Best critique of last night’s SotU address that I’ve seen so far comes from Mr. Charles P. Pierce

[kpete]

Best critique of last night’s SotU address that I’ve seen so far comes from Mr. Charles P. Pierce:

… Once again, he was the only obvious president in the room, much good may that do him. He did not rile up the base. He was not combative. He did not dwell on issues that his base wanted to hear. (If you had “Keystone XL,” or “NSA,” or “TPP” in your State of the Union drinking game, you probably wound up as the designated driver.) But he was firm on one thing. He is not going to be a lame duck as long as he can still walk. There were a lot of sentences that began with some variation of, “If Congress won’t act…”

This promise to use the powers of his office is what likely is going to raise all those hackles that were going to be raised in any case unless he got up there and abdicated in favor of Mitt Romney but, really, he couched these assertions in the mildest fashion, making of himself just a guy who was just trying to do the job to which he had been elected. He would like to have done it a different way but, darned it the regular way just didn’t work, and now it’s time to take out the tire iron and give the old machine a good bash. There wasn’t a scintilla of anger in his voice all night. There was just a rueful tone to it, as though he had finally gotten the joke that history had played on him with the election in 2010 of the opera boufee that is our current House of Representatives…

He was extraordinarily strong in spots, particularly on voting rights, where he plainly had a lot to say, and said it all, and on the process of getting the country off what he rather daringly described as the “permanent war footing” it had been on since 2001. Some of the economic ideas, particularly the expansion and strengthening of the Earned Income Tax Credit, were sound and worthy of immediate action, which they won’t get. I’m still a little vague on the MyRA thing, which smacked a little bit of the gimmick, and which, in any case, is just another stop-gap by which the country can forget that, once, everybody had a guaranteed pension, before the unions broke down and the sharpers on Wall Street looted what was left.

But, if this speech burned no barns, it didn’t sound anything like a last chance, either. The president seemed to have a pen in one hand, and that well-worn olive branch still in the other. He is what he always has been, the coolest head in the room. You can never say he isn’t that.



http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/state-of-the-union-address-012814
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/29/wednesday-morning-open-thread-16/

[BeyondGeography]

1. "the only obvious president in the room"

That's a great line. You only have to think back to W. to know that having a spot at the podium adds not an ounce to weightlessness.

This country could have gone far with this President, but, of course, our system doesn't work that way. The speech did show he is going to make the most of his opportunity anyway, being fully conscious of the present reality.

[libdem4life]

2. "Our system doesn't work that way"...I think that's why so many "Washington Outsiders" actually

mean to keep their promises and fulfill their beliefs, but alas, the Washington Beltway/Federal Bureaucracy really runs things no matter which party has the Key Figure installed. It takes them an entire term to "get it", make the alliances, find allies, etc. and by then, if re-elected, they are a Lame Duck.

[Beaverhausen]

3. K & R

[Scuba]

4. Pierce is superb, again ...

1) When all the cheering for Cory Remsburg, the grievously wounded Army Ranger, died down didn't you stop for a moment and think, "Damn, 10 deployments." What the hell have we been doing there?

2) The whole chamber couldn't rise as one and cheer the notion that people shouldn't have to raise their families in poverty? That got him about half the hall, from the way it looked on TV. I know that a good portion of his political opposition believes that poor people are marked by god and their own insufficiencies of character to be poor, but at least couldn't they all have pretended that at least the notion of poverty was something we universally deplore?

And this ...

This promise to use the powers of his office is what likely is going to raise all those hackles that were going to be raised in any case unless he got up there and abdicated in favor of Mitt Romney but, really, he couched these assertions in the mildest fashion, making of himself just a guy who was just trying to do the job to which he had been elected. He would like to have done it a different way but, darned it the regular way just didn't work, and now it's time to take out the tire iron and give the old machine a good bash. There wasn't a scintilla of anger in his voice all night. There was just a rueful tone to it, as though he had finally gotten the joke that history had played on him with the election in 2010 of the opera boufee that is our current House of Representatives.

... and this gem from the comments ...

Ken Schmitt · Top Commenter

Yes. It was a nice little …. centrist 50s Republican speech about the reasonability of representing The Great American People. It was like, oh - Jerry Ford only with um, flavor. I didn't vote for this, none of this. Many of us didn't vote for this. But we did vote to not have another lunatic get anywhere near the levers and, in that, I am profoundly grateful.

I don't know enough to criticize this president. I don't think many of us do. 2010 midterms were a disaster and I am not optimistic about 2014. The Great American People are Reasonably Represented by this lone individual, telling bedtime stories last night and, on the other side of the aisle, a gathering of self-destructive fascists, sociopaths and batshit screaming crazy bastards who shouldn't be let out of the house in the morning.

That's how you rile up the base? I guess it is. That and a rebuttal by Mr. Rogers in drag.

I didn't hear anything "center-left" last night except when those guys toward the center and left of the aisle stood up from time to time. If Clinton is the bar, it's a low bar. And, it's obvious Boner drinks at home - and - work.

[Myrina]

12. For the win ...

"The Great American People are Reasonably Represented by this lone individual, telling bedtime stories last night and, on the other side of the aisle, a gathering of self-destructive fascists, sociopaths and batshit screaming crazy bastards who shouldn't be let out of the house in the morning. "


Dude nailed it.

[Thespian2]

19. Thank you

for adding truth to this discussion.

[ProSense]

5. This statement

But he was firm on one thing. He is not going to be a lame duck as long as he can still walk. There were a lot of sentences that began with some variation of, “If Congress won’t act…”

...is key. A lot of people underestimate the power of executive action, and they underestimate President Obama, who is doing it his way.

A couple of years ago when the sequestration was signed into law, it was the end...a done deal that would never be reversed. Remember that fight he said he would have, and some responded with "pretty speech"?

Well, the President used the 2012 campaign and public opinion to wear Republicans down. Their last act of desperation, shutting down the Government, sealed it for Democrats.

In December and this month, the President signed two bills into law effectively reversing the sequestration and increasing funding in some areas.

It's not chess. It's how he operates, and it apparently works for him. He used his first term to put the pieces in place for his second term. Using executive action to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers is a huge deal, and it sets the stage for the next three years.

It's about executive action, and he is prepared to use it with the authority given him by law.

<...>

These pundits are right about one thing: probably no legislation of significance will pass for the remainder of Obama’s presidency. But what Obama can do, and is doing already, is use the executive branch to achieve a great deal. On climate change, financial regulation, and several other areas, the president can still accomplish a lot.

Because here’s the truth: financial reform is all about implementing Dodd-Frank, which is going better than expected. Climate change is all about using the EPA, which is going better than expected. And the long-term prospects of both of these efforts have dramatically improved since Senate Democrats abolished the filibuster for judicial nominations, and got some Democrats on the DC Circuit Court, which oversees these areas.

<...>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2014/01/27/president-obama-is-not-a-lame-duck/

[malaise]

6. And even more haven't read the fugging constitution or

they'd know he does have power.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. saving this.

Important to know.

[Enrique]

10. unless he chooses not to take executive action

in which case "people underestimate the power of executive action" turns into "people overstate the power of executive action".

[ProSense]

13. He has already used it. Still, why do you think he wouldn't use it? n/t

[flamingdem]

15. Good analysis nt

[Fantastic Anarchist]

20. Boy, are you optimistic. n/t

[fadedrose]

7. Watched it twice. I call this one the "Hope" SOTU

Admissions of disappointments were always followed by what could be and some suggestions of how to make it be...

[Enrique]

9. i agree this is an excellent critique

this is the kind of praise of Obama that I think is based in reality. Contrasted with pundits that in my view are selling Obama to us as something we want him to be but which he simply isn't.

[GeorgeGist]

11. So again ...

Greed escapes unscathed. A sad state indeed.

[librechik]

14. damn it, charley made me cry.

we are so screwed.

[Zo Zig]

16. What is "opera boufee"?

NT

[Hekate]

17. Opera Bouffe is a form of satirical comic opera

pronounced ˈō-pā-rä-ˈbüf

[russspeakeasy]

18. I thought the critique by the rudepundit was better.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

21. I would agree. Really like Pierce's, but Rude nailed it for me. n/t