For those who can’t get to a teevee. You can also watch the address live at Hulu.com. Check back often for updates.
7:00 PM – Supreme Court Justices make a red carpet entrance. For a second I think I’m watching an Oscars replay. Is that Sally Field? Nope, Ginsberg. First lady arrives. She has box seats, according to Gregory. Cabinet arrives. Keeping with the Oscars theme, I hope Clinton doesn’t notice someone across the room has the same pink jacket on. Fashion faux paus! Rahm’s Armani is looking snappy though. I’m making myself sick.
7:10 PM – Obama arrives (video up already, wow). Accosted quickly by Jean Schmidt, who I believe is drunk. ORRIN! Hatch is trying to squeeze through the crowd to get Obama, possibly to regale him with song… doesn’t make it up in time. Obama begins before Nancy can introduce him, but SHE AIN’T HAVIN’ THAT. Speech begins. “You don’t need another list of statistic, because you live it every day. I want you to know this. We will rebuild, we will recover.”
7:20 PM – “If we’re going to be honest, we have to admit we’ve not always lived up to our responsibilities. As a people or a government. Short term gains prized over long term prosperity. We weren’t looking beyond next quarter or next election. Economic agenda begins with jobs. (Shots of Republicans looking kinda grumpy) Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. Roads, Bridges, Solar Panels, Broadband. 57 Police officers in (missed city name) still have their jobs tonight because of this plan.” I think Biden is playing with his iPhone. Mitch McConnell is giving everybody the stink- eye. “With a plan of this size comes great responsibility. Credit has stopped flowing. Too many bad loans. Create a new lending fund to provide auto, college, small biz loans to consumers. Housing plan for responsible families that won’t help speculators or those who bought a house they could never afford.”
7:30 PM – Momentarily overwhelmed by the repeating realization that THIS IS NOT GEORGE W. BUSH SPEAKING. Woot! “The cost of action will be great, but the cost of inaction will be greater. Economy could just sputter along for a decade.” Cut’s to a smiling Joe Libermann. Boooooo! “We can’t yeild to the politics of the moment. Slowly, but surely, confidence will return, and our economy will recover. I ask congress to join me. Cannot resign our country to an open ended recession. Reform our outdated regulatory system. Common sense rules of the road. Reward drive and innovation, punish short cuts and abuse. Confront the prize of our dependence on oil and the cost of health care. My [pending] budget does not solve every problem or every issue. It addresses a trillion dollar deficit and a lengthy recession. Bold action, big ideas. Railroad tracks, highways, blah blah blah.” Speeches can be so speechy!
7:40 PM – “Energy, Health Care, and Education.” Room stands. Now Nancy is playing with her iPhone. “Largest investment in research funding in American history. But to truly save our economy, we need to make renewable energy, and a profitable kind. $15 billion a year for wind, solar, cleaner cars, clean coal. The nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away. None of this will come without cost.” He promised at the begining there would be no long lists of statistics (“you’ve heard it all”), but he’s doing it. Health care statistics. Lots of uninsured. More statistics. Feel like I’m sitting in Richley Crapo’s Anthropology 407 class again. I wish I’d voted for John McCain. Woah, just kidding. “Bring together Democrats and Republicans…” He doesn’t say bipartisan! Oh happy day. “Third challenge is education. Competative education for our children. Historic investment in education through the recovery plan. Made college affordable for nearly 7 million more students. But schools don’t just need more resources, they need reform. Invest in innovative programs to close achievement gaps.” Charter school commitment. “I ask every American to commit to at least one year of higher education or career education. Dropping out of high school is not just quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on this country! By 2020, we will have the highest number of college graduates in the world.”
7:50 PM – “I ask Congress to send me the legislation that bares the name of not only Sen. Orrin Hatch, but also Sen. Kennedy. To parents: turn off the TeeVee and video games. Read a book with your children. Better education begins at home, and that’s not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. Another responsibility is to not pass on a debt to our children that they cannot repay.” Republicans stand and cheer. “With the deficit that we inherited…” Democrats stand and cheer. “Eliminate no bid contracts that’ve wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budgets. Root out the waste and fraud and abuse in our Medicare program. Restore balance to our tax code by ending tax breaks for corps. that ship our jobs overseas. If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increase a single dime.” 538.com has an interesting breakdown:
Recover/Recovery: 15
Crisis: 11
Recession: 6
Democrat/s/ic: 3
Republican/s: 3
8:00 PM – John McCain, admirably, stands at the “Responsibly end this war” statements, though his face still says “I disagree.” He should’ve been that guy during the campaign. “Close Guantanamo to honor the values that the soldiers defend. Living our values doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us safer. The United States of America Does. Not. Torture. We can make that commitment tonight. America cannot meet the threats of this century alone. The world is watching to see what we do with this moment.” Handful of inspiring stories here, skipping to save space and finger energy. Wraps up with “We are not quitters. Everyone in this room wants us to succeed. American people expect us to find common ground. Confront, without fear, the challenges of our time.”
8:10 PM – Hand shaking. Somebody wakes Biden up. David Gregory: “He really took the country to school.” Chuck Todd: “Rosevelty, with optimism.” GOP reponse coming up next.
GOP Response: Humorous, personal start as he’s surprised the camera, and the country were waiting for him. Expected a “Oh, hello there!” Jindal gives good speech though. Friendly sounding. Pretty much a recap of McCain/Palin though. “Earmarks. Tax Cuts. Etc.” Democrats spend spend spend bad bad bad we hates ‘em we do! “You elected us to be fiscally responsible, and we let you down.” Doesn’t tie it back to economic recovery. Seems like he’s here to promote the GOP than to respond to the President’s speech. “Republicans are ready to work with the new President” got some laughs from the crowd where I’m watching. “The strength of America is not found in our government. Way to lead is by empowering the American people. Cut taxes for small biz. Tax credit for home buyers. Democratic leaders rejected this approach. Wasteful spending. $8 billion for rail projects. Saddle future generations with debt. Who amongst us would ask their children for a loan to spend money on things they do not need?” Yeah, like jobs. Houses. Education. He’ll probably regret that line in tomorrow’s rehash. Energy talk (see McCain/Palin campaign again on this one). Education (McCain/Palin). Ethical and transparent. LA has turned her back on corruption. Trillion dollar spending bill the American people haven’t even seen (except those with Google of course). Nothing new here, which is disappointing. Jindal could’ve made this a real game tonight, but I just feel like I’m still watching the campaigns here. “Don’t let anyone tell you we cannot recover.” 9/11. American spirit. Amid challenges, many blessings: innovative citizens, resources, resilient economy. Americans can do anything.”
I didn’t realize until afterward how much I was looking forward to Jindal’s response, and hoping for a return of a real fight. Obama’s presentation was impressive, but it’s Jindal’s flop that stands out. And my initial “gut instinct” theory is:
It’s something you normally see in “one party” states like our own, where a party will come to believe it’s own message so completely they become impervious to outside influence or feedback. Like many of our legislators. Tonight, the right guy gave the wrong speech in response to the President. The speech Jindal gave was a perfect response to a Presidential flop. But what made them think they’d be responding to a flop? Have they seen this guys approval polls? Republicans have so convinced themselves that Obama’s election was a fluke, a baseless accident, and that the American people will “wake up” by 2010, that they also believe all they need to do is keep repeating the infomercial often enough and they will regain their relevance and power.
If they are right, it’s a politically cost effective plan of action. If they are wrong, I have to ask how many election cycles they will have to take a hit in to realize that maybe, just maybe, their message really is out of touch with voters. If they are wrong, and Obama really is reaching voters and acting as they want their President to act, no Jindal, Huntsman, or even Mittens! is going to repair the damage done to the party.
It’s a big risk to take, and just looking at the snap polls, it doesn’t appear to be paying out.
Unfortunately I was only able to catch the last 2 minutes of Obama’s speech, so I’ll have to find it online. One thing that did grind my gears was Jindal’s claim that there will now be a train from Disneyland to Vegas. This is just a flat out lie. There will be funds available for a high speed rail system from Vegas to LA, but it has to be approved by the transportation secretary (Ray H. LaHood) (R). In fact, such a train is not even on the list of rail improvements according to the Fed. Railroad Admin..
http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/203
This is the same as when people were tying to convince everyone that 5 billion would go to ACORN. The truth is that fund will be available to groups such as ACORN.
From factcheck.org
“The bill does include funds for which ACORN would be eligible to compete – against hundreds of other groups. But most is for a housing rehabilitation program ACORN says it never applied for in the past and won’t in the future.”
It’s this kind of blatant lying or “misleading” that these politicians and pundits need to stop. If something smells fishy from either side, I encourage everyone to get the facts and don’t jump in line with whichever pundit you listen to or watch.
My favorite parts of Obama’s speech:
“I believe in an America where every person has their own personal genie that will grant them three wishes.”
“Every child will have a puppy.”
“The economy is in crises, but if you stop resisting and will follow me, I will save you.”
Followed by: “We will give money to _______, we will invest in _______ (repeated 100 times).”
“We will make it possible to have every child go to college, because millions of liberal arts majors will be the key to our economic viability.”
“We will begin our withdrawal of troops from Iraq with an increase of 17,000 combat troops to Afghanistan.”
“We will fund our socialist government trillion(s) dollar programs with revocation of subsidies to Agri-business.”
“We need to support American industry, but also China, as they now have a lien on your house.”
Just having a little fun, in all honesty the speech was good, the collectivist tone was a little uncomfortable for me. But overall I found some parts actually inspiring. Not bad!!
But lets be honest watching Pelosi shoot out of her chair after every sentence (except when charter schools were mentioned) was hard to handle. I kept wondering how much better the speech would have been had “Joe” and “Nancy” not been always in the camera shot!
You are right Jindal did flop on his chance, really he should have criticized the presidents plans directly. He too seemed timid to directly confront the president’s plan as reckless and irresponsible. Only alluding to it in passing.
Agree with ya, Trent. And Jakester too. Watching Biden nearly asleep and bored and Nancy leading the standing ovation every time with obnoxious eagerness was good for a laugh. Like a sitcom in the background.
to the previous commenters: guys – you lost the election, get over it!
Rest of the world wants to see you republicans fill guantanamo so pull your head in and let the dems try and fix your mess.
and face it, no young dark guy is gonna replace obama – the whole world ain’t supporting his skin colour – w’re supporting his brain and heart. But GOPS wouldn’t understand…
I liked your play-by-play blogging of the address… while I may not have been as praiseworthy, it definitely touched on the most important portions of the speech.
Jindal’s speech was deflating. Nevertheless, he is trying to play his cards smartly, and if he comes out swinging this early in the game, it could limit his effectiveness in the future. The speech convinced me of Jindal’s desire to run in 2012, as it sounded more like a campaign speech than a true rebuttal. But hey, that’s how you jump into these things, and he was smart to be cautious in his attacks on the President (especially since the Republicans are floundering in the polls)…
Oh, and Jakester, I loved your list!!