What I Told Fox News
Inviting me to appear for a few moments this morning--I'm scheduled to appear on "Happening Now" at about 11.30AM Eastern--a Fox News producer just sent me a few questions about SOTU. Below, my answers.
Care to offer yours?
Q: What did Obama do right in the speech?
A: He called for tax reform—with suspicious brevity, and a complete absence of any detail, but still—and he urged universities to bring back ROTC (not that even Harvard hasn't announced plans to do something along those lines already).
Q: What he did wrong?
A: Everything else. This was a speech that represented a long, meandering, and only semi-coherent pretext for still more government intervention in the economy and still more government spending. Nothing he said—for that matter, nothing in his body language—suggested in any way that he cared about the vast and unsustainable federal deficit or that he understood the importance of low taxes and limited government in promoting economic growth. This was no move to the center. This speech was aggressively liberal.
Q: Did he break the ice with the Republicans? What was his best moment?
A: The best moments had nothing to do with the president. They came from the new seating plan. Instead of the spectacle of recent SOTU addresses, with competing standing ovations—first one side of the chamber, then the other—yesterday evening we saw Congress behave like a regular audience, applauding, laughing, and cheering together. It was almost enough to make you suppose for a moment that members of Congress are normal.
Q: Did he convey a compelling theme?
A: Sure. We can compete in the future and do big things—because we have Barack Obama and the federal government behind us.
Q: What will be the lasting memory from this speech?
A: Obama delivered no memorable line. He announced no memorable initiative. But when he spoke about protecting ObamaCare, he seemed, for one moment, to come alive, speaking with real feeling. That struck me as the one authentic and memorable moment in the entire address. Health care reform—passed in the face of widespread opposition from the American people and without a single Republican vote—is what Obama cares about. To the working politicians in the chamber, I suspect, the speech came down to just that: Whereas he seemed unserious in nearly everything else he said, on health care Obama drew a line. To protect it, he’ll fight.
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Aug '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
The speech was memorable only in a bad way. Solar shingles? Please. While vast tracts remain off limits to drilling and thousands could be put to work exploring for oil and gas? And high-speed rail? The only thing that would have made the speech more ridiculous is a mention of light rail. (That's for you, Rob Long.)
Oct '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
The republicans have an advantage on three big issues vs Obama: Obamacare, Oil and energy independence, and Education reform.
- the GOP's ideas on education are very popular and obama will throw the teachers unions under the bus to get something done.
- REpublicans should call for more oil exploration and drilling in ANWR, California, Louisiana and Florida to make the US less dependent on foreign oil. Bankrupt California can use the jobs and revenues generated thru offshore oil drilling. With Global Warming mafia losing momentum, now is the time to "go China" and be aggressive in tapping every potential sources of energy available. Push Obama to the right on this issue, and make his lefty allies squirm.
Jun '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
I'm with you on the president's desire to defend Obamacare at all costs. But how much does that really matter? The entire leftist agenda is about to crumble because the president put all his chips on the table, spun the wheel, and lost. It's time to explain to the family that daddy lost his paycheck down at the casino. If Obama defers to the Republican majority, he'll lose his base. If he tries to negotiate a middle ground and things go poorly, he'll lose the country. And things will go poorly because our chief executive is totally clueless at this point.
Jul '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
The surly Obama was in evidence after SOTU in that unseemly scramble for autographs by members of Congress. He refused to sign a photograph some moron thrust before him, and told others "I better not see this on ebay." The mingled arrogance and distaste in his face beat a long speech for showing us the true nature of Obama. I'm glad the Republicans at least for now are awake to the threat this man presents to the long term health of the nation.
Jan '11
Re: What I Told Fox News
When Obama "acknowledged" the election, he spun it that the American people were demanding that Republicans work with him, i.e., carry out his policies. He doesn't admit that the election reflected any rejection of his policies. To Obama, in essence, the election was a rebuke of Republicans for being the party of No.
In a way, that makes sense. Obama still believes that the way to fix the country is through big government direction. You don't abandon that conviction in three months.
But what's disturbing is that he can't accept the message of the election, and is openly disobeying it. He's spinning it away, probably to himself most of all, that the public doesn't want big government. He thinks he knows better, and that's what he's going to continue doing.
Dec '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
It has always struck me how unmodern Obama is. He's obsessed with a nuclear freeze, he gets animated over trains, he seeks out washed up radical heros like Ayers, his holy grail is a system of healthcare distribution that comes out of the 30s and is breaking down all over the world. It's like time stopped for him in 1983, when he left Columbia.
Nov '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
Peter, I would add to the list of what he did wrong: "He tried to make Boehner cry."
Everything else i think you nailed.
But I still think the government should build a high speed rail infrastructure.
Dec '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
The speechwriters' roundtable podcast taught me a lot of things. In particular, I could see that the White House is fractured. Clearly the two factions -- call them the Obamites and the Clintonoids -- are fighting. The Obamites want to go full-on left and they won last night. The Clintonoids at least want to put on the face of centrism.
Certainly, Obama's with the Obamites, but I think he sees the fact that if he isn't re-elected, all of this radical chic gets flushed down the toilet. The GOP will keep the House (thank you, redistricting) will take the Senate (look who's up for re-election) and a Republican president would be able to wash away Obamacare and his legacy would be no different than Carter's.
Dec '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
Whoa, I didn't see that.
And thanks to our media, I doubt I ever will. Maybe Breitbart will have it.
Dec '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
AmishDude
The speechwriters' roundtable podcast taught me a lot of things. In particular, I could see that the White House is fractured. Clearly the two factions -- call them the Obamites and the Clintonoids -- are fighting. The Obamites want to go full-on left and they won last night. The Clintonoids at least want to put on the face of centrism.
Certainly, Obama's with the Obamites in spirit, but I think he sees the fact that if he isn't re-elected, all of this radical chic gets flushed down the toilet. The GOP will keep the House (thank you, redistricting) will take the Senate (look who's up for re-election) and a Republican president would be able to wash away Obamacare and Obama's legacy would be no different than Carter's. · Jan 26 at 6:25am
Dec '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
Oh, and the seating arrangement backfired on the Dems. The applause was tepid and everything looked halfhearted.
Re: What I Told Fox News
Peter, on the first question. In addition to tax reform and ROTC, he did make a vague call for tort reform - at least in the med mal area. So that's one other thing he got "right."
Jun '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
Great stuff, Peter.
My two cents:
Foreign policy was only confined to the successes in Afghanistan and Iraq and the boastful notion that sanctions with Iran are working when this is anything but the truth. Iran is acting with impunity in the Middle East. Their Hezbollah surrogates may soon have unfettered control in Lebanon where Iran has already supplied them with tens of thousands of missiles now pointed at Israel. All of this occurring during a period when sanctions were meant to contain Iran. The situation in North Korea was not discussed at all.
His invoking of the traditional closer "The State of the Union is strong!" rang hollow and weak. How is it that the State of the Union can be strong when upwards of 20 million Americans don't have a job or have given up trying to find one and several states around the country are on the verge of financial default?
Finally, his promises to "listen to Republican ideas" was as condescending as it was when Democrats ran the House. He doesn't understand what it means that the House holds the purse strings of the federal government...but he's about to find out.
Jan '11
Re: What I Told Fox News
AmishDude
Certainly, Obama's with the Obamites, but I think he sees the fact that if he isn't re-elected, all of this radical chic gets flushed down the toilet.
In this case, then, seeking election is an exercise in deception.
If you do X and your employers forbid you to attempt X anymore, the only way to continue doing X is to deceive the employers into thinking that you're not really doing X. Thus we have the Clintonian "move to the center," in which the president assures the public that he won't engage in all the really bad leftist stuff ... he'll just do the leftist stuff that doesn't overly enrage anyone.
In this, "moving to the center" doesn't require doing any conservative things. It only requires doing fewer liberal things.
Dec '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
KC, the problem is that he's doing it backwards. All of the talk is supposed to be centrist and the actions are supposed to be leftist. Instead he's talking left.
What he was supposed to do was talk a good centrist game so that his defenders in the MSM could talk about what a centrist he is becoming. He made their job quite a bit harder last night.
Dec '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
Ken Owsley:
But I still think the government should build a high speed rail infrastructure. · Jan 26 at 6:16am
Monorail!
Jan '11
Re: What I Told Fox News
AmishDude: KC, the problem is that he's doing it backwards. All of the talk is supposed to be centrist and the actions are supposed to be leftist. Instead he's talking left.
What he was supposed to do was talk a good centrist game so that his defenders in the MSM could talk about what a centrist he is becoming. He made their job quite a bit harder last night. · Jan 26 at 7:52am
LOL! You're right.
Chris Matthews ... Paul Begala ... all those pages that they can't use now ...
Jun '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
Great job, Peter!
Jun '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
Deftly done, sir. Too bad you couldn't have had more air time. You were just getting started.
May '10
Re: What I Told Fox News
I agree with Brian. Twice as long would have been twice as nice :)
Good job Peter!