Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

State of the Union, baby

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“American families have to balance their budgets. So should their government.”

Well shoot George, that would have been easy, except that I invaded and occupied the house of this guy down the street, and he's not too happy about it, and I'm spending a lot of money on a security firm to keep him outta there and really burning up the credit cards. That sucks, but thank goodness for Capital One.

It's just amazing how completely out of touch our President is on health care. I have little doubt that hardly anyone who's actually worried about their health care understands or gives a tinker's damn about anything he just said.

More generally, it's just bizarre to listen to a President that has zero credibility on anything he says about any issue, domestic or international. 

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  4. Good gravy, what a yawn. Like watching wheat grow. “Not a partisan response, but an American response.” Americans must be incredibly dull. “Join us, Mr. President.” Dude … we’re not idiots.

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    p>I’m sure she’s a fine governor, but this is beyond her.  

    • Gov. Sebelius has always been one of those politicians who I thought looked great and exciting on paper. She was on Kerry’s short list for veep and had been one of my top ideas for Obama a year or so ago. But seeing her speak just then left me wondering what I thought I was going to see or hear. She has been a great governor, strongly progressive for such a conservative state.

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      p>It wasn’t bad like Tim Kaine two years ago, but it wasn’t good either.

      • Remember the snoozer of a keynote at the ’88 convention.  There was a guy who just couldn’t get anyone excited.

    • If the Democrats want to improve the response they

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      p>a) should get good speakers to say it

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      p>b) should do it outside, with the party and a big crowd

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      p>and c) do it the night after the State of the Union, so it can go beyond 2 or 3 minutes… and tackle all the stupidity/lies/propaganda and distortions of the President’s speech.

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      p>That’s the only way they can make it be somewhat interesting, relevant and not look terrible, boring and cheesy compared to the State of the Union with all its drama and appeal.

      • schooled everyone, including the POTUS, when he gave a Democratic Reply.  He only made two points:

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        p>1.  Time to get our troops home from Iraq.
        2.  Time for the government to reduce the gap between rich and poor.

        • My suggestions would make for a good Democratic response just about every year. I do remember Webb giving the speech, now that you mention it, and it wasn’t bad. But imagine that with the backdrop of a few hundred people, at a podium outside  the Capitol. It would have kicked ass.

  5. The smirk seemed strained. That was the first thing I noticed.

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    p>Gone was le garçon bien vieux who gleefully towel snaps his buddies in the country club shower room then screws their wives behind the 8th hole caddy shack.

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    p>His zazz… gone.

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    p>My god, he actually dared dig up all his favorite bellico-erotic fantasies from the past; crazy English Islamic shampoo bombers, Iran developing “neucluer” weapons, exalted troops home thanks to the “return on success”, imaginary terrorists flying imaginary planes – maybe right now over your house, the hunt – the endless hunt – for Terror.

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    p>It was shallow, profoundly disheartening. A seemingly endless litany of “give me more or I’ll stamp my feet; do what I say or I’ll hold my breath.” Even his own crowd was confused. Alongside the usual red-meat standing-ovation lines there were times when both sides of the aisle just looked at each other and shrugged. “Huh? What did we just clap for?”

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    p>Then it dawned on me.

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    p>Of course! It’s not his fault.

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    p>All the sitcom writers have been out on strike for weeks.

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    p>I’m so so tired of reruns.

    • Fortunately I for one am glad the Bush presidency will go out with a whimper rather than a bang (in Iran). It was a profoundly interesting speech not in that it said anything new but that it was the last stubborn speech of a man who knew he had lost but kept insisting he won. Coincidentally I have been watching a lot of tapes of Nixon on youtube that friends sent me (some pretty funny bloopers actually) but I also rewatched his resignation speech and the tone of depressed defiance was errily similar.

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      p>Tonight we saw for the first time George W. Bush as a man defeated and a man uncertain of his legacy but defiantly rolling onward with it to the very end.

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      p>At this time it is inconceivable that history will ever judge this presidency as anything other than a disaster, especially its second term, but it is also crucial to recognize that there were many Presidents Eisenhower, Clinton, and Truman who had questionable legacies when they left, Truman in fact had much lower approval ratings than Dubya and was universally considered a disaster until a few years ago.

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      p>But unlike Truman there have been no positive results from this second term, a lot of unfinished business and un-Truman like buck passing not to mention the legacy of Iraq hanging like an albatross around his neck.

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      p>In a strange way though perhaps America needed dubya after its cold war basking in the sun, perhaps it needed a temporary defeat to wake itself out of its hubris and arrogance, perhaps we needed a period of darkness before we awake to new light.  

      • But only if Americans OWN it. We’ve broke it and now we need to fix it – and everyone’s going to have to get on board, if we’ll be successful. Part of me thinks Americans have lost the spirit we once had, the kind that drove us to fix our mistakes like no other country could, but another part of me thinks that part of our spirit just needs to be awakened.

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        p>Finally, by “it” I mean America, not Iraq. Sadly, though we broke Iraq, only Iraqis can fix it. That will be Bush’s legacy, more than anything else, because it’s the one thing we can never fix – no matter how much we, as Americans, own these past 8 disastrous years.  

  6. I was reading this envigorating story about how Bush and Cheney would be arrested for war crimes if they ever stepped foot in Vermont … Maybe we could arrange to change the road signs next time they are panhandling in New Hampshire for GOP candidates …
    One wrong turn could make history đŸ™‚

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    p>http://www.rutlandherald.com/a…

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