9:54 PM: Okay, that’s what I call quality White House speechwriting research.
9:56 PM: The Kentucky example is really a great thing. A sign of what political leaders really interested in helping ordinary citizens can accomplish.
10:00 PM: Okay, I’m going to be hearing that line from twitter trolls for six months about how Obama’s signaling mass gun confiscation by executive order.
10:05 PM: “America must move off a permanent war footing.” … “That’s why, working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs – because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated.”
10:17 PM: Man, some things just kinda bust through your cynicism.
9:30 PM: Mitch McConnell should love this part of the speech on Obamacare …
And if you want to know the real impact this law is having, just talk to Governor Steve Beshear of Kentucky, who’s here tonight. Kentucky’s not the most liberal part of the country, but he’s like a man possessed when it comes to covering his commonwealth’s families. “They are our friends and neighbors,” he said. “They are people we shop and go to church with…farmers out on the tractors…grocery clerks…they are people who go to work every morning praying they don’t get sick. No one deserves to live that way.”
Steve’s right. That’s why, tonight, I ask every American who knows someone without health insurance to help them get covered by March 31st. Moms, get on your kids to sign up. Kids, call your mom and walk her through the application. It will give her some peace of mind – plus, she’ll appreciate hearing from you.
9:38 PM: Presidents are always snappy during SOTUs. But Obama seems particularly pumped and forceful. Maybe more than I’ve heard him recently and more than the sense of malaise around his presidency would seem to suggest? Again, presidents don’t come to these things droopy. But it’s just the feel I get about this one.
9:40 PM: I must be out of the loop on this. But what’s the “reforming unemployment insurance” about? Here’s the reference …
I’m also convinced we can help Americans return to the workforce faster by reforming unemployment insurance so that it’s more effective in today’s economy. But first, this Congress needs to restore the unemployment insurance you just let expire for 1.6 million people.
Nothing and I mean nothing gets into a SOTU address by chance. There’s a story there. A reader on twitter flags this policy paper from Council of Economic Advisors from 2012. Perhaps this is what he’s referring to?
9:02 PM: Yep, just watching these folks walk in like you.
9:03 PM: Rather amazing, all three members of the conservative faction (Thomas, Scalia and Alito) on the Supreme Court chose not to attend tonight.
9:05 PM: Off to a promising start, Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) starts the evening calling President Obama a “socialistic dictator.”
9:11 PM: As you may know, each State of the Union there’s a designated survivor chosen from the President’s cabinet. Basically, if something truly awful happened and everyone in the chamber died, that one surviving member of the Cabinet would assume the Presidency. Today it’s Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. So they’ve got him tucked away at some undisclosed location.
9:17 PM: If you want to follow along at home here’s the full text of the President’s speech.
9:20 PM: Okay, not being sarcastic about this. But Speaker Boehner looks seriously fried. Like red. Like not orange but seriously red. Like maybe 30 hours in the sun or something. Is it my TV or are you seeing the same thing?
9:27 PM: GOP Reps and Senators rush to get pictures taken with Duck Dynasty star. Pix.
GOP lawmakers: Forget about the state of the union–Duck Dynasty is here!
Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash – Worried Man Blues, after the jump …
So far today in a renewed GOP push to appeal to female voters, 1) Hannity has proposed an “adopt-a-woman” program to help alleviate any issue with affordable access to birth control; 2) Republicans – including Bristol Palin of all people – have attacked Wendy Davis as a bad mother; 3) Rand Paul has managed to hog a lot of media space with an on-going discussion of whether Hilary Clinton needs to be held to account for her husband cheating on her with a White House intern.
Meanwhile production is underway for Mike Huckabee’s neo-blaxploitation action flik Uncle Suga.
TPM Reader JS on the ever-splendid intricacies of New Jersey politics and the fragrances of sleaze …
On “What’s the Matter with Jersey,” my only expertise in the subject is living in Newark. Most of the piece is consistent with what I see on the ground. However, near the end, the article veers off in misdirection. The peccant paragraph:
We’ve spent centuries thinking abut politics as a competition for power. We assume that a thirst for power is what animates almost all political acts. This assumption is so embedded in the vocabulary of government and the rhetoric of electioneering that we have been blinded to the possibility that another motive is exercising equal pull: greed. People can get rich, very rich, by dipping their toe in New Jersey politics.
Another Pete Seeger remembrance, from the folk musician Happy Traum:
Romney still isn’t over Candy Crowley catching him out on Benghazi.
Because BENGHAZI!