The Commentariat -- January 13, 2016
Afternoon Update:
Jerry Markon & David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The escalating tensions between Democrats and the Obama administration over its deportation raids targeting Central American immigrants burst into public view on Tuesday, with more than 140 House members blasting the round ups and the White House dispatching a top official to Capitol Hill in a vain effort to quell the furor."
Louise Story of the New York Times: "Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties. The initiative will start in two of the nation's major destinations for global wealth: Manhattan and Miami-Dade County. It will shine a light on the darkest corner of the real estate market: all-cash purchases made by shell companies that often shield purchasers' identities."
*****
... Here is the President's speech as prepared. I'll link a transcript when one becomes available. He did ad lib. Update: Here's the transcript, via the New York Times. ...
... Christi Parsons & Michael Memoli of the Los Angeles Times: "President Obama launched his final year in office with a valedictory State of the Union address Tuesday night that painted a portrait of a prosperous and secure America but warned of peril ahead if the country can't break the political logjam in Washington." ...
... Julie Pace of the AP: "Eyeing the end of his presidency, Barack Obama urged Americans Tuesday night to rekindle their belief in the promise of change that first carried him to the White House, declaring that the country must not allow election-year fear and division to put economic and security progress at risk." ...
... Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "President Obama focused Tuesday on the pessimism coursing through an electorate now preparing to replace him, recasting the campaign-trail anger as a simple fear of change and a growing danger to the country." ...
... CW: The theme of the SOTU speech, in case you didn't notice, was a restatement of then-state senator Obama's 2004 red-state/blue-state convention speech. An agent of change need not change himself in fundamental ways. ...
... "America Is Great Again Already." Suzy Khimm of the New Republic: "Tuesday night's address was a reprise of the Obama of Hope and Change to counter the culture of fear that Trump has exploited so successfully." ...
... John Cassidy of the New Yorker: President Obama "spoke of the possibility that the great U.S. democratic experiment will turn in on itself, in an orgy of partisanship, nativism, and money politics. In delivering this jeremiad, Obama was, in part, merely returning to the platform that he ran on in 2008. But he was also speaking as a wised-up, gray-haired President who has witnessed, firsthand, the consequences of the politics of dysfunction and brutalism -- and who now sees, in the 2016 Presidential race, things going from bad to worse.... Having identified the danger -- Trumpism and all that has given rise to it -- Obama warned that American democracy itself is at stake." ...
... Jonathan Chait: "... Trump did not absorb all of Obama's jibes. The president drew clear lines of distinction against the other two leading Republicans, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.... 'American leadership in the 21st century is not a choice between ignoring the rest of the world -- except when we kill terrorists; [Cruz] or occupying and rebuilding whatever society is unraveling.' [Rubio]"
... David Fahrenthold & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Obama used his final State of the Union address to consider himself as an ex-president -- talking in conversational, contemplative and backward-looking terms at the country he would leave behind, and warning not-very-subtly that the country shouldn't pick Donald Trump to take his place." ...
... Vice President Biden, in Medium: "Three months ago, I called for a 'moonshot' to cure cancer. Tonight, the President tasked me with leading a new, national mission to get this done. It's personal for me. But it's also personal for nearly every American, and millions of people around the world." ...
... Scott Bixby of the Guardian: "Barack Obama has channeled John Kennedy's space race with the Russians to pledge a new 'moonshot', led by vice-president Joe Biden at 'mission control', for the United States to win a new global health race and find a cure for cancer.... Inspired and led by Biden, who lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer last year, the White House's bold pledge follows the path laid forward by the vice-president when he declined to run to replace Obama in the White House." ...
... Dr. Jill Biden & White House staff invite guests to sit with Michelle Obama at the SOTU:
... Oh, that's nice. Anti-gay clerk Kim Davis will be at the SOTU, too, a sort of accidental guest of Rep. Jim Jordan (RTP-Phio). I'm sure she's not the only horrible guest of Congressional Republicans. ...
... Ben Dreyfuss of Mother Jones: "Matt Lauer asked President Barack Obama if he could imagine Donald Trump giving a State of the Union address. His response: 'Well, I can imagine it in a Saturday Night [Live] skit.'... Obama also dismissed Trump's chances of winning the presidency":
... Rachel Bade of Politico: "South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, a potential 2016 vice presidential running-mate for the GOP nominee, offered a not-so-subtle rebuke of Donald Trump's fiery immigration rhetoric as part of her response to President Barack Obama's Tuesday State of the Union speech":
... David Jackson of USA Today: "Another State of the Union tradition played out Tuesday: Criticism of the president from the opposition party, particularly Republican candidates seeking his job this election year." CW: Here's my favorite: "[Rand] Paul, who did not attend speech, tweeted at one point during the president's remarks that 'I just yelled, "you lie" really loud. Good thing I'm not there.'" I guess Li'l Randy remembers how successful Joe Wilson (RTP-S.C.) was in raising funds off his classy 2009 outburst. AND, of course, this was just the kind of childish behavior President Obama admonished politicians to reject. ...
... Ah, well, the usual suspects panned Nikki Haley, too.
We Won't Have Another President Like This. Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "Vice President Biden said in an interview broadcast Monday night that President Obama offered him financial help when his son Beau Biden was suffering from cancer.... 'He said "I'll give you the money. Whatever you need, I'll give you the money. Don't, Joe. Promise me. Promise me,'" Biden told CNN":
Burgess Everett & John Bresnahan of Politico: "King Abdullah of Jordan will spurn the GOP's invitation to address House and Senate Republicans at their retreat in Baltimore on Wednesday night, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Though Abdullah was never confirmed, the optics of meeting with Republicans and not having a face-to-face with President Barack Obama may have proven to be too much. Abdullah met with Vice President Biden today but in the words of a senior administration official, Obama had 'scheduling conflicts, including the State of the Union address' that made a meeting between the two leaders impossible this week."
"The ... 50-State Solution." Thomas Edsall of the New York Times: "While the presidential race captures our attention -- and as the left has withdrawn from low-level combat -- conservatives have overseen the drawing of legislative and congressional districts that will keep Republicans in power over the next decade. In this way, through the most effective gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts in the nation's history, the right has institutionalized a dangerous power vacuum on the left." ...
... David Nasaw reviews Jane Mayer's book Dark Money for the New York Times. "When the Supreme Court in the 2010 Citizens United case permitted nonprofits to spend money on political campaigning, the Koch brothers funded their own political machine, which, in size, dollars and sophistication, rivaled that of the two major parties. Their success in the 2010 midterm election was remarkable, and, Ms. Mayer says, took the Democrats by surprise."
Evan Osnos of the New Yorker: "... the American far right -- a diverse, sometimes contradictory landscape of radical ideologies -- [is flourishing].
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court found Florida's unique system of imposing a death sentence unconstitutional on Tuesday, saying it gives power to judges that is rightfully reserved for juries.... [In an 8-1 decision,] Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Florida's process reduces the jury's role to an advisory one and leaves the work of finding the special circumstances that render a murderer eligible for the death penalty up to a judge. That is the reverse of what the court in 2002 said was required, she wrote."
Marin Cogan of the New Yorker: Attorney General Loretta Lynch "may be the lowest-profile attorney general in recent memory." But that could change: ... "with just a year left in his administration, no one will be more central to the president's political ambitions and legacy than Lynch."
Richard Kahlenberg in a New York Times op-ed: "Public sector unions — representing teachers, firefighters and the like -- are the remaining bright spot in America's once-thriving trade union movement. In the case before the Supreme Court, Rebecca Friedrichs, a dissident teacher in Southern California, argues that she should be able to accept the higher wages and benefits the union negotiates, but not help pay for the costs.... During the Cold War, Republicans as well as Democrats fought for union endorsements and recognized that unions were critical civic organizations because they serve as a check on arbitrary government power; help sustain a middle-class society necessary for a stable democracy; serve to acculturate workers to democratic norms; and, in the case of teachers unions, support a public school system that helps children become thoughtful and reflective citizens." ...
... Steve M.: "Kahlenberg appears to be under the mistaken impression that modern conservatives actually want to strengthen democracy. They want no such thing. Conservatism thrives when economic inequality is increasing. The formula is simple: Take good jobs at good wages from blue-collar whites. When they express anger and anxiety, blame non-white recipients of social services provided by 'big government.' Lather. Rinse. Repeat, ad infinitum."
Thomas Gibbons-Neff & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Two small U.S. Navy vessels appear to be in Iranian custody, but their crews will be released promptly, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday. Two U.S. naval craft were en route from Kuwait to Bahrain when they disappeared from the Navy's scopes. The incident marks the latest run-in between Iranian and U.S. crews." ...
... AP Update: "Iran accused the sailors of trespassing but American officials said Tehran has assured them that the crew and vessels would be returned safely and promptly." ...
... Update 2: Ali Dareini & Adam Schreck of the AP: "All 10 U.S. Navy sailors detained by Iran after drifting into its territorial waters a day earlier have been freed, the U.S. and Iran said Wednesday. The Navy said the American crewmembers returned safely and there were no indications they had been harmed while in custody.... The sailors departed [Farsi Island] at 0843 GMT aboard the boats they were detained with, the Navy said."
Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times: "Powerball fever has gripped the country, as one might expect with a jackpot of $1.5 billion at stake in Wednesday's drawing.... Powerball officials can't be surprised; they changed the rules last July precisely to produce this outcome -- a huge pot, and a stampede of buyers.... It's also well-understood that in economic terms, the people who are exploited by this mismatch of expectations tend to be disproportionately low-income and less educated. Yes, lotteries are effectively a tax on the poor."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "H.F. Lenfest, the owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com, announced on Tuesday that he had donated the publications to a newly formed nonprofit journalism institute. With the agreement, Mr. Lenfest cedes ownership of Philadelphia Media Network, which controls the three news outlets, to The Institute for Journalism in New Media. The institute was created at Mr. Lenfest's behest and will operate under the Philadelphia Foundation. The publications will run independently."
Presidential Race
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Senator Bernie Sanders is breaking away from Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire and is edging ahead of her in Iowa, according to new polls that show him solidifying the support of Democrats ahead the first two 2016 presidential primary election contests." ...
... Philip Bump of the Washington Post analyzes the Sanders-Clinton polls. ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic suggests some of the possible reasons for Sanders' surge. ...
... Patrick Healy & Yamiche Alcindor of the New York Times: "Iowa Democrats are displaying far less passion for Hillary Clinton than for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont three weeks before the presidential caucuses, creating anxiety inside the Clinton campaign as she scrambles to energize supporters and to court wavering voters. The enthusiasm gap spilled abundantly into view in recent days, from the cheering crowds and emotional outpourings that greeted Mr. Sanders, and in interviews with more than 50 Iowans at campaign stops for both candidates. Voters have mobbed Mr. Sanders at events since Friday, some jumping over chairs to shake his hand, snap a selfie or thank him for speaking about the middle class." ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The liberal political group MoveOn.org threw its endorsement to Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential contest, backing him after its officials spent months in search of an alternative to Hillary Clinton and invested $1 million in ads to draft Senator Elizabeth Warren for the race." ...
... Ilya Sheyman of MoveOn.org: "With a record-setting 78.6 percent of 340,665 votes cast by the MoveOn membership, Senator Bernie Sanders has won MoveOn.org Political Action's endorsement for president with the largest total and widest margin in MoveOn history."
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union will endorse Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, giving the Democratic candidate a welcome boost as polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show Senator Bernie Sanders gaining ground." ...
... Stupid Question. Jennifer Jacobs of the Des Moines Register: "... Hillary Clinton declined on Monday to say if she has been in communication with any of the women involved in the sex scandals during Bill Clinton's presidency. Asked if she has had any interactions with them, or feels empathy for any of them, Clinton told The Des Moines Register: 'No, I have nothing to say and I will leave it to voters to determine whether any of that is at all relevant to their decision.'" ...
... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Hillary Clinton on Tuesday dismissed the notion from Bernie Sanders that her campaign is in 'serious trouble.' But at the same time, she signaled she was hunkering down for a 'long, hard, challenging' primary ahead -- a marked contrast from the optimism her campaign was projecting last fall." ...
... Patrick Healy of the New York Times: "With Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont taking the lead in a new Iowa caucus poll, Hillary Clinton sharply challenged his core political message on Tuesday, saying his denunciations of big-money special interests were undercut by his 2005 congressional vote for a bill granting legal immunity for gun manufacturers -- a bill backed by the National Rifle Association." ...
... When the Going Gets Tough, Clinton Gets Nasty. Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "With her lead in the Democratic presidential race in Iowa effectively vanished, Hillary Clinton tore into insurgent rival Bernie Sanders [in Ames, Iowa,] Tuesday over a litany of issues from health care to gun control.... Clinton's speech to a few hundred supporters on the campus of Iowa State University was striking in its sharp tone and the breadth of her attacks against Sanders.... Clinton appeared to relish laying into Sanders." ...
... CW: This is the Hillary Clinton you didn't vote for in the 2008 primary. ...
... AND Joe whacks Hillary:
Trump Nation. Don't Let the Kids Out. Antonio Olivo of the Washington Post: "Officials in Virginia's largest jurisdiction want to close public schools during the Super Tuesday presidential primary elections, saying they fear supporters of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump could cause mayhem at the polls. The concerns stem mainly from a Republican Party of Virginia requirement that the March 1 primary voters affirm they are Republicans before voting for a presidential candidate.... Trump has blasted the pledge on social media.... Trump supporters have sued both the state and the state party, saying the pledge violates their civil rights. [Fairfax County electoral board chairman Katherine] Hanley said the potential for arguments or fights over the issue unnecessarily places schoolchildren at risk inside the 167 schools that will be used as polling stations." ...
... Nolan McCaskill: "Fairfax County is denying a Washington Post report that it may close its public schools during Virginia's primary voting for fear of Donald Trump supporters causing chaos at the polls." ...
... Birtherism, Ctd. Caitlin MacNeal of TPM: "Now that he has raised questions about Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) Canadian birth and American citizenship, Donald Trump has started playing Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA' before campaign rallies...." ...
... No-Information Voters. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling: "PPP's newest Iowa poll continues to find a very close Republican race in the state- Donald Trump's at 28% to 26% for Ted Cruz, 13% for Marco Rubio, 8% for Ben Carson, and 6% for Jeb Bush. … The poll finds that the 'birther issue' has the potential to really hurt Ted Cruz. [pdf] Only 32% of Iowa Republicans think someone born in another country should be allowed to serve as President, to 47% who think such a person shouldn't be allowed to serve as President.... Despite all the attention to this issue in the last week, still only 46% of Iowa Republicans are aware that Cruz was not born in the United States. In fact, there are more GOP voters in the state who think Cruz (34%) was born in the United States than think Barack Obama (28%) was. Donald Trump knows what he's doing when he repeatedly brings up this issue...." ...
... Mary Brigid McManamon, a constitutional law professor, in the Washington Post: "Donald Trump is actually right about something: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) is not a natural-born citizen and therefore is not eligible to be president or vice president of the United States.... The concept of 'natural born' comes from common law, and it is that law the Supreme Court has said we must turn to for the concept's definition. On this subject, common law is clear and unambiguous. The 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone, the preeminent authority on it, declared natural-born citizens are 'such as are born within the dominions of the crown of England,' while aliens are 'such as are born out of it.'... Congress simply does not have the power to convert someone born outside the United States into a natural-born citizen." ...
... Laurence Tribe, in a Boston Globe op-ed: "This narrow definition reflected 18th-century fears of a tyrannical takeover of our nation by someone loyal to a foreign power -- fears that no longer make sense. But the same could be said of fears that a tyrannical federal army might overrun our state militias. Yet that doesn't lead Cruz -- or, more importantly, the conservative jurists he admires -- to discard the Second Amendment's 'right to bear arms' as a historical relic, or to limit that right to arms-bearing by members of today's 'state militias,' the national guard.... When Cruz was my constitutional law student at Harvard, he aced the course after making a big point of opposing my views in class -- arguing stridently for sticking with the 'original meaning' against the idea of a more elastic 'living Constitution' whenever such ideas came up.... At least he was consistent in those days. Now, he seems to be a fair weather originalist, abandoning that method's narrow constraints when it suits his ambition." ...
... Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly: "If some people want to be sticklers, I think they have that right. I don't feel like being a stickler.... I will laugh my ass off if the Republicans discover that after falsely accusing the current president of being born in another country they wind up having a problem electing a president because he actually was born in another country." ...
... Steve M.: "I don't like Ted Cruz, but I don't believe this decision [in the Haley case David Brooks cited in a column linked in yesterday's Commentariat] was his alone to make. Attorney General Greg Abbott was in his corner. And then so was the Supreme Court, including two liberal justices [Ginsburg & Breyer]. That's our system. There's brutalism all around." ...
... Paul Campos in LG&M: "What’s interesting about all this is that we can pretty safely assume that Brooks is carrying water for the GOP establishment (I'm pretty sure this obscure 12-year-old case didn't pop up for Brooks during some random internet surfing).... This suggests that, to some of the powers that be at least, Trump is actually preferable to Cruz." ...
... CW: There's no doubt that "Brooks is carrying water for the GOP establishment," but that doesn't mean he favors Trump over Cruz -- much more likely Kasich over Cruz.
... Amanda Marcotte in Salon: David Brooks' "latest column, titled 'The Brutalism of Ted Cruz,' [is] a piece that so hilariously misunderstands the motives of Christian conservatives that it leads one to wonder if Brooks has ever, in all his travels, met a single member of this tribe that his beloved Republican Party relies on for votes.... 'Compassionate conservatism' was never a real thing. It was always a feint, a beautiful sheep costume layered over the flea-bitten hide of the zealotry-driven wolves of Christian conservatism.... Brooks isn't wrong that Christianity is supposed to espouse 'humility, mercy, compassion and grace,' but for the Christian right, that's always just been a handy disguise to wear while working on the true mission, which is control, punishment, deprivation, and abuse." ...
... CW: Actually, I know & have known some very nice Christian conservatives. We disagree on most issues, but I don't consider them less "decent" than I am. And they do exhibit "humility, mercy, compassion & grace." (Update: ... which is sorta what President Obama said in his SOTU address.) One of the nice Christian conservatives I know is not Ben Carson, (a) because I don't know him, & (b) because he's not very nice. ...
... AP: "... Ben Carson is criticizing President Barack Obama for allowing representatives of a Muslim civic group to attend the State of the Union address, saying their actions are 'not pro-American.' Democratic lawmakers have invited two members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to attend Obama's final State of the Union address Tuesday night. Speaking to CNN Tuesday morning, Carson said he has called for an investigation of the group...." ...
... As I was saying. Miranda Blue of Right Wing Watch: "In a rambling interview with a Catholic news network over the weekend..., Ben Carson derided marriage equality and protections for transgender people as 'extra rights' for 'a few people who perhaps are abnormal,' warning that if the next president's Supreme Court nominees protect LGBT rights, you can 'say goodbye to America.'"
Matt Arco of NJ.com: "Boasting about saving New Jersey from the brink of economic calamity, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday credited Republican principles and his bold leadership with making the state 'strong and growing stronger every day.' In a State of the State address aimed at a national audience as he campaigns for president, Christie also warned the state's gains are in jeopardy if the Democratic-controlled Legislature strays from the path he forged over the last six years."
Beyond the Beltway
Elections Matter. Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Louisiana's new Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, on Tuesday signed an executive order to expand Medicaid in the state under ObamaCare.... President Obama will be touting Louisiana's move on Medicaid expansion, which the White House says will provide coverage to 193,000 uninsured people, when he visits the state on Thursday as part of his post-State of the Union travel."
Luke Hammill of the Oregonian: "The armed militants occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge announced Tuesday morning that they will drive into Burns at the end of the week to hold a community meeting and inform residents when they will leave." CW: Lah-de-dah. ...
... Les Zaitz of the Oregonian: Police believe militants are following local people who have some family connection to law enforcement or opposition to the militants' causes. Zaitz cites several individuals' accounts. ...
... Maxine Bernstein of the Oregonian on why the feds don't try to oust the militia. CW: I'm not buying some of the "it's just protesters" excuse. I'm pretty sure if I commandeered a federal building, however remote, the "authorities" would oust me right quick. ...
... Sam Levin of the Guardian: "A local judge in Oregon has raised the prospect of making the armed militia occupying a federal wildlife refuge pay as much as $75,000 a day for the toll the standoff is costing the rural county. Harney County judge Steve Grasty, a vocal critic of the militia, estimates that the armed occupation led by cattle rancher Ammon Bundy cost the community roughly $60,000 to $75,000 each day of the first week of the occupation. Grasty, an administrative judge, proposed making Bundy and his associates pay the expenses at a community meeting on Monday night in Burns, the closest town to the ongoing occupation of the Malheur national wildlife refuge."
Worse Than the Washington Redskins. Elizabeth Doran of the Syracuse Post-Standard: "Whitesboro[, New York,] residents voted Monday night to keep the village's controversial seal, rather than replace it with a new image. Of 212 votes cast, 157 of them were in favor of retaining the current seal.... The controversial village seal, which dates back to 1883, shows a white settler with his hands apparently choking a Native American man." CW: It's tradition!
CW: AND NOW I must go paint the ceiling in my in-progress new solarium.
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Reader Comments (22)
..."Clinton’s speech to a few hundred supporters on the campus of Iowa State University was striking in its sharp tone and the breadth of her attacks against Sanders.... Clinton appeared to relish laying into Sanders." ...
... "CW: This is the Hillary Clinton you didn't vote for in the 2008 primary."
And I will not vote for her again in the 2016 primary. Hillary is bright and competent, no doubt. However, she has a petty, vengeful streak and does not cover it well. I think that is why many people complain of her inauthenticity. She should stop with the "concerned and compassionate" and stick with "cage fighting," and triangulating--which she does very well.
Don't worry. I will never forget the Supremes! If HRC is our nominee, I will hold my nose and vote for her. I just wish Bernie were not so old. He is the Real Deal!
SUPREME COURT!
@Kate Madison: Me, too. Me, too. Bernie is only 6 years older than Hillary. He doesn't wear makeup.
Marie
P.S. And 5 years older than Donald.
I would also like Bernie to be POTUS but as a candidate he has two 'fundamental' problems. Age and religion. He is the same age as I am and he belongs to the same religion as Jesus.
Actuarily speaking, Sanders is more at risk for health insurance issues than even the age difference with Hillary suggests since he is male. Personally, I think they're both too old to make an initial run for President, but the reality is that one of them will be the nominee.
I have enormous respect for both of them but my vote will go to Hillary, who I feel is the more complete candidate Having said that, I have to acknowledge that I spoke on behalf of Obama at our precinct caucus in 2008. Not sure if asked that I have the passion this time. Every election is different.
Correction: my comment should have read simply " health," not "health insurance." :-)
Poor Paul Ryan. Look at his face desperately trying to look numb as Obama gives out all that good news, great ideas and those annoying facts.
@Marvin Scwalb: LOL! And now Obama's rubbing it in going on about how we're the greatest country in the world and our standing has risen ( he was too diplomatic to give further details).
A minor observation: Ryan's tie appears to be neon red. Not subtle, Paulie.
Well now every candidate in both parties look lousy.
As soon as the Bundys et al clear the preserve, I hope they will be wearing handcuffs. The last Bundy standoff wasn't prosecuted and that public F-U, lead to the current cluster. I love Judge Grasty's suggestion. I vote for selling the cows to raise money. Grazing issue solved.
The President hasn't lost his ability to inspire. I'm pretty sure the GOP were popping Valium and cursing up a storm. The initial part of the address was tough, smart and pointed. No wimpiness there and he gave the clear definition of leadership in the modern world - post cold war. I watched a bit of MSNBC after blather and turned it off when the analysis turned to the "President was talking to Trump". That plays right into Trump's malignant narcissism. It was clear to me that the President was addressing all the contestants on the right as well as members of congress when he spoke about "elevating" politics. The only specific reference I heard was to Cruz's "carpet bombing".
I'm pretty sure a lot will be made about Obama's "regret" that he couldn't fix the toxic politics. Wish he'd left that out. I guess he was trying to be humble, but really..that's been in the works way before Obama. Daring to be President while smart and black just made the festering boil pop.
The Bundy crowd shouldn't have much trouble coming up with a mere 75 grand a day. After all, feeding their cattle herd costs them nothing.
(I'm still waiting for their thank you note, which I expect will arrive any day now.)
Dana Milbank writes in WaPo that the President's warnings in the SOTU were about the dangers of Trumpism. However, I think Milbank's interpretation is too narrow, I think O'Bama was warning against mob tendencies toward fascism and bigotry, engendered by irrational fear and anger. Trump is just one current vessel of those tendencies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-answers-trumps-dangerous-demagoguery/2016/01/12/b51eaae4-b974-11e5-99f3-184bc379b12d_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Patrick, I agree but the core of the problem is that I doubt so much as one Trump, Cruz or Carson supporter watched the speech.
The last SOTU speech Obama will ever make and he made it soar––especially at the end. I liked that he listed the four topics he was going to cover and did the best with the last which was what will work to make this country the best for all of us––not just for the few, but for all. "Let's talk about the future," he said, which made sense since the hope and change he hoped for has not taken hold as much as he hoped. This is a decent man, a man that has a deep sense of empathy, but this is also a man who is deeply political. Since his intellectual abilities are way up there in the high stratosphere, it would make it, I would guess, extremely difficult to put up with the lesser intellects of whom we tend to admonish and make fun of. So his handling of these people sometimes comes off as arrogant––so say some. I will miss Obama. And in years to come he will be recognized as one of our best. Meanwhile the world turns and unless we can change our political system that hope for a better tomorrow ain't gonna happen.
Did anybody else notice Paul Ryan's smug facial expression throughout Obama's speech––also I never saw him clap once.
If Hillary is strident, she's earned it. This woman has been through the mill and back and been able to persevere. If she is starting to dump on Bernie, it's only because he's making such headways and it's no longer a given that she will win. She is more experienced in the dirt and the rubble of politics, here and in her position of Secretary of State. If we had a more perfect union, Bernie would fit as long as he remained physically fit. But we don't––we have a messy, dysfunctional system and Hillary is just the gal to take that on.
And I could be dead wrong.
No-Information Voters: " only 46% of Iowa Republicans are aware that Cruz was not born in the United States. In fact, there are more GOP voters in the state who think Cruz (34%) was born in the United States than think Barack Obama (28%) was".
That tells everything about what is wrong with America.
It was impossible for me to understand, but at time throughout the speech I could hear loud voices from somewhere in the audience. Hard to tell if they were jeers or cheers.
Like many others, if there weren't term limits, I'd prefer Obama on the ticket!
@PDPepe: ...at least, Paul Ryan shaved!
I didn't get to watch the speech but I listened to a good deal of it on the radio in the car. The radio experience comes across as more concentrated without the distraction of cutaways to all those Confederates sitting on their hands and scowling their way through the event.
Like Diane, and likely most of you, I was impressed once more with the President's intellect and heart, two things sorely missing from nearly everyone on the other side. Confederates like Ted Cruz may have gone to Princeton and Harvard, but wholesale embrace of a fact-free universe in which decisions are arrived at based purely on ideological goals with no connection to the real world, in my opinion, removes these people from the ranks of educated women and men.
It was hard to miss Obama's grasp of the complexities of the world and his very difficult job. To hear Cruz and Trump tell it, being president is easy-peasey, drop bombs, kick ass, and do whatever the hell you want. Just order people to do what you tell them. Wall on the Mexican border? Make Mexico pay for it! ISIS pisses you off? Nuke 'em. The gulf separating the pretenders and frauds from the real deal could not be greater were we considering the distance between Albert Einstein and the Three Stooges.
And this morning it's no surprise to hear the fear mongers crying that the President's speech was too optimistic. "Oh, he doesn't live in the real world! He should be afraid and he should make everyone else afraid too! That's what we do." I seem to recall when Republicans were making fun of Jimmy Carter for being too malaise prone, not sunny and optimistic like the good ol' Gipper.
The closer we get to the end of this president's second term, the more inclined I am to consider him in the upper reaches of great presidents. No president I can think of has had to withstand the kind of attacks, right from the start, the treasonous, vicious aggression by the entirety of the opposing party who vowed from day one to try to force this president to fail, no matter what pain and suffering it inflicted on the country at large. And through it all he has been magnanimous, steady, composed, eyes on the prize, even as his enemies have been setting their hair on fire and running in circles with bulging eyes and wagging tongues.
And despite the attacks and the venomous hatred, he has succeeded at things no one thought possible. We've gone through the list of Obama's greatest hits before so it's not necessary to recall them now. But there may another very big one to add. Yesterday I joked that Republicans would boo him even if he discovered the cure for cancer. They may get that chance since he has called for a concerted effort to do just that. If that happens, like the JFK moonshot challenge, there is no way anyone can deny his greatness. He may not be the one doing the research, but providing the focus for such an effort is something only great presidents can do. Presidents like Bush push us back, ones like Obama push us forward.
He has demonstrated the temperament, heart, civility, and resolve of a true leader, someone to be looked up to, in stark contrast to the mud-slinging ignoramuses crawling in the muck at his feet. He has never, to our great advantage, confused screaming with leadership or naked aggression with strength. He will go down as one of the greats while his detractors will inhabit snarky footnotes, and lucky to be there.
Some presidents (The Decider, Reagan) leave office with a legacy of horribles; pain for the many, joy for the very few, war, death, destruction, ignorance, economic disaster and great inequality. This president will leave the nation and the world better off for his presence, and that is a great thing indeed.
The Children's Hour (apologies to Longfellow)
Between dark thoughts and unbecoming cupidity
Comes a trying time of immense stupidity
When scowling Confederates begin to glower
That is known cross the nation as the Children's Hour.
I see on the Tee-Vee machine and the papers
Curmudgeonly candidates and their ineffectual capers
I read in reports, and hear sour bleating
Black thoughts in their minds, hearts out they are eating
Especially the little one, a smelly rug on his head
His tiny fists pounding the floor by his bed
In such great distress, he's been kicked off the stage
So he'll pick up his ball and off home he will rage
"It just isn't fair" he whinnies and whines
His rug all askew as he pulls down the blinds
He sits in his room and refuses to breathe
"When I'm blue, they'll be sorry" and commences to grieve
His time as a bidder for high office is spent
Meantime he can still show them all his rear end
Watching the SOTU alone he espies
The man he hates so and yells out "He lies!"
This makes him feel manly, his feelings so hurt
But he takes time to go on the radio and blurt
That that black man's a phony and should just admit
That he'd rather play golf and pick up and quit.
He wonders just why no one wants him to win
The Orange head bozo's their favorite, Oh, sin!
So he grumps and he groans, between and betwixt
Life can be hard when you're just turning six.
Some thoughts about that Whitesboro, NY town seal depicting a "wrestling match" which looks very much like a white settler throttling a Native American. Defenders are playing the PC card and ripping anyone who doesn't get that it's just a "playful rasslin' match" between a couple of "friends".
Oh, okay. Well, in that case, how 'bout this for a seal? Here's a whole bunch of friendly rasslin' goin' on here. Can't you see how much fun everyone's having? I'm sure the woman in the background racing into the house with her kid is just going to the kitchen to fetch more popcorn!
And what about this one? Friendly locals have formed a Welcome Wagon to greet paleface newcomers. How nice. How could anyone interpret this wrongly?
And here comedians A.J. Foster and Larry O'Grady reenact the Whitesboro seal to see how it might look if the wrestlers were black and white and the, er, black guy was winning.
Wonder if the Whitesboro residents would be cool with that?
I'm guessing tradition has its limits.
Hey guys, I didn't watch the SOTU last night so I didn't get to see if Sammy (the Hit Man) Alito was there to do the SCOTUS BOBBLEHEAD SHAKE (™). Anyone see Mr. Justice Self-Righteous? I'm guessing he took the opportunity to express his supreme displeasure at a darkie in the White House. Again.
Ak,
I, too, missed the SOTU last night. According to C. Pierce three SCOTUS fucktards boycotted the event - Alito, Thomas, and Scalia.
Longfellow, after having read Akhilleus' splendid poem fashioned in part by the fellow's own long poems, was mighty pleased, donned his hat, smiled broadly and crept back into his grave.
I was wondering how long past Presidents get Secret service protection. Here's the skinny from Wiki:
"Lifetime government-provided security for former presidents was the law of the land until 1997, when Congress passed legislation limiting Secret Service protection to ten years after leaving office. The 1997 law said any president serving before January 1, 1997 would still receive the lifelong protection."
BUT Obama, with a stroke of a pen changed that a few years ago. Now all past Presidents get lifetime protection. That means even very old H.W. Bush is still being protected––which I think is a little over the top. Who would want to do him in and for what? The children of Presidents are also protected until the age of 16. Our tax dollars at work.
Note to Elizabeth from yesterday: Damn! Now I'll have to come up with something else; the helium seemed to be just the thing. Thanks for the heads up–-or down as the case may be.
I know, I know I'm preaching to the choir here at RC but here is another fine example of that nasty man Ted Cruz talking out both sides of his mouth: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/politics/ted-cruz-wall-street-loan-senate-bid-2012.html?_r=0. Not even Goldman's wants this guys stink. Somebody pointed the finger at this info for it to come out right now where he's been ahead in Iowa and the primary is soon. Ted has some powerful enemies is my takeaway from this. Do you think John McCain is having a chuckle about all this?