How Was the State of the Union?
Posted on January 28th, 2010 in Uncategorized | 15 Comments »
I missed it; I’m in Okahoma (long story), and last night I took in a game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Chicago Bulls (see players, cheerleaders, below).
But my sense is that Obama didn’t make any grand changes in his style or agenda, but simply reemphasized a focus on the economy. About right?
15 Responses
1/28/2010 11:07 am
Those pics lack your usual stylishness. I would have liked a Monday Morning Zen closeup of one of those cheerleaders. Can you oblige?
1/28/2010 11:14 am
MDV, Suffering comes from desire.
RB, I thought the speech was terrific. It had just enough of the scolding Congress so richly deserves, and just BARELY enough about the importance of following through on health care. It satisfied me without being at all directed to me; it was directed to people who follow politics casually.
A brilliant deployment of his personality, light and confident, including some tweaking of, some scoffing at, and some pointed criticism of the childish, childish Republicans in Congress. Just enough, and with a light touch.
Reading it won’t do; you need to watch it. Fast-forward through the laundry-list bits if you like, but don’t blink or you’ll miss health-insurance reform.
On reform: I think Obama recognizes that all the structural forces are leading toward the answer that indeed Nancy Pelosi is now pursuing. All non-panicky analyses point to the importance of getting exactly the bill we were going to get before Massachusetts (although federalization of the exchanges and possible anti-trust exemption repeal will probably not be able to take the reconciliation path through the Senate). The question is whether the Senate can, after the jobs bill, buckle down for a few more weeks and not be stupidheads.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/01/27/pelosi-on-health-care-we-have-to-get-this-done/
Standing Eagle
1/28/2010 11:30 am
SE- good analysis.
So, how Obama gets his jobs bill and health care bill passed - he puts Scott Brown’s name on the jobs bill and Olympia Snow’s name on the health care bill (give her what she wants)
In a double-dare-ya kinda way he can make the 41st vote a vote that will ensure that the Rs have to play nice and productively and gives the “people” what they want. He ran on the slogan that the seat is the “people’s seat” so now is the time to prove it.
It also ensures for Brown that he becomes Senator for Life in MA since he ran on Jobs, Jobs and Jobs. We have hired R Senators before and liked them up here in MA and in fact the guy was black…how ’bout that.
Now, for health care - he hands it over to Olympia who takes the crap out of it.
Can you imagine the great Senator from Ohio having to go up against Olympia and Brown when jobs for blue collar workers with health care attached is at stake in his state? Prebble County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country at north of 14%. How is he going to tell the people back home he is against there welfare?
This could get fun if they learn to play real school-yard ball and stop being a bunch of eggheads.
1/28/2010 11:32 am
Unfortunately, Olympia Snowe does not have demands that make any sense. She went with her party instead of with reform.
Would be glad to be shown wrong — What does she stand for in terms of this bill?
1/28/2010 11:53 am
Dude, Courtside Seats!???
Were you Snoop Dog’s guest or what?
Prediction: 2010 will be a much better year for our President than 2009
1/28/2010 12:41 pm
For courtside seats in Oklahoma City, you only need to be the guest of DJ Jazzy Jeff or MC Hammer. It’s not Madison Square Garden.
1/28/2010 1:11 pm
SE,
I think you are missing the point. Politically he hands it over to her. She was one of 2 Rs that helped him with health care orginally. Again, this is about playing inside the Beltway by DC rules to get something done that will benefit Americans. If Obama tasks the Rs (who are not crazy) with the job of getting key bills passed, the rest of the Rs will look like jerks if they don’t contribute in a positive manner. November is not far away and the recession is an equal opportunity enforcer… none of them are safe if they are perceived as not doing the “peoples work”.
Stop looking at the specifics and “content” and look at the politics (I know you are an academic, but just for once think like a politician). Perhaps you can think this way…if you academics were up for tenure ever 2 or 6 years based on the votes of your students, would that affect your attitude, teaching, budgets and your conduct and faculty meetings? Perhaps it would. Try it from that perspective.
So our elected officials will now have to face the voters and the special interests with lots of money to spend for “appropriate” candidates (thanks to the Supreme Court).
Vote for change will take on a really new meaning quickly. How much money will the AFL CIO and similar groups put into R states? Run the lists of the Rs up for re-election and who the Unions and other liberal or progressive special interests will put up against them….dogfight.
So, proabably a good political idea to get jobs, banking and healthcare done before the summer, eh?
1/28/2010 1:51 pm
Bob Herbert writes a column. Interesting. Who would have thought.
“Mr. Obama may be personally very appealing, but he has positioned himself all over the political map: the anti-Iraq war candidate who escalated the war in Afghanistan; the opponent of health insurance mandates who made a mandate to buy insurance the centerpiece of his plan; the president who stocked his administration with Wall Street insiders and went to the mat for the banks and big corporations, but who is now trying to present himself as a born-again populist.
Mr. Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose rhetoric, however skillful, cannot always be trusted. He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won’t be able to close it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/opinion/26herbert.html
1/28/2010 2:07 pm
Off topic. Is this for real? And at what cost?
WSJ interview with Ferran Adria of Restaurant El Bulli in Spain.
WSJ: You said you also plan to teach courses on the science of cooking at Harvard this fall. What type of material does Professor Ferran plan to cover?
Mr. Adria: It’s a dream that Harvard is doing this for gastronomy. We [Mr. Adria, Mr. Andres and other chefs] plan to cover everything that has gotten us to where are today in the kitchen — the relationship between physics and cooking. We plan to put a lot of love into this relationship and I think Harvard will be happy with what we bring to the campus.
1/28/2010 2:42 pm
Why? Thinking of taking the class?
1/28/2010 2:48 pm
Off to the races….
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/brown_declares.html
1/28/2010 2:49 pm
Anon 1:11,
It’s true that someone is missing the point that “This is about playing inside the Beltway by DC rules to get something done that will benefit Americans.” But it’s not me who’s missing that point. It’s the Republicans. They ARE crazy, and their focus is only on winning elections.
They’ve largely discounted the idea that you win elections by getting things done, and have determined (cf. Massachusetts) that you win election by keeping the other guys from getting things done.
This is nihilistic, sick, and disgusting. But it’s how the GOP works. FACT.
Anyone have a counterexample on any significant issue from the past ten months?
SE
1/28/2010 4:55 pm
SE. The Republicans are not the only thing called crazy in our congress:
(HELLO Nancy Pelosi). As far as getting things done, the Democrats
can be obstuctive,too. The real problem lies in our two party system that promotes this endless non-productive cycle; anybody want to speak to that?
1/28/2010 8:41 pm
Yes Sam, it is for real and insane:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094304575029580782188308.html
Who is running the asylum?
1/29/2010 6:09 am
Why would one penny or one moment of time be spent on something this foolish re El Bulli.
Perhaps some Mass Hall person, who reads this board, can enlighten us, if what Adria says is true.