State of the Union Address

Here's Politico's highlights video:

The White House has what it's calling an "enhanced video" here -- a split screen with the President speaking in one box & illustrations of the subjects he touches on in the right. CW: I didn't find the photos too enhancing, but -- besides the video -- there are other links on the page that may interest you. 

State of the Union -- Analysis

Swimming Upstream in a Word Cloud.* What the American people got out of the SOTU:

Survey & art by NPR.* "NPR asked its listeners to describe Obama's address in three words. They then tallied up all 4,000 or so responses and made that into a word cloud — a snapshot of what people took away from the speech." -- Dana Amira of New York magazine. See Amira's post for what the word cloud of the President's actual address looks like.

Lie: Depending on bureaucracy to foster innovation, competitiveness and wise consumer choices has never worked — and it won't work now. -- Paul Ryan, SOTU rebuttal

Facts: Throughout our history, our government has provided cutting-edge scientists and inventors with the support that they need. That's what planted the seeds for the Internet. That's what helped make possible things like computer chips and GPS. Just think of all the good jobs -- from manufacturing to retail -- that have come from these breakthroughs. Half a century ago ... we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs.
-- Barack Obama, SOTU address

** Here is the prepared text for President Obama's second State of the Union address. Update: text has been revised to reflect the speech as delivered.

New York Times reporters fact-check the speech....

... Calvin Woodward of the AP fact-checks the President's speech: "The ledger did not appear to be adding up Tuesday night when President Barack Obama urged more spending on one hand and a spending freeze on the other."

Believe in Miracles. Matt Negrin of Politico: "[Tom Donohue,] president of the Chamber of Commerce, one of President Obama’s fiercest critics, and [Richard Trumka,] the president of the AFL-CIO, one of his key labor allies, have written a joint statement praising the State of the Union address."

"Hogwash!" Robert Sheer of TruthDig really hated the speech.

"Meh." Krugman didn't think much of it. My more positive comment is #18 on the same page.

Like Krugman, Kevin Drum of Mother Jones was underwhelmed: "... there was almost literally nothing in there that couldn't have been in a George W. Bush speech. It was intensely technocratic and bipartisan.... And even if you grant that 'invest' is just another word for 'spend,' he was mostly talking about the kind of spending the Republicans could, in theory, go along with.... And a note to John Boehner: dude, we know you're a Republican.... Your preposterously ostentatious boredom during the entire speech really needs to go. You should at least pretend you're not in junior high school anymore."

Michael Grunwald of Time has a useful analysis that looks at the history (brief as it is) of President Obama's policy objectives. Grunwald concludes: President Obama "keeps signaling to the public that he's reaching out to Republicans, even though he's still pushing policies they've been denouncing for two years. It wasn't his choice to swim upstream — the midterm voters made that call — but evidently he's got something in common with those salmon. He gets even more complicated when he's been smoked."

Ezra Klein: "... though there were a lot of policy proposals in the speech, there weren't enough specifics to really know where the president is going. For all the talk of investment, it was presented more as a philosophy than a proposal."

New York Times Editors: "Mr. Obama’s speech offered a welcome contrast to all of the posturing that passes for business in the new Republican-controlled House."

Gene Robinson: "The State of the Union speech ... seemed to chart ways to get over, under, around and through some of the roadblocks that stand in the way of Obama's policy proposals."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: What was "... striking was [the President's] effort to frame the coming debates over spending and the role of government in ways that are designed to put Republicans on the defense as the fights begin. It was his latest effort to appeal to the center of the electorate. The speech was a defense of the active use of government to prepare the country for the long-term challenge of global competitiveness, through spending on education, infrastructure, alternative energy and other projects."

CBS Poll.Lucy Madison of CBS News: "An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of the overall message in President Obama's State of the Union speech..., according to a CBS News Poll of speech watchers.... Specifically, 82 percent ... said they approve of the president's plans for the economy, up from 53 percent who approved before the speech. Eighty percent said they approved of Mr. Obama's plans for the deficit -- in contrast to 45 percent before the speech -- and 83 percent approved of Obama's proposals regarding Afghanistan, which received only a 57 percent approval rating beforehand."

CNN Poll: "A majority of Americans who watched President Obama's State of the Union address said they had a very positive reaction to his speech, according to a poll of people who viewed Tuesday night's address."

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Obama called Tuesday night for Americans to unleash their creative spirits, set aside their partisan differences and come together around a common goal of out-competing other nations in a rapidly shifting global economy."

** Tobin Harshaw of the New York Times is running a livethread of invited commentators' opinions on the SOTU address. Keep the auto-refresh on.

** Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times are liveblogging the State of Union Address. The Times has just obtained (at 7:58 pm ET) a copy of the prepared SOTU address.

Shira Toeplitz of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blasted President Barack Obama on earmarks in advance of his State of the Union address Tuesday, when he’s expected to call for a ban. 'I think this is an issue that any president would like to have, that takes power away from the legislative branch of government,' said Reid. '... It only gives the president more power. He’s got enough power already.'”

Republican Responses

Here is the prepared text for Rep. Paul Ryan's Republican response. You can watch Ryan's rebuttal here.

Jason Linkins gathers rebuttals to the "facts" Ryan presented. Uh, they're not factual.

Political Correction does an in-depth analysis of a few of Ryan's "facts." He should invest in/spend on a fire extinguisher.

Joan Walsh of Salon: "Rep. Paul Ryan railed against the deficit without proposing even one specific cut. He didn't talk about his own infamous 'Roadmap,' maybe because most analysts have called it a budget buster, even though it essentially replaces Social Security and Medicare with vouchers.... Citizens for Tax Justice said Ryan's Roadmap raises taxes on 9 out of 10 taxpayers ... while slashing them for the wealthiest.... Ryan ... promised to ... replace ['Obamacare'] with 'fiscally responsible ... reform,' but didn't say word one about what it would entail. Most dishonestly, Ryan said Democrats had overspent 'to the point where the president is now urging Congress to increase the debt limit,' ignoring the fact that Congress raised it seven times under President Bush." Then Walsh hits Bachmann.

Paul Krugman said "the Ryan response … was as bad as you might expect." ...

     ... NEW. AND furthermore. Ryan really doesn't know WTF he's talking about.

Here's the prepared text of Rep. Michele Bachmann's rebuttal rebuttal. Bachmann's rebuttal rebuttal is here.

Dana Milbank on Michele Bachmann's alternate -- and vituperative -- universe.

CNN Political Unit: "Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, chair of the Tea Party Caucus in Congress, delivered a Tea Party-style, red-meat conservative rebuttal sharply criticizing President Barack Obama's State of the Union Tuesday."

Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times: "The crosscurrents inside the Republican Party were on fresh display Tuesday evening with the unusual sight of two lawmakers delivering responses to the State of the Union address.

Jay Newton-Small of Time on the GOP's two-headed monster rebuttal.

Steve Benen on the Bachmann pitfall: "I can only hope that Paul Ryan isn't positioned as the 'middle' -- literally and figuratively -- between the president and Bachman. The Ayn Rand acolyte [i.e., Ryan] is, after all, a hard-core radical, intent on destroying Medicare and Social Security. Bachmann's wild-eyed craziness shouldn't make Ryan appear reasonable by comparison, but it might." Benen also notes that CNN will be carrying Bachmann's rebuttal rebuttal. ...

... Adam Serwer in the Washington Post: "I'm not sure how much real ideological daylight there is between Bachmann and Ryan, and the two appearances are as likely to muddle the conservative message as reinforce it."

Dave Weigel of Slate on why CNN aired the Bachmann rebuttal rebuttal: "CNN has a longstanding romance with the Tea Party Express.... Later this year, the network and the [TPE] PAC (and potentially other Tea Party groups) are co-sponsoring a presidential debate between Republican candidates. So, not shocking at all for the network to promote this and then claim a higher purpose."

The Seating Chart

CLICK ON PHOTO TO GO TO THE NEW YORK TIMES' INTERACTIVE SEATING CHART.

If you had actually followed the rules and not claimed a seat and got there at eight or quarter to eight there were no seats. House members almost wrestled the staff of the Senate sergeant at arms to the ground to claim some of the seats that were claimed for the Senate.
-- Brad Miller (D-NC)

Jennifer Steinhauer & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The idea of having Democrats and Republicans sit together ... gathered frantic steam in the hours leading up to the speech. As evening approached..., members madly tweeted about who they would sit with, looked for a last minute date, and, in at least one case, blew off a suitor." Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va) invited Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.). She tweeted back, “I thank @GOPLeader for his #SOTU offer, but I invited my friend Rep. Bartlett from MD yesterday & am pleased he accepted.”

The Commentariat -- January 26

Adam Sorensen of Time: "The Congressional Budget Office released its economic and budget forecast for the next decade Wednesday morning." Sorensen looks at the political implications of this:

Tom Junod has a profile of Fox "News" CEO Roger Ailes titled "Why Does Roger Ailes Hate America?" I've only skimmed the article, but it appears to be a worthy read, & I'll get back to it. Junod has some of the transcripts of his interview of Ailes here. Ben Smith recommended the Junod story yesterday. AND the upshot of Smith's recommendation is pathetic/hilarious & certainly supports Junod's suggestion that Ailes is a paranoid freak who runs a tight ship.

Chris Matthews breaks some news about gun control:

John Burns & Julia Werdigier of the New York Times: "Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government received a sharp political jolt on Tuesday with the release of official figures showing that Britain’s economy contracted slightly in the last three months of 2010, prompting some economists to warn that the country was at increased risk of a 'double dip' recession after four consecutive quarters of modest growth."

You Can't Make This Stuff up -- but Michele Bachmann Can. Sahir Kapur of the Raw Story: "Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) said the United States was founded on racial and ethnic diversity and that the founding fathers were responsible for abolishing slavery."

News Items

New York Times: "The Defense Department is disputing an MSNBC report that the commander of the naval brig in Quantico, Va., exceeded his authority by placing Pfc. Bradley Manning – the Army intelligence analyst who is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to WikiLeaks – on suicide watch. MSNBC, quoting unnamed military officials, reported on Monday that James Averhart, the brig commander, violated procedure last week by placing Private Manning on suicide watch for two days after he was accused of failing to follow orders from his guards."

Politico: "The House passed a GOP-sponsored bill to end public financing for presidential campaigns Wednesday. Ten Democrats, most of them Blue Dogs, joined Republicans in the vote."

Washington Post: "In the weeks and days before the shooting rampage in Tucson, suspect Jared Lee Loughner surfed the Internet on his computer in what investigators believe was an effort to prepare for his alleged assassination attempt, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said. Loughner pulled up several Web sites about lethal injections and solitary confinement in prison.... He also viewed Internet sites about political assassins...."

AP: "Police stood guard as an ambulance took Rep. Gabrielle Giffords from intensive care to a rehabilitation hospital in Houston on Wednesday, an encouraging step that came after doctors upgraded her condition from serious to good." ...

... New York Times: "Doctors on Tuesday night upgraded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’s medical condition from serious to good, and announced they planned to move her from an intensive care unit to a rehabilitation hospital as early as Wednesday morning."

New York Times: "The nation’s budget deficit will widen to nearly $1.5 trillion this year, and the country faces 'daunting economic and budgetary challenges,' the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Wednesday as it released its most updated fiscal report. The budget office noted that 'the deficits of $1.4 trillion in 2009 and $1.3 trillion in 2010 are, when measured as a share of gross domestic product, the largest since 1945 – representing 10 percent and 8.9 percent of the nation’s output.'” ...

     ... NEW. Here's the CBO's summary report with links to a pdf of the full report & related documents.

AP: "A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit that blamed the security company formerly known as Blackwater for the deaths of four contractors killed in a grisly 2004 ambush on the restive streets of Iraq. U.S. District Judge James C. Fox said court-ordered arbitration fell apart because neither side was paying the costs of that process, so he decided to shut the case nearly seven years after the killings."