I was curious to see and hear the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union Speech (SOTU) last night. The speech was delivered by newly elected Governor Bob McDonnell of VA, the former Attorney General of the State. I was struck by several things about his speech:
- Content – The content of the speech was the usual tired Republican dogma, with little original content or innovative solutions offered for improving the lot of the country.
I also was amazed to hear him say “we want results not partisanship”. This from the GOP? The party of NO. The party that has refused to reach across the aisle after all the action that the Presidents and the Democrats have made to be bipartisan and to include them and their perspectives in every piece of legislation brought forth during the President’s term.
Given that it wasn’t an extemporaneous speech, it also failed in rebutting the points made by Obama’s SOTU proposals and comments.
- Delivery – I watched Governor Bobby Jindal deliver the response to Obama’s speech last year and found his delivery to be sing song, simplistic and a total dud. Governor Bob McDonnell is slick. From my perspective he delivers his lines like the proverbially “snake oil salesman”. Is the name “Bob or Bobby” the new moniker for GOP leaders?
- Politically Correct Optics – The GOP seems to be operating in the 1990s when it still has handlers that are creating a constructed visual tableau of an African American and an Asian/Latino to conveniently sit in the visual frame surrounding the Governor. They probably had to look far and wide to find GOP supporters in these demographic segments given their pattern of support among these groups.
- Politicization of the People’s House – I was appalled to see a partisan political speech being delivered in the Virginia House of Delegates to a hand picked audience of GOP-adoring fans. If I were a Democrat in VA, I would be screaming to high heaven that this is not the place for a partisan speech. If the Governor wants to use the People’s House for his speech, he should let a cross-section of people in to attend his speech. I might add, that I would feel the same way if a Democratic Governor had filled the House of Delegates with Democrats.
I am so sick of the “Party of NO” business. As if the Democrat Majority has or will accept any of the GOP ideas. For all of Obama’s talk about ‘bring me your plans’, I really doubt he is going to consider what Paul Ryan and others have brought forth. You bet they are a party of NO when it comes to opposing all those crazy, expensive liberal plans. It’s just a difference of political philosophy. Democrats “no no no” during Bush.
One man’s “snake oil salesman” is another’s poltical savior. How do you think I felt listening to an hour plus of Obama? He was long-winded, egotistical, hypocritcal, and even threw in a constitutional violation of separation of powers.
Politically correct optics — I suppose you criticize Democrats too when they specifically seek out diversity or stack a crowd so it “looks like America.”
I will agree with you on the choice of venue. I don’t think it was appropiate to use the House for a supportive crowd. I think I would feel different if he had used that location without the crowd. But then again, is it really that different than any president using the White House (perhaps the Rose Garden) to slam the opposing party in Congress in front of a stacked crowd? It can be a fine line sometimes to judge what is politcal vs. policy, but using a legislative house is very questionable.
Thanks for your comments.
I’m sorry to hear that you’re sick of the “Party of No” business. I guess if your party started to actually try to work with the Democrats then they wouldn’t wear this well deserved nomenclature. Take a look at the number of filibusters under the GOP minority vs. prior Congresses and tell me that your heroes aren’t the “Party of No”.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/the-rise-of-cloture-how-gop-filibuster-threats-have-changed-the-senate.php
If Bob McDonnell, an ultra-conservative anti-gay, anti-woman graduate of Regent University is your political savior, then I think the GOP nationally is in real trouble. They can continue to do well in the south or in red states, but blue states aren’t going to see him as representing their interests. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/in_thesis_mcdonnell_slammed_gays_unwed_mothers_and.php
I suspect if you look at Democratic events you’ll see that they aren’t being “stacked with people that look like America”, because their members do look like Americans – they’re black, Asian, hispanic, GLBT, etc. For example looking at African Americans – “With the exception of the 1972, 1984, and the 1992 elections Blacks would continue to give at least 80% of their collective votes to the Democratic presidential candidate says Minion K.C. Morris in African Americans and Political Participation.”
Read more at Suite101: African American Voting Patterns: Black Voting Demographics 2008 Democratic Primary Statistics http://racism-politics.suite101.com/article.cfm/african_american_voting_patterns#ixzz0dvhv58tZ
I’m glad you agree about the choice of venue. I thought it was totally inappropriate. The President using the Rose Garden or the Oval Office is totally different, because the President represents all Americans and was elected by a majority of Americans to represent us and to use the facilities we put at his disposal. The Democrats of VA did not all vote for Governor McDonnell and don’t expect to see him using their house this way.
Um, it’s the party of KNOW.
I think the filibustering and obstructionism works great until the Democrats come up with an agenda that is palatable to the minority party. It is the only means they have to force compromise and changes, because as much as they like to talk it, the Dems are just not going to be open to GOP ideas. They don’t have to.
I did not mean to imply McConnell is a political savior. You criticized him as a snake oil saleman. My point was that I could very well call Obama the same. It all depends where you are coming from.
You say the members of the Democrat party do look like America. So therefore, the “African American and an Asian/Latino to conveniently sit in the visual frame surrounding the Governor” must not really be Republicans, but they paid those people to stand behind him. Waiting for you to slander them with “uncle tom” now.
I don’t follow your argument about how the President is different because he represents all Americans and was elected by a majorty of Americans. Could you not say the same of Governor McDonnell in this instance? He represents all of VA, doesn’t he? I don’t care if the Dems of VA did not all vote for him, the Republicans of America did not all vote for Obama. I’m not following your logic here because there is none.
Hi Forgot. It isn’t the Democrat Party. It is the DEMOCRATIC Party. Why you and yours continue to play this game is beyond me.
In terms of your other comments, it isn’t worth my time arguing with you. You have your views and I have mine and this blog is called Blogging Blue for a reason. Maybe you’d find a more appreciative audience and blogger at Blogging Red?
I’ll respond to your last comment – the House of Delegates was stacked with only Republicans to hear McDonnell. There weren’t any Democrats there. If he represents all of VA, then if he and the GOP want to stage an event to mirror the SOTU, they need to make sure that the Democrats are invited to what was a partisan political speech made to look like a bipartisan event in the oldest House of Delegates in the nation. As Politico said, “According to an invitation, Democratic lawmakers were invited just a few hours before the speech and only after POLITICO reported the planned restrictions.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32134_Page2.html#ixzz0dvy6wkJ7
Well I for one like to read Blogging Blue to get a different perspective, and I think commenting encourages good discussing and debate. That’s the problem with both sides these days and modern media — the attitude that this is our media, that is your media and you better stay on your side. Some people can only seem to handle comments that are the extent of “right on you are so correct.” Well, how boring is that to never have your arguments challenged? Zach has always seemed welcoming and I enjoy that, for the most part, posts and comments have been civil. As a regular cotributor to Zach’s blog I would have hoped you shared that value.
And by the way, as I said, I agree with you the venue issue, I just wasn’t following your argument on when it is and is not appropriate to hold partisan speeches on government property.
Thanks for your comment. I do share that value.