No real discussion here yet on the rebuttals either. Paul Ryan gave the official one, but Michele Bachmann also gave one, apparently annoying many Republicans who don't want to show any disconnect between the majority of the party and the Tea Party faction. I thought TIME's blogger analysis was pretty spot-on:
Quote:
Both Ryan and Bachmann relitigated the last two years – the stimulus, health care reform, new regulations -- sometimes with a brittle edge. Looking forward, they focused solely on slashing spending and shrinking the deficit; they ventured into no new policies or issues. Neither detailed how balancing the books might be done: no mentions were made of entitlement or defense spending, by far the biggest pieces in the budget. They did not look at places where Democrats and Republicans could find common ground. By contrast Obama sounded conciliatory; he named a range of areas where he hoped to work with Republicans from Afghanistan to reforming medical malpractice to clean energy technology. Obama said the word “forward†five times and only addressed his record of the past two years once, when he made the case why not to repeal health care reform. By comparison, Ryan never uttered the word “forward†and Bachmann said it only once. Granted, sweeping and visionary rhetoric is hard to pull off in a short rebuttal, but both speeches focused so intently on budget issues it was hard not to come off as one-noted.
Ryan was lauded by the cable talking heads – and this is a sampling of from CNN, MSNBC and Fox from throughout the day -- as the “establishment†responder, as “one of the smartest guys in Congress†and some one who could “turn the page from George W. Bush's fiscal irresponsibility.†He was more willing to cede ground, and sounded more mature for it. “Our debt is the product of acts by many presidents and many Congresses over many years,†he said. “No one person or party is responsible for it.†That said, he wasn't short of red meat. “It's no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high,†he said. “The President and the Democratic Leadership have shown, by their actions, that they believe government needs to increase its size and its reach, its price tag and its power.â€
Read more: http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/01/26/the-gops-two-headed-sotu-response/#ixzz1C9THUCNo
Interestingly, the only major network to show Bachmann's rebuttal live and complete was CNN. Anyone else catch them?