So far I’d say the President got off to a slow, rocky start. A skeptical audience not only on the Republican side, which is obvious, but weirdly from the Democrats too. But it’s picked up steam and momentum over the last half hour, hitting a few key themes over and over. The speech and delivery have urgency without seeming desperate.
The speech itself isn’t that big a thing, it’s ephemeral regardless of whether it’s great for the president or terrible. But it lays out a roadmap — both in policy and political terms. The question is how and whether they follow it.
From TPM Reader RT …
I don’t think it’s fair to say that POTUS “got off to a rocky start” because his audience was not initially receptive. I would argue that he is the one who warmed them (especially Dems) to his speech, and he did it by an engaged rhetoric that has been absent since the last election. He was engaged and his rhetoric was sharply focused, using repetition to drive home his themes. He laid responsibility for failure at the feet of congress, emphasized that what he was proposing was nothing radical, and called the GOP on its alternative world view of the ethos of the country. It was a very different speech for him.
From TPM Reader SS …
Too often, Obama seems to play only one side of himself, either the fiery idealist or the nuts and bolts pragmatist. The result pleases no one. Tonight he brought together the idealism with the pragmatism, and no small amount of fighting words. My hopes are still low that the Republicans will meet him half way, or any way but their highway (unpaved, mind you). But Obama has put them on alert that he’s going to press them for action.
More updated on the speech at TPMLivewire.
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More reaction from TPM Reader MA …
I loved the start of the speech; it was my favorite part!
I have never seen Obama start a speech like that and I doubt anyone else has either. The Dems didn’t really know how to take it. I wasn’t sure either. Then I got it: Obama got it! The US is in a crisis situation and Washington needs to get serious about addressing it. Obama’s demeanor was serious, focused, angry, and determined. It wasn’t Obama being “back”; this was a new face of Obama. This is reelection Obama.
My economic preferences are much more Keynesian than Obama. We could use at least a trillion dollars of spending stimulus right not. But I realize Obama isn’t going to do that. So, I wasn’t surprised that he proposed a long list of policies that have had a history of bipartisan support. If his bill passes, he wins. If his bill is DOA, he wins. It’d be great to get all of the Senate Dems on board and either let the Senate Republicans kill it or send it over to the House and see what they do with it.
Obama is the best choice out there. Based on his performance tonight, I think he’s going to win next November.
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