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State of the Union ‘Stronger Than Ever Before’
Early in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, President Trump declared “the state of our union is stronger than ever before.” Behind him, Pelosi sucked her teeth while the Democrats seethed. And thus begins the 2020 re-election campaign. (We can’t count Iowa as the beginning since Dems still haven’t figured out who won.)
Instead of lofty words, Trump opened with a litany of facts and figures. Lowest unemployment in 50 years. Unemployment rates for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans at the lowest level in history. African-American poverty at the lowest rate ever recorded. Female unemployment the lowest in 70 years.
Democrats sat stone-faced, grumbling amongst themselves as the good news piled up. Most impressive was that these are verifiable facts, not spin or vague promises.
Much of the first 30 minutes kept returning to the success of Black Americans over the past three years, pointing to heroes in the gallery, and insisting this is only the beginning. Despite ubiquitous accusations of “racism,” Trump’s detractors can’t argue with the data. The President is making a strong appeal to African-American voters, not with rhetoric but numbers. The Democrats have to be very nervous as even a five percent shift would wreak havoc in the Electoral College.
He also portrayed the 2020 choice as socialism vs. freedom. “Socialism destroys nations, but always remember, freedom unifies the soul,” he said to Republicans’ cheers and Democrats’ groans. Basically, we can keep the good times rolling or follow Maduro’s Venezuela.
After that, Trump kicked the showmanship into high-gear. He cheered a centenarian Tuskegee Airman (who somehow looks half his age); gave Rush Limbaugh a Presidential Medal of Freedom on the spot; granted a scholarship to a low-income child; and presented a returning soldier to his shocked wife and kids. I half-expected Trump to give everyone a free car, Oprah-style.
These moments aren’t totally new (Lenny Skutnik, anyone?) but Trump brought them to a new level. As a curmudgeon, I’d prefer a SOTU submitted in written form, bled white of emotion and the sparest rhetorical flourish. But we live in a televisual, viral age — an era Trump has dominated for decades. And tonight, he dominated utterly.
The Democrats faced the night in a sorry state. The party that wants to take over healthcare was incapable of counting votes in a small state. A large chunk of their base thinks DNC leaders are fixing the primary contest. Pelosi’s impeachment gambit has collapsed. Trump just received his highest approval rating ever in the Gallup Poll.
And their two leading candidates are a 78-year-old Bolshevik and a 77-year-old who speaks like he just wandered out of a home.
Pelosi was so mad she ripped up Trump’s address as it ended.
Good luck in November, Dems. You’re going to need it.
Published in Politics
I was watching the speech on TV (muted) and listening to it on NPR (and chatting with Ricochetti on my laptop). At the end of the speech, one NPR commentator asked the other, “What did you think of the speech?” and he said something like “It sounded good, but he told so many lies.” I was so disgusted I turned off the radio and didn’t hear the rest.
I very much like the thought here, but I wish the speech writers had come up with wording that has more meaning than “freedom unifies the soul.” What does “unifying the soul” mean? (Sorry, a translator always tries to find the exact meaning of things.)
But they will. Nancy said she tore up his speech because it was all lies.
Did anyone catch what the women in white chanted when they stood up together during the speech? And of course, that was that parental moment when Nancy chastised someone out there, wagging her finger.
It shows that Pelosi was defeated (impeachment) and knew it.
a rebuttal hat was about as genuine as polyester and Naugahyde…
Don Jr. had this photo on his Facebook page:
I’ll go one step further. Not only did he not shake either hand but he seemed pretty terse with everyone as he entered. He quickly delivered the speech to both Pence and Pelosi and it appeared to me that she awkwardly waited until he was handing the copy to Pence to extend her hand. Her reaction was priceless. She has zero wit whatsoever. You could just see her angrily mouthing “Well, OK then?!?!” meanwhile, Pence got no handshake either and is just smiling and clapping and the audience is cheering.
Bravo, Don Jr!
I was struck by how aggressive he was. It certainly wasn’t a usual SOU and I cold see how the Dems could be in a rage over it. For example, I don’t hear anyone mentioning a more than one minute portion of the speech where he used the words “illegal alien” or some form of it in nearly every sentence and directly tied them to rapes and murders by the thousands. The Democrats and their media stooges have invested massive social capital for decades to put racist overtones onto anyone approaching such rhetoric. Trump just effortlessly napalmed an entire generation of progressive narrative casting with the coldness of a surgeon excising a tumor.
I almost wonder if the brashness of his immigration, anti-abortion, anti-socialism offerings weren’t intended to produce deranged soundbites from Democrats that will be cut and pasted into campaign ads?
His diatribe on sanctuary cities sure did enrage Nancy and her cohorts. It sure is hard to hear the truth, isn’t it?
You know what else this photo montage shows? These are all portrait shots. These invited guests were celebrated and honored long before they were mentioned in the speech. That is a class move.
Omg, that Pelosi GIF. 😂😂
Makes my day because her behavior, while disrespectful and immature is laughable, I hope it marks the “cue the exit music” for her and all the lefty dems who can only see darkness amid so many bright spots for so many people.
This ad should start running today.
That was my thought at the time too. Too amorphous a statement. I don’t even see the metaphor, though there is an analogy there somehow. It could have been a great quote for the future.
The flock in white were chanting “HR 3” about drug price controls. The gallery protester was Fred Guttenberg, a Parkland shooting father-turned-activist. I love how people think that the rules of the gallery won’t apply to them because they are [insert cause here].
Not as bad as the “howls of rage” being devisive and insulting to Basset Hounds
So everybody repeats that line about the speech being full of lies, ask them to identify one. Any single one. Not an opinion stated strongly with adverbs and adjectives in the comparative or superlative degrees. A statement of non-fact. Confront these addle-pated whoresons and harridans.
An indicator how some life-long Democrats thought about Nancy Pelosi ripping up the SOTU speech:
A family reunited as Juan Guaido, the true leader of the Venezuelan people looks on and smiles. What a moment.
Love the post-game D cries of “oh we gonna fact check this!”
Pelosi’s shredding tantrum sure as heck will be . . .
If there were even one Democrat house member with a shred of honor, the failure of the conviction vote in the Senate would be the signal for a full-blown insurrection in the House.
“Ladies” in White gather before SOTU
Brian, this is quite amazing. Thanks for the link.
I urge everyone to follow the link to Twitter and read some of the comments. There are quite a few Democrats agreeing with the video.
A Facebook friend referred to them as “nuts in white satin”.
Trump gave his best speech last night and his guests were a great cross section of wonderful Americans. Pelosi was childish and petty. Trump2020!
This was fact checked and given 4 Pinocchios because although the state of the union is strong it’s not as strong as it was in 1945.
Such is the nature of Trump’s “lies” as seen by the leftist media.
At first I thought you were being hyperbolic. But I have now seen elsewhere that since the President is required to deliver to the Congress a report on the state of the union, he would do so by delivering to the Speaker of the House that report. So the document she tore up is more than just a courtesy copy provided for her amusement or information during the spoken speech. I have even seen suggestions that Speaker Pelosi should be prosecuted for the criminal act of destroying or defacing an official document of the United States government. Now, in today’s world of laser printers able to print as many copies as you want nearly instantaneously, prosecuting her might be seen as even more childish than her stunt. But, given the solemnity she tried to give the process of walking the articles of impeachment across the Capitol, I now see her stunt as particularly egregious and disrespectful of the Constitution, the office of the President, and of the American people.
Awe, Nancy, thanks for driving the Sane Dems to the truth.
Maybe she ripped prop papers. 😂