 2011

I want a hammock and some greek food!
posted by greasy_skillet at 7:33 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow, this guy was the best that the Republicans could find?
posted by octothorpe at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011

I guess the republican responder didn't hear about the huge gov't restructuring that Obama said during the speech. Which will shrink things up. Derp.
posted by deezil at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011

"When government takes too much on, it tends not to do anything well"

Citation please?
posted by dcheeno at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Huh. I thought it was a smart, inspiring, speech that managed to get even reluctant opponents to applaud, and gave some surprising concessions in a way that took the credit for the ideas away from the other side.
posted by Peach at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011 [6 favorites]

...okay, coworkers will flip their shit if I start yelling "NASA YOU FUCK NASA YOU EPIC FUCK" at the air.

(Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones? Great Ask MeFi rec, not so great when you need the Outside Voice to give the Inside Voice context.)
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011

Wow. Zero mentions of the poor and middle class.

That's not true.
posted by Flunkie at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

@Boehner: pull the kid, he sounds like a film strip.

Yeah, after he speaks a sentence or two, you expect to hear the occasional beep to cue the next slide.
posted by MegoSteve at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Actually, I think Ryan (by all accounts) is sincere. Which is scarier.
posted by orthogonality at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011

He looks high.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

A Social Hammock sounds really comfy.

And fun! Come on everybody, pile in!
posted by formless at 7:34 PM on January 25, 2011

Social Banana Hammock
posted by The Hamms Bear at 7:35 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

POLLS!
posted by clavdivs at 7:36 PM on January 25, 2011

I recognize that some in this Chamber have already proposed deeper cuts, and I'm willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without. But let's make sure that we're not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.

Yes, our most vulnerable citizens, the poor over-taxed rich.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:36 PM on January 25, 2011 [9 favorites]

Ah the Reps...the party of bipolard disorders?

"depending on government for anything, fails." Except when it comes to rescuing from the abysmal failures of Wall Street, that help we don't want it's wrong wrong wrong but we'll gladly take it, thank you but fuck you too.
posted by elpapacito at 7:36 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Any relation to Jack Ryan? Because I miss him.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:37 PM on January 25, 2011

CNN keeps saying she's only on CNN. Surely Fox can't be blowing her off?
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:37 PM on January 25, 2011

On a serious note... is there anything that Ryan said that differed from what Obama said? I felt like I was listening to the same speech.
posted by notion at 7:37 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

CNN is so proud of itself for giving Bachman a totally unearned forum.
posted by octothorpe at 7:37 PM on January 25, 2011

CNN keeps saying she's only on CNN. Surely Fox can't be blowing her off?

CNN's probably streaming it live from Fox headquarters.
posted by cashman at 7:38 PM on January 25, 2011

CNN keeps saying she's only on CNN. Surely Fox can't be blowing her off?

That would mean that Fox is controlled by the GOP establishment. Which would make sense, because Fox is controlled by the GOP establishment.

Whether or not the Tea Party continues to exist will depend on their polling in 2012.
posted by notion at 7:39 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Seriously, why does the Tea Party get an official response when they're not an actual political party? Why not the Greens as well or any other party??
posted by triggerfinger at 7:39 PM on January 25, 2011 [7 favorites]

Ahahaha….I'm pretty sure Diane Sawyer just called him Paul Rudd. And his eyes are so red….that dude is BLAZING!
posted by malocchio at 7:39 PM on January 25, 2011

Here's a little pre-crazy for you.
posted by cashman at 7:40 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

@bOEHNER: hicK
posted by clavdivs at 7:40 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

phil rudd..... were
posted by clavdivs at 7:41 PM on January 25, 2011

Hammock on Ryan?
posted by oneswellfoop at 7:41 PM on January 25, 2011

I feel like she'll be in front of a ranch, for some reason.
posted by cashman at 7:41 PM on January 25, 2011

Seriously, why does the Tea Party get an official response when they're not an actual political party? Why not the Greens as well or any other party??

How many Representatives and Senators have explicitly and verbally aligned themselves with the Green Party?
posted by Flunkie at 7:42 PM on January 25, 2011

Here's a pretty moving photo of Mark Kelly holding his wife's hand as he watches the speech.
I like him.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:42 PM on January 25, 2011 [11 favorites]

Bachmann is streaming on the foxnews.com site, they have an open mic and camera going now while they set up.
posted by greasy_skillet at 7:42 PM on January 25, 2011

Is Bachmann on yet? CNN stream is a picture of the capitol and the tea party express site is timing out.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:43 PM on January 25, 2011

I kid you not, Pawlenty is furious that Bachmann is making noises about running for president.
posted by edgeways at 7:43 PM on January 25, 2011

Krugman on the speach: "Meh."
posted by octothorpe at 7:44 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

>How many Representatives and Senators have explicitly and verbally aligned themselves with the Green Party

It would be pretty cool if Bernie Sanders could give the socialist response, though, especially since he's not actually a member of a political party.
posted by dcheeno at 7:46 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

From CNN's site: "Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is to deliver a response sponsored by the Tea Party Express..."

Sponsored by? Is that the traditional meaning of "sponsored by," as in Sponsored by Kellogs? Did the Tea Party Express actually buy a half-hour bloc of ad time, and if so, how much did they pay?
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:46 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

My favorite part was seeing Kerry and McCain sitting together. My heart filled with the thought, 'Is Bob Dole still alive?'
posted by box at 7:46 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

(Unlike Bachmann, who is a Republican)
posted by dcheeno at 7:46 PM on January 25, 2011

NYT:

President Obama is calling for Americans to unleash their creative spirits, set aside partisan differences and come together around a goal of outcompeting other nations.

OH SHIT DUDE WE NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT
posted by enn at 7:47 PM on January 25, 2011 [13 favorites]

Please tell me someone is recording Bachmann prepping on that fox stream.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:47 PM on January 25, 2011

octothorpe: Why do the Republicans get two responses?

Only one of them is the Republican response; the other is from the Tea Party.
posted by spaltavian at 7:47 PM on January 25, 2011

wow, microphone.
posted by clavdivs at 7:47 PM on January 25, 2011

I take back everything bad I've ever said about Anderson Cooper. Well, except for that one thing. That's still bad.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2011

here we go!
posted by ofthestrait at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2011

Wow, she snaps right into zombie mode!
posted by greasy_skillet at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2011

Who refuses to wear the ribbon?!
posted by MegoSteve at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Wastes no time bringing the crazy goods.
posted by cashman at 7:49 PM on January 25, 2011

NATIONAL FORCE FOR GOOD!!!!
posted by triggerfinger at 7:50 PM on January 25, 2011

You know, Ryan was so much better than the last Republican respondent I saw—but then, it's not hard to beat Bobby Jindal at that game. Ryan did use a lot of very similar rhetoric to Obama—'cept when he turned it around to say we'd all be lying around, growing fat and sated in the government hammock if we didn't make some cuts. That elicited a "Tch!" from me just for the tortured metaphor.
posted by limeonaire at 7:50 PM on January 25, 2011

Only one of them is the Republican response; the other is from the Tea Party.

Which is made up of Republicans.
posted by octothorpe at 7:50 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE LOOKING AT?
posted by The Hamms Bear at 7:50 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'm imagining Tina Fey's impersonation now.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:50 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

I am so glad NPR is ignoring this apparent spectacle.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 7:50 PM on January 25, 2011

Hey, howabout we let Obama go back to congress tomorrow for a do-over?
posted by Catblack at 7:50 PM on January 25, 2011

Bachmann breaks out a chart showing unemployment percentages under Bush and Obama.
posted by ofthestrait at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011

UNEMPLOYMENT, YES. Her solution is idiotic but she is ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Hey, why doesn't she go back to the Clinton years?
posted by notion at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

LOOK! A CHART! Where's Glenn Beck?
posted by dcheeno at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Wasn't 2009 a Bush budget?
posted by MegoSteve at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011

WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE LOOKING AT?

Tea-bagging Jesus.
posted by orthogonality at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011

ok lightbulbs now.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011

She's got charts, boys! Time to pack it in.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Fucking lightbulbs!
posted by greasy_skillet at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011

Hey crazy eyes, the camera's over here.
posted by gordie at 7:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

This is her second den, built exclusively for poorly assembled PowerPoint presentations.
posted by notion at 7:52 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Looks like "the Republicans" and "the Tea Party" are playing good cop, bad cop.
posted by callmejay at 7:52 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

she has graphs about graphs
posted by clavdivs at 7:52 PM on January 25, 2011

Not my light bulbs!
posted by octothorpe at 7:52 PM on January 25, 2011

"the world's finest healthcare". bwahahaha
posted by xbonesgt at 7:52 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Let's take up a kitty and send her to causality class.

(But look, since Obama's been president the number of stark raving crazy people has SKYROCKETED)
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:52 PM on January 25, 2011

The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations.

You don't say. Less than half of are students proficient in science, according to recent test results (alt. source w/o flash). PROFICIENT. By whatever criteria that was created, less than half of the nation's students achieved the middle criteria (levels being Basic, Proficient, and Advanced).

OK, so I'ma bit tipsy, so maybe it's not as dire as it sounds, but I'll go out on a limb and say school kids don't know their science, which means most American people don't know their science (or at least the next generation of bright minds aren't as bright as they should be).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:53 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

UNEMPLOYMENT, YES. Her solution is idiotic but she is ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE.

that is kind of like saying Pol Pot, his solution is idiotic but at least he is talking about changing people's lives.
posted by edgeways at 7:53 PM on January 25, 2011 [14 favorites]

Where's Glenn Beck?

He'll be right back. He's gone to cash the check from Goldline.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:53 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

If only we had low corporate taxes like Ireland.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:53 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

Waiting for Bachmann to tell me where to send my scrap gold for CASH.
posted by oinopaponton at 7:54 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

Apparently Bachmann believes the USA "currently enjoys the world's finest healthcare." But yeah, her speech sounds exactly like it's coming out of the mouth of Stephen Moore.
posted by mek at 7:54 PM on January 25, 2011

Now I see why she thinks everything is skewed left.
posted by CunningLinguist at 7:54 PM on January 25, 2011 [18 favorites]

that is kind of like saying Pol Pot, his solution is idiotic but at least he is talking about changing people's lives.

I don't use stupid comparisons like that, but that is precisely my point. People want to hear about unemployment and will latch on to whoever it is that is promising the solutions.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:54 PM on January 25, 2011

Oh wow, really, we're breaking out war pictures and getting breathy? WTF
posted by cashman at 7:55 PM on January 25, 2011

Iwo Jima.. wtf?
posted by ofthestrait at 7:55 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm still so hung up on the Powerpoint presentation that I can't pay attention to what she's saying. I wonder what Edward Tufte would say?
posted by dcheeno at 7:55 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Benny Andajetz: But look, since Obama's been president the number of stark raving crazy people has SKYROCKETED

I disconcur. The number of crazy people who have been given any news coverage has skyrocketed. The crazy is always out there (if you'd like evidence, I can forward you some email from my relatives, bless their hearts), someone just realized it Makes Good News to let the crazies talk on TV. They're so passionate, that has to count for something, right? No time to fact-check or provide rebuttals, this is 24/7 news! GO GO GO!
posted by filthy light thief at 7:55 PM on January 25, 2011

Iwo Jima? Huh?
posted by octothorpe at 7:56 PM on January 25, 2011

And god bless the much taller person standing to your immediate left.
posted by cashman at 7:56 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

I think that Iwo Jima derail was some really weird dogwhistling.
posted by mek at 7:56 PM on January 25, 2011

Less than half of are students proficient in science.

and I'm sure when conservative politicians and leaders pretend not to believe in evolution for politically motivated reasons, that has nothing to do with it at all.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:57 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Bachmann used the iconic Iwo Jima photo to make some sort of point about pulling together, defeating the "Japanese incursion", and defeating a totalitarian regime.
posted by ofthestrait at 7:57 PM on January 25, 2011

That not exactly the crazy I had been looking forward to. Well, except for Iwo Jima, and the camera on the left.
posted by kiltedtaco at 7:57 PM on January 25, 2011

I hate to say it, but of the three speeches, SOTU, Republican response, and Bachmann's teabaggery -- hers is the most direct and effective. She's talking about real problems, and it will leave a lot people thinking Obama's speech was empty sophistry.

DUMB IT DOWN
posted by cashman at 7:57 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Let's get Erik Erickson to weigh in..."

Or maybe instead we could sodomize ourselves with telephone poles.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 7:58 PM on January 25, 2011 [12 favorites]

I hate to say it, but of the three speeches, SOTU, Republican response, and Bachmann's teabaggery -- hers is the most direct and effective. She's talking about real problems, and it will leave a lot people thinking Obama's speech was empty sophistry.

I would like the drugs you are smoking, if only to confiscate them before someone seriously gets hurt.
posted by joe lisboa at 7:58 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

And yet, as contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be, I know there isn't a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth.

Sorry, Mr. President, but I am a person (admittedly, not in your elite audience), who has lived in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Japan and would consider trading places with a Norwegian, a Swede, a Finn, a Dane, or a Nihonjin.

I have to say I love this country to death...away from home, I missed my multi-culti home to no end...but Obama's jingoism is painful to hear.
posted by kozad at 7:59 PM on January 25, 2011 [24 favorites]

The number of crazy people who have been given any news coverage has skyrocketed.

Yeah, this is how I feel about the Tea Party at large. I thought for a while that it was so clear that it was a nutso fringe group, there was no way it could survive very long. I think that was sometime around April 2009. Well, we all see how that turned out, given networks' need to feed the 24-hour news cycle.
posted by limeonaire at 7:59 PM on January 25, 2011

NYT:

President Obama is calling for Americans to unleash their creative spirits, set aside partisan differences and come together around a goal of outcompeting other nations.

enn: OH SHIT DUDE WE NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT

To that I say: GO TEAM AMERICA! We'll kick Sputnik ~~outta orbit~~ back into orbit! Take that, you ~~Ruskies~~ other nations!
posted by filthy light thief at 8:00 PM on January 25, 2011

CNN holodeck poll data shows America liked Obama's speech. Guess it was just my bias. *shrug*
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:03 PM on January 25, 2011

Some wingers on twitter saying CNN sabotaged Bachmann with weird camera angle.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:03 PM on January 25, 2011

This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle.

He's gone.
posted by clarknova at 8:06 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I didn't see anything weird with the camera angle on the Fox Steam I was watching, so it may have just been CNN.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:06 PM on January 25, 2011

^ was only 1/4 watching though.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:07 PM on January 25, 2011

While I agree that the speech could have been better - less bland, to start - in a way I found it comforting. I've only really paid attention to the state of the union in the last ten years or so and George Bush's almost always struck me as speeches that were meant to inspire about as much as they were meant to intimidate. Once you moved on from the flag waving platitudes there was generally a few optimistic notes about our country's progress smothered under a prevailing mood of doom, with Axises of evil and failing schools and whatnot. Obama, on the other hand, always acknowledges problems but also tries to rhetorically push us towards a sort of faith in the future. Perhaps people are tired of the "hope and change" gimmick - but I think that's what a president should be working towards; I don't want a leader who is leading us away from hope.

I understand why people don't sympathize with his sense of optimism. Given how many other presidents have promised to move us towards energy independence in the past I don't know that there's any reason to really take Obama's word on the subject, and our education boondoggle isn't going to be nearly as easy to solve as he tried to make it seem like it would be... but all the same, I think that if you go back and look at when people have achieved the most, its been in a climate that was primed for innovation, and I think that the first step towards creating that environment is to set a can-do tone and then to start laying the ground work by trying to create a solid infrastructure for people to draw off of.

And that's the other thing that I think Obama did that Bush didn't: yes, there were a lot of grand declarations in tonight's speech, but Bush was never much of a details guy and there was a lot of talk tonight about the specific parts of the infrastructure that he wanted to streamline and prime for the future. Given that I think the main job of the government is to regulate and protect the public infrastructure that we all have to co-exist in and try to thrive in, it pleases me that he seems to have an interest not just in the problems that are flashy, the problems which are emotionally provocative or the ones he can score the most political points on, but on the little things that are presenting roadblocks to our country's success. The salmon thing was ridiculous, but I understand what he meant to do with that.

The State of the Union is in many ways an outdated tradition, but it does set a tone. And while I have severe doubts about a lot of the things Obama has done, it's refreshing to actually see the man in action. As quick as people are to paint Bush and Obama with the same brush - and as much as I have to grant that a lot of those charges are fair, at least in terms of executive power and the war on terror - there are areas where I think Obama is a lot better. If he can do what he says he wants to do, then I'm on board.

The main reason why his speech seemed bland was that so much of it seemed like common sense - but given where our country seems to be now, common sense might have to do. There are people who are going to rebel at the idea of an America where 80% of our energy comes from clean sources just out of spite and outright denial, even though to me that seems completely unobjectionale - I mean, all other things being equal, why wouldn't you want clean energy over dirty energy? But people still buy Hummers, and people still want us to invade Iran, despite what a mess all of our modern wars have been, and people aren't serious about things I think we have to be serious about, like the defecit and the economy. I'd rather have middle of the road than in a ditch, and I haven't forgotten how close we got to being in that ditch.
posted by Kiablokirk at 8:07 PM on January 25, 2011 [23 favorites]

Mark Ames revisits his 2004 article predicting Bush's second victory: explains why the American liberal strategy is a losing one.
posted by clarknova at 8:11 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

CNN holodeck poll data shows America liked Obama's speech.

Yeah, but that's a poll of people who actually watch CNN.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:13 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Kiablokirk: As quick as people are to paint Bush and Obama with the same brush - and as much as I have to grant that a lot of those charges are fair

Eh? Who has used this brush, and how is it fair? One adopted these strategies and plans to answer a new situation, another came into power with the strategies in place, and a significant population who thought they were a good idea. A sharp turn, and you completely lose them. I think it's the liberals who don't see enough of change from the past who group Obama with Bush. I have yet to see a bumper sticker or shirt that says "I miss Clinton," but I've seen plenty of "Miss Bush Yet"? (I only assume they're talking about the former president).
posted by filthy light thief at 8:16 PM on January 25, 2011

>Terrorists never strike trains.

Fresh in my mind is the "Sons of Gestapo" derailment near Gila Bend in Phoenix in 1995, just 5 months after the Oklahoma City bombings. (I won't even go into the speculation on that one, google it yourself.)
posted by Catblack at 8:17 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle.

He's gone.

I think this is highly unrealistic.
posted by Flunkie at 8:18 PM on January 25, 2011 [5 favorites]

Less than half of are students proficient in science

ISWYDT.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:23 PM on January 25, 2011

Yeah, but that's a poll of people who actually watch CNN.

No, it was a scientific poll of likely SOTU viewers.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:23 PM on January 25, 2011

I think this is highly unrealistic.

Keep thinkin'
posted by clarknova at 8:25 PM on January 25, 2011

Psssst. Michele. Bush signed the incandescent light bulb phase-out. In 2007.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:28 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Mark Ames revisits his 2004 article predicting Bush's second victory: explains why the American liberal strategy is a losing one.
posted by clarknova

Well isn't that nice. Thank you clarknova for linking to a blog with a picture of a person with downs syndrome in a superman costume. You probably did lol in real life, didn't you.
posted by Sailormom at 8:30 PM on January 25, 2011

An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of President Obama's overall message in his State of the Union on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News Poll of speech watchers.

According to the poll, which was conducted online by Knowledge Networks immediately after the president's address, 92 percent of those who watched the speech approved of the proposals Mr. Obama put forth during his remarks, while only 8 percent disapproved.

Specifically, 81 percent of those who watched the speech said they approve of the president's plans for the economy, up from 54 percent who approved before the speech.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 8:36 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

Between Boehner and Biden up there behind Obama pulsating awesomeness and orangeness, and the Mefi commentary this whole SOTU thing went into total excellence hyperdrive.

WTF FTW!!
posted by Skygazer at 8:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

furiousxgeorge: "An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of President Obama's overall message in his State of the Union on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News Poll of speech watchers.

According to the poll, which was conducted online by Knowledge Networks immediately after the president's address, 92 percent of those who watched the speech approved of the proposals Mr. Obama put forth during his remarks, while only 8 percent disapproved."

It should be noted that the polling sample was not representative of the entire country:

Americans who watched the speech were generally more Democratic than the nation as a whole. Forty-four percent of viewers polled were Democrats and 25 percent were Republicans. (Historically speaking, that is not an unusual statistic: a President's supporters are more likely than his opponents to watch State of the Union addresses.)

posted by Rhaomi at 9:01 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

So will 2011 be known as...

A) The Salmon SOTU
B) The Brofest
C) WTF FTW!

Policy wise, mostly sounds good. Especially on energy. But I'm not getting excited about things until it actually happens.
posted by Glibpaxman at 9:03 PM on January 25, 2011

This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle.

He's gone.

lulz
posted by empath at 9:08 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

But I'm not getting excited about things until it actually happens.

Wise. I continue to be stunned that so many people so desperately want to have politicians make them feel good. I mean, sure, feeling good is great, but to look to thoroughly compromised national public figures in impossibly conflicted positions to provide your validation for you? Yow. That's insane.
posted by mediareport at 9:21 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

This showed up in my twitterstream:

"The rules have been changed in the middle of the game... This shouldn’t discourage us. It should challenge us."

I'd be curious to know more about the reference - which rules, what game - time zones had me asleep through the fun.
posted by infini at 9:22 PM on January 25, 2011

my love for Jackson is just a lie?
posted by clavdivs at 9:23 PM on January 25, 2011

"This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle.

He's gone"

WHAT?

What are the alternatives? This is what we have.

The forces for "Much Worse" are assembling their armies now.

Grow up and choose a side.
posted by trii at 9:26 PM on January 25, 2011 [4 favorites]

While reading an entirely unrelated piece I noticed...

On CNN, David Brooks followed Jindal. He called the governor's "stale, government-is-the problem" rhetoric "a disaster for the Republican Party," and excoriated those who insisted on hugging tight to it as "insane." The people appeared to agree. In a snap poll, 92 percent of those surveyed had a positive reaction to Obama's speech—68 percent a very positive reaction. Only 8 percent had a negative reaction.

Apparently 92% always loves his speeches, but that didn't change anything about how the rest of the year went for him politically.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 9:42 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

I hate to say it, but of the three speeches, SOTU, Republican response, and Bachmann's teabaggery -- hers is the most direct and effective. She's talking about real problems, and it will leave a lot people thinking Obama's speech was empty sophistry.

Oh, so she retracted all that bullshit about John Quincy Adams being responsible for ending slavery?

blucevalo, it's hubris like yours that got Bush#2 elected. Obama has not really *connected* with people's real needs. He's connected with their *hopes*. There's a difference. Bush#2 was ignorant about the world, compared to Gore, and Kerry, but look who won. Why? Because he spoke in a vernacular language that the average Joe understood and *believed*. It doesn't matter any more that one knows the facts. What matters is that one knows how to *connect*.
posted by Vibrissae at 9:45 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

Psssst. Michele. Bush signed the incandescent light bulb phase-out. In 2007.

This is exactly the type of stuff that makes me flip out. Just like blaming the deficit/bailout completely on Obama.

I have an idea for reducing the deficit: stop the wars.
posted by XhaustedProphet at 9:48 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

Missed the beginning of the speech -- watching a DVR'd copy from CNN now. I liked the way one of the commentators (Crowley?) snarked "I'm not quite sure why we're talking about this, but..." after Blitzer's incredibly inane question about what color the president's tie was.

clarknova: "This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle. He's gone."

Obama's star has risen considerably in recent polling, largely thanks to growing support from independents. Even traditionally conservative pollster Rasmussen Reports currently has him at a +5% net approval rating, a result they haven't returned since the summer of 2009. A lot of that is solidarity from the Tucson shooting and affirmation for the great speech he gave afterward, but there's no evidence voters are abandoning him after the lame-duck session.

infini: "I'd be curious to know more about the reference - which rules, what game - time zones had me asleep through the fun."

He was talking about how it's a lot harder to find work now, how the days when walking into the nearest factory or office with a high school diploma was enough to secure a good job with benefits are long-gone.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:51 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some wingers on twitter saying CNN sabotaged Bachmann with weird camera angle.

Maybe she should try looking at their camera then. It was brought up in their post-analysis. She was simply looking directly into the Tea Party Express camera.
posted by XhaustedProphet at 9:53 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

Salmon Cloud.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:06 PM on January 25, 2011 [6 favorites]

This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle.

He's gone.

I do not think that word means what you think it means, and I also fail to share your somewhat bizarre assessment of American politics, but we can always high-five it out, bro.
posted by joe lisboa at 10:06 PM on January 25, 2011 [3 favorites]

"If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child - become a teacher. Your country needs you."
Or just focus on basketball and become secretary of education.

"As we speak, [high speed rail] routes in California and the Midwest are already underway."
and in the Midwest they're also already cancelled.
posted by efbrazil at 11:11 PM on January 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

and in the Midwest they're also already cancelled.

By Republican governors looking to score points with imaginary tea partiers.
posted by joe lisboa at 11:21 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

As a marine mammal, I'm now not sure who I should report to - Commerce or Interior?
posted by arcticseal at 11:35 PM on January 25, 2011 [9 favorites]

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: I...

"It will afford you satisfaction to infer the great extent and solidity of the public resources from the prosperous state of the finances, notwithstanding the unexampled embarrassments which have attended commerce. When you reflect on the conspicuous examples of patriotism and liberality which have been exhibited by our mercantile fellow citizens, and how great a proportion of the public resources depends on their enterprise, you will naturally consider whether their convenience can not be promoted and reconciled with the security of the revenue by a revision of the system by which the collection is at present regulated. During your recess measures have been steadily pursued for effecting the valuations and returns directed by the act of the last session, preliminary to the assessment and collection of a direct tax. No other delays or obstacles have been experienced except such as were expected to arise from the great extent of our country and the magnitude and novelty of the operation, and enough has been accomplished to assure a fulfillment of the views of the Legislature."

-John Adams, 1798.

posted by clavdivs at 11:39 PM on January 25, 2011

As a marine mammal, I'm now not sure who I should report to - Commerce or Interior?

If you are freshwater, it makes perfect logical sense that you should report to interior. If you are saltwater, it makes perfect logical sense that you should report to commerce.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 11:44 PM on January 25, 2011

A pillar of my vision of the future was taking high speed rail between madison and milwaukee so I'm very frustrated with wisconson.
posted by efbrazil at 11:44 PM on January 25, 2011 [2 favorites]

articseal is Interior dept. dont mine the earl but will Alaska do, i mean, OH.
um State Department. They have brochures for the safe swimming zones. which brings me to my proposal: all countries are required to have an articseal aboard thier submarines. War would be impossible. (this was the other secret double-valve in "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans") 1. the ball trick/game just the diversion for us humans 2. come on, its a seal. Even a SEAL would agree to that. 3. I am a Penguin feller. Penguins in every office on the Hill, twice daily. 4. Dolphins, State for obvious language skills. 5. Whales. Defense. hey, it's a whale.
posted by clavdivs at 12:00 AM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

'c' and 'c'
posted by clavdivs at 12:04 AM on January 26, 2011

From a non-American perspective, the jingoism in Obama's speeches is always a little annoying - other countries are not as different from America as he makes out. Maybe, on subjects like healthcare, America could even learn a thing or two from them.

I have mixed feelings about the WTF thing - it feels a bit like an attempt to ignore some very real and pressing problems by sticking your fingers in your ears.

On the other hand, I wonder if it could be a way of moving back towards the idea that government can be good. I don't think the left in America will get anywhere until it can argue, unashamed, that government can and does help people - that we need to grow government and participate in it, if we are to have a happy and prosperous life.

I don't think that's an unreasonable point of view and I think it's an argument that somebody needs to make, to counterbalance the often rather extreme, inflexible support for the private sector put forward by the right wing.
posted by lucien_reeve at 1:34 AM on January 26, 2011

As long as I get a hat with gold braid. And get to speak nautical. Avast me hearties!
posted by arcticseal at 3:44 AM on January 26, 2011 [2 favorites]

Less than half of are students proficient in science,

And fewer (ahem) than that appear to be proficient in English, the language in which science textbooks are written in the US.

Just teasing.
posted by spitbull at 4:53 AM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

...but Obama's jingoism is painful to hear.

From a non-American perspective, the jingoism in Obama's speeches is always a little annoying...

"Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos are born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth. Having grown up with this in our ears, it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!"

The only (slim) chance Obama ever had to avoid this particular bit of the kabuki vanished once he caved in on the lapel pin.
posted by Rat Spatula at 5:33 AM on January 26, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah, well of course he could be a committed anti-exceptionalist without risking much were he not interested in being president of the United States.

it's startling to realize that other countries have nationalistic slogans of their own, none of which are 'We're number two!"

If everyone does it, it's not such a big deal.
posted by spitbull at 6:07 AM on January 26, 2011

blucevalo, it's hubris like yours that got Bush#2 elected. Obama has not really *connected* with people's real needs. He's connected with their *hopes*. There's a difference. Bush#2 was ignorant about the world, compared to Gore, and Kerry, but look who won. Why? Because he spoke in a vernacular language that the average Joe understood and *believed*. It doesn't matter any more that one knows the facts. What matters is that one knows how to *connect*.

Doesn't matter. If unemployment goes down, Obama is getting re-elected. If it does, he's not. Doesn't matter what he says in a speech that nobody cares about.
posted by empath at 6:10 AM on January 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

(if it doesn't go down, he's not)
posted by empath at 6:11 AM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle.

He's gone.

He's going to lose to whom? Pawlenty? Romney? Thune? The Republican bench of potential candidates is pretty sad.
posted by octothorpe at 6:14 AM on January 26, 2011

He's going to lose to whom? Pawlenty? Romney? Thune? The Republican bench of potential candidates is pretty sad.

I remember saying this back in 2000 when I was SURE that Gore would have an easy time with Bush.
posted by Aizkolari at 6:18 AM on January 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

If everyone does it, it's not such a big deal.<>

Everyone is rather partial towards their own country. Not everyone is a star spangled jerk about it.
posted by ~ at 6:23 AM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Karma is a broken end tag apparently.
posted by ~ at 6:26 AM on January 26, 2011

Aizkolari: "I remember saying this back in 2000 when I was SURE that Gore would have an easy time with Bush"

Sure but in 2000 there was no incumbent and W was hyped as the heir-apparent to the presidency. Obama's the president and none of the current crop of hopefuls seem to generate much excitement among the right blogs and such. Two years is a long time though and at this point in 1991, Bush, Sr. looked like a shoe-in.
posted by octothorpe at 6:32 AM on January 26, 2011

Yeah, predicting the November 2012 election in January 2011 is the dictionary definition of laughable.
posted by mediareport at 6:38 AM on January 26, 2011

Everyone is rather partial towards their own country. Not everyone is a star spangled jerk about it.

Lewis Black comments...
posted by Joe Beese at 6:40 AM on January 26, 2011 [8 favorites]

I was seriously asking earlier about the Bachmann "Sponsored by Tea Party Express" thing on CNN. Are CNN seriously allowing groups to buy huge blocs of ad time and prepping them to appear like they're news events? Does anyone have any ideas about this? It seems pretty horrendous if that's what went on with the Bachmann/CNN "response" thing last night, but I don't know, and I don't know where to look for this sort of info. Thoughts?
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:08 AM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

We have had a decade and more of political rancor and struggle, and the struggle was for power not for any betterment of the country. That was incidental to the struggle for power. Obama tried to change the rhetoric and the conservatives used that against him. Now we have, in the wake of the shooting in Arizona, a renewed interest on both sides for a different path, more dialectic, less debate, seeking truth, answers and mutually beneficial solutions rather than the mere scoring of political points and the accumulation of power. With the shootings a window has opened. Obama cannot do it himself, he will need the help of leaders from both political parties, Will we get it? I am a generally pretty optimistic person and I would like to hope we would achieve the dialectic, but there are so many out there who profit personally from the schism in politics (I am looking at you FOX News, but this sort can be found in both camps).
posted by caddis at 8:09 AM on January 26, 2011

This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle.

I believe you're mistaken. See Bill Clinton v. Bob Dole in 1996.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:12 AM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

This loses him the left and he never had the right. You can't win here with just the middle.

Actually, Obama won the 2008 election by grabbing 20% of conservatives and 60% of moderates. 90% of liberals will hold their nose and vote for a pickled cabbage if it appeared on the Democratic ticket as they've done for the last 5 elections.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 8:13 AM on January 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

I have mixed feelings about the WTF thing - it feels a bit like an attempt to ignore some very real and pressing problems by sticking your fingers in your ears.

I interpreted this in the completely opposite way. Winning is something that takes concerted effort. You don't prepare to win a marathon by sitting around, eating Cheetos, and just expecting to come in first. You don't win a chess match by assuming you're better than the other player and don't have to think through it. You want to win at something? You earn the win.

Obama's whole point, as I understood it, is that excellence as a nation is something we have to strive for, suffer for, and earn. Complacency, blindness to the problems, and obstinate refusal to work lead to failure. The previous generations put in the effort to win their future, but that doesn't mean we get to sit on our butts and reap in the rewards from their successes -- without the same amount of effort on our part, we will not have the same great future our forefathers won.
posted by meese at 8:16 AM on January 26, 2011 [2 favorites]

On CNN, David Brooks followed Jindal. He called the governor's "stale, government-is-the problem" rhetoric "a disaster for the Republican Party

The best part of that speech was when Jindal was all LOL WTF IS VOLCANO MONITORING, and then a volcano erupted, shutting down Alaskan airspace for a few days.
posted by electroboy at 8:18 AM on January 26, 2011 [10 favorites]

"How important are speeches? I don't know, ask the Gettysburg Address. ... Oh, it didn’t answer your call? Maybe because it was in the Smithsonian."

Yeah, predicting the November 2012 election in January 2011 is the dictionary definition of laughable.

You give me even odds and I'll put $5,000 on Obama right now (I get Biden if the worst happens.)

You're probably right, but jeez, who calculates that almighty percentage. My prediction is that unemployment stays about the same (8-9%) and Obama still gets re-elected because the other side is insane and increasingly fragmented. Obama is trending like Bill Clinton/Ronald Reagan right now ...
posted by mrgrimm at 8:45 AM on January 26, 2011

My prediction is that unemployment stays about the same (8-9%) and Obama still gets re-elected because the other side is insane and increasingly fragmented.

Add that the Dems lose the Senate and sink even further in the House, and you probably have a lock. Probably. Never underestimate, though, the ability of a population to turn batshit-crazy for brief periods...like, say, around election time.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:06 AM on January 26, 2011

The official state of the union 2011 (pdf)
posted by cashman at 9:11 AM on January 26, 2011

I think, in the last few years, the Republicans learned Judo. This whole "end to partisanship" thing will turn out to have lasted one night, the night of the State of the Union, effectively preventing Obama from coming out and handing the Republicans their asses for their ongoing policy of undermining everything his does, reflexively, even when he is promoting their own agenda, in order to try and create a president who is seen as being unable to accomplish anything. So all of a sudden, Republicans are sitting with Democrats and smiling through grimaces, because if they can pretend to make nice for one day, the president is going to look like a partisan shill if he has any complaints. They effectively turned the State of Union address into a temporary round of Kum-Bay-Ya.

In the meanwhile, they got their shrill partisan response. But they could effectively claim they had nothing to do with it -- oh no, it was Bachmann, who everybody knows is a rogue, and she was speaking on behalf of the Tea Party, who everybody knows is beholden to nobody.

except its a lie. Bachmann isn't a rogue. She's a useful idiot -- a party hack and true believer who works like a wind-up doll You point her in the direction of a microphone and she'll say whatever you want her to. And the Tea Party is a Republican front group made up of angry Republican fringers who the Republican party has played, and continues to play, like a fiddle, using them like Martin Luther King is supposed to have used the shadow of the black man with the molotov behind him. Bachmann and the Tea Party are pressed forward as the extreme, because it makes all the corrupt free market libertarian and old-school plutocrat Republicans look like the reasonable middle. They will encourage Bachmann to run for president for just that reason -- because she's going to make whoever is also on the ballot look like a better choice, rather than just degrees of the same agenda. And, when she loses in the primaries, she can go right back to being their useful idiot in the House.

And make no mistake, this is what we're talking about: Degrees of the same agenda. Bachmann's "Tea Party" response was the Republican party line. She was publicly what all of them were privately last night: So partisan she refused to sit next to a Democrat, wild-eyed, black-and-white ribbonless, and still speaking in the same poisonous elimainationist dialogue with her doctored pie charts of Obama failure and her lack of any understand of history. It's what the rest of them are back to today, after neutering Obama yesterday.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:21 AM on January 26, 2011 [25 favorites]

And make no mistake that Bachmann got to speak because someone paid for it. If the Green party had a US fundraising machine (aka a few billionaires bankrolling the whole operation) then they'd be on CNN too.
posted by GuyZero at 9:39 AM on January 26, 2011

From Washington Monthly:
But here's the funny part: substantively, Bachmann's nonsense was roughly identical to the foolishness repeated by Paul Ryan in the official Republican SOTU response. Note Media Matters' fact-check of Ryan's speech and then check Media Matters' fact-check of Bachmann's speech. The similarities are striking -- with a few exceptions, they had the exact same message.
posted by octothorpe at 11:23 AM on January 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

This thread was a fun read. Same time next year?
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 11:44 AM on January 26, 2011

This thread was a fun read. Same time next year?

Count on it.
posted by clarknova at 12:25 PM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

90% of liberals will hold their nose and vote for a pickled cabbage if it appeared on the Democratic ticket as they've done for the last 5 elections.

PICKLED CABBAGE 2012!

google pickled caggage
posted by fuq at 12:52 PM on January 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

Picked cabbage has, on the whole, done me more good than any elected official in recent memory. I'd vote for it.

::fixes kimchi-and-sauerkraut sandwich::
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:59 PM on January 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

90% of liberals will hold their nose and vote for a pickled cabbage if it appeared on the Democratic ticket as they've done for the last 5 elections.

Didn't work out that way in 2000, a few more "pickled cabbage" votes and Bush II would have been a 3rd level trivia question, no Iraq war (Afghanistan is arguable), and I guarantee you there would be a lot of pissed off liberals complaining about Gore.
posted by edgeways at 1:05 PM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

90% of liberals will hold their nose and vote for a pickled cabbage if it appeared on the Democratic ticket as they've done for the last 5 elections.

PICKLED CABBAGE 2012!

Old Relish Packet

Bag of Leaves

Side of Hashbrowns

Frozen Peas

Spoiled Yappy Dog

Someone's Teddy Bear
posted by Rhaomi at 1:42 PM on January 26, 2011

Maybe it's just a common as dirt age-related tendency, but sadly, I'm finding myself increasingly disengaged politically. Obama doesn't excite me. Not because of what he says or can do right now. It's because I strongly disagreed with his tactics early on - I thought he was way too cautious and didn't understand the political realities. I thought he should have pivoted much more sharply and not tried to cater to the Republicans who were never ever going to give as much as an inch. He had maximum political capital right at the start, and should have raced as hard as humanly possible to change the entire discourse in this country and played for keeps, without always having half an eye - or two eyes - on the second term, which can only emasculate your efforts... when you act as if you have too much to lose (second term), you simply will not be effective *now*. The Romans had a tactic - land troops on the beach *and burn the ships, so there is not even a thought of turning back*. Let the future take care of itself - 4 years is an eternity and many things can happen, and it's senseless to sacrifice your effectiveness now, to a nebulous hope of a 2nd term.

Well, I was told that he's a n-dimensional chess player and I just don't understand his brilliant strategy - I never bought that for a second, but that's what I kept being told. And then things started unraveling in ways so undeniable that it was no longer a credible claim (though some souls still try to peddle that line today!) - so disastrous was the mid-term showing for the Democrats, that we'd have to go back decades to see similar numbers of seats lost. All that compromising didn't buy him jack - except historic losses. A full-fledged disaster. So much for n-dimensional chess.

At which point I was told that he'd love to have done differently, but he simply can't without every single lawmaker becoming a strident liberal. But then he kept saying and doing things which made me doubt his very goals and value system (mostly, but not only, wrt. the security apparatus). And so finally, I was told that in fact I was wrong to ever hope that he was anything but a very rightwing "centrist", whatever that means. Well, OK. And fuck that shit. I really don't give a flying fuck about his agenda going forward from here - the tiny noodling around the edges and the fine intricacies of inside baseball that's complicating even those tiny noodlings.

But, but, but the Republicans are worse!!!UNO! Indeed. But you know what? The country apparently doesn't give a shit, or can't tell anyway, and falls for the most crude and cheap tricks from the Republicans while the Democrats seem constitutionally devoid of a spine and apparently a brain as well (while the Demos had majorities in both houses, they were laid low by the filibuster that was used extremely effectively by the Repubs; so did they try to get rid of the filibuster at that time - as Republicans threatened to do when they had majorities, and threatened so effectively, that Demos caved on using it effectively - why, of course not; meanwhile, now that they are a minority in the house and soon will be in the senate, what do they propose to do? Why, of course reform the filibuster, so now that they'll be a minority, they'll have absolutely no recourse, and can't do to the Repubs what the Repubs did to them; brilliant!).

If the country wants Republicans - they can have them. You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. And so, I'm walking away. I'll continue to support a few causes: gay rights, the environment and so on, but I'm done working with the Democrats. You don't want decent health insurance and financial security in your old age and decent jobs? Fine. I'm through trying to convince you. Instead, I'm focusing on securing my own financial future, and well, my new year resolution, is to stop caring about every wrinkle and every twitch that goes on in Washington. Yes, right on schedule, I'm turing into a selfish old man. I'll never vote right-wing, but from now on, it's first and foremost about #1.

I did my mail this morning. Checks are going out to Marriage Equality USA, to The Trust For Public Land, Point Lobos Foundation. That's it for today. What's this... mail from the DNC, and also more political causes, yeah, straight to the garbage. With the money saved - I'll be giving the Democrats zero this year - I'm thinking a trip to Lisbon, always wanted to see it, never had a chance... and now I'll have some extra cash. Thanks, Obama for that speech. It cleared things up for me pretty nicely.
posted by VikingSword at 1:52 PM on January 26, 2011 [5 favorites]

edgeways: Didn't work out that way in 2000...

The pattern actually is pretty close for 2000 as well where Gore got approx %87 of the liberal vote, but liberals only poll between %20-24 of the voting population.

Meanwhile, we're talking '12 here, not '00. The Greens and Nader went through a nasty and bitter divorce in '04. Nader got custody of the fundraising and the Greens kept their platform. They're both political irrelevancies that struggle to poll better than the Constitution party in the few places where they can get on the ballot. Paranoia over this reminds me of the urban legend that England paid watchmen to look for the return of Napoleon Bonaparte decades after he died.

Meanwhile, it's not as if everyone loved Obama in '08 and '10. But stay-at-home leftists and PUMAs (the few who were not Republican operatives to start with) were not statistical blips in '08 or '10 when the election was determined by millions of swing moderates and conservatives. The current fashion for attacking liberals, who demonstrate remarkable party unity in voting for Democrats in election after election, strikes me as stupid and crazy.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 1:59 PM on January 26, 2011

Fox News host plays back Obama's "laugh lines" -- with the laughter edited out and replaced with crickets -- then comments, "President Obama's jokes fell a little short [...] It sounded kind of quiet after those laugh lines."
posted by Rhaomi at 3:00 PM on January 26, 2011

The Romans had a tactic - land troops on the beach *and burn the ships, so there is not even a thought of turning back*.

Not actually true, incidentally.
posted by anigbrowl at 4:02 PM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Can I just say "Fuck Fox News" here?
posted by five fresh fish at 6:12 PM on January 26, 2011 [4 favorites]

VikingSword, I feel you. However, imagine if Obama had come in, figurative guns blazing, with a big "Change" beltbuckle on. Opposition has people believing that Obama is a black muslim socialist nazi grandparent killing kenyan hell bent on destroying america, who needs to be impeached. And that's with him trying to work with Republicans at every turn!

What would they have said if he actually came in and changed everything? It would have been a damn free-for-all. I get that you're upset at what goes on. Trust me, it drives me up a wall. I see the lies and they are just blatant, and I see well educated people I know tuning into a channel that flat out lies to them, and they swallow it hook, sinker, line, pole and reel.

Obama isn't the problem. Our situation, where people can just flat out lie on national television and not be out of a job the next week - there's the problem. And Obama can't solve that. That's on us. So we can check out, or we can fight. And it is going to be a fight, if Obama even decides to run again. I fully expect to have someone take a swing at me. It's because people are being misled on a grand scale. Maybe you feel like you're too old to fight that battle. Part of me feels just like you do - let these fucks have the next election, because a lot of people are just about unreachable at this point. I don't know. I know right about now a good plan is needed. Right now.

from now on, it's first and foremost about #1.

Good luck with that, Spidey.
posted by cashman at 6:13 PM on January 26, 2011 [3 favorites]

Obama's jingoism may be painful to hear, but I doubt that he actually believes what he's saying at all at those points; it's just one of those things you have to say, along with the silly claim that a government's budget is anything at all like an individual household's budget.

Obama clearly knows more about the world, and about macroeconomics, than that. He just can't let it show, because people who "know" the "truth" will be after him constantly if he doesn't pay that "truth" lip service, and they will never be convinced by the actual truth.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 6:29 PM on January 26, 2011 [1 favorite]

Apparently, WTF = Winning The Future. That particular WTF moment lasts about 30 seconds, but the extra stoopid continues here.
posted by gman at 4:22 AM on January 27, 2011

WTF indeed. Why would anyone even ask Sarah Palin what she tought about creating jobs when she couldn't even finish the one she had?
posted by Sailormom at 9:03 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Half-Gov is half-wit. Good grief.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:13 AM on January 27, 2011

Did anyone else think that (SOTU) sounded like a law professor tried to write a truck commercial? Win the Future? We do Big Things?
I could just see the image of those hard working Indians and Chinese who are out-educating us. We've gotta beat 'em!

notion: After Citizens v United, just wait until the State of the Union begins with the President thanking his sponsors.

One take was that he was trying to use more BusinessSpeak, courting the business people of the nation. Instead, he ended sounding cheesy.

Rhaomi: Fox News host plays back Obama's "laugh lines" -- with the laughter edited out and replaced with crickets -- then comments, "President Obama's jokes fell a little short [...] It sounded kind of quiet after those laugh lines."

Wow, that wasn't even a subtle addition of cricket sounds to over-all silence. Those were some loud crickets. More of that ham-fisted Fox editing.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:02 AM on January 27, 2011

As of late 2009, there was a major split in the Tea Party: Tea Party Patriots vs. Tea Party Express. The latter was at one point a well-funded tour.

In terms of the weird camera view, Bachmann was looking into a different camera, but the Tea Party Express site linked to ... PBS. A publicly funded organization, who had the wrong camera view? Hmm.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:26 AM on January 27, 2011

Bush#2 was ignorant about the world, compared to Gore, and Kerry, but look who won. Why? Because he spoke in a vernacular language that the average Joe understood and *believed*. It doesn't matter any more that one knows the facts. What matters is that one knows how to *connect*.

Well, there was that thing with the Supreme Court in 2000 that gave the presidency to a guy with less votes than Gore, and then there was that whole 911 thing that gave the guy a nation as frightened and malleable and obedient as a puppy.

Truly, his election and his presidency was like a fucked up parallel universe, like some sort of cosmic wires got crossed for a huge chunk of the aughts, and fuck me if it was as shitty a decade as the 70s, and damn the horror, the horror of the aughts, fuck them to hell.

Anyhow, you get my drift. Bush, had to step up and act like the protective older brother a traumatized country desperately needed, and he did that, he could do that, despite all his other glaring faults the guy could do the loyal protective older brother thing.

In other words he knew how to connect with people's specific needs, at a specific time. Obama needs to do that too, but he's cerebral and fucking extremely so and a bit aloof.

And I think I just proved your point, didn't I? Yes, Obama can connect with people aspirationally (their hopes), quite well, but now he has to come to the dinner table and connect with the moment (which Bush did quite effectively), and that's going to be a tough one for him without acting and sounding like a cheeseball, when a big chunk of the people at the table are insane halfwits addicted to Fox News 24 hour Fear Narrative and when they look at him all they see is a dangerous Muslim Communist, Anti-American Negro (NEGRO!!) at the head of the table talking about stuff, ideals and thoughts that they just don't have the literary background or the love of education to give a flying fuck about.

Tuscon, he could speak from the heart and was hugely effective. He really did connect with that tragedy, and I think he knows that and he knows that's the way in, through the heart and a shared (quasi-evangelical type thing innit?? Yuck.) grief. Bush did that revivalesque type thing like nobody's business. Palin's got her finger on that, but she's more of the agression/bigot side that she attracts and it's why she'll never get the presidency thankfully, but someone like a Huckabee? Watch out, that guy can definitely sooth and connect hurting people.

Tuscon was a watershed moment for Obama, and as presidents go, he's still a young man, and it's tough for men perhaps who aren't in their full 50s to do the emotional empathy thing, but I think he's learning.

Honestly, sometimes I just wish he would not do a second run, and give the reins for 2012 over to Hillary, cos I get sick of watching him get so wrongfully abused, but there is greatness in him and I think he'll take 2012 and even surprise the hardest lefty amongst us on how he grows into the role and masters it and gets things done.

Hmm...I have to stop arguing with people who I agree with.
posted by Skygazer at 11:44 AM on January 27, 2011

One final thing. At the end of the day, Sarah Palin is a loud mouthed tiresome bully-girl.

Really, picking on the Obama's is like such cowardly bullshit. She's like the bitch on the block who's harassing and threatening the nice quiet hard well educated black family who just moved into the neighborhood, because she's pissed that the neighborhoods no longer all-white, she's afraid other blacks are going to move into the neighborhood and there go the property values. And the only thing she has going for her, other than her evil brain, and nastiness is that she's white and she's articulating (sorta..in a homey illiterate way) the fears of the other people on the block.

There is a name for a person like that, and if any woman in the couuntry deserves it, it's S. Palin. She's a scourge the nation needs to drop like a hot potato back into the quiet obscurity of the Alaska strip mall suburbs.
posted by Skygazer at 12:02 PM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

This Is Obama's State of the Future - Gizmodo breaks down the Sate of the Union speech regarding the internet, science, and trains.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:41 PM on January 27, 2011

The first step is to stop ranting about her.

Nah, that shit never works. First thing is to get through to more and more people that she's a worthless person to listen to regarding anything, and Fox further shows it's true colors by having her as a pundit or whatever the fuck...she is over there...mascot or whatnot.
posted by Skygazer at 1:05 PM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Nah, that shit never works.

How would we know? No one can seem to shut up about her. Let's try ignoring her, just as a test. Don't look. Don't click. Don't read. Let's see what happens.
posted by Trochanter at 1:52 PM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Perhaps, there's something to that. Trying not to go all Godwin here (which is why I'm avoiding the F-word with Ms. P.), but there is no mistaking for me, that there's no way to talk about "American exceptionalism," without going there. It's troubling and difficult to ignore.
posted by Skygazer at 1:19 PM on January 28, 2011

So SNL just spoofed Bachmann, but it was way too sane. Her makeup should have made her eyes pop out and look crazy. Like she normally looks. I don't think she said the words "tea party" though, did she?
posted by cashman at 8:35 PM on January 29, 2011

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