Apparently The President will be speechifying in a little bit.
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by John Cole| 58 Comments
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Apparently The President will be speechifying in a little bit.
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Comrade Mary
Apparently I will be drinking in a little bit. Any suggestions, guys?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I am going to hunker down with my traditional State of the Union dinner: popcorn and beer. It prepares me for any eventuality.
cathyx
I predict no strong stances on anything and a lot of hoping for changes on many things.
Nick
no OBAMA IS WORSE THAN BUSH, HE SOLD US OUT!!!!! tag?
Valdivia
Wait this early? By 9 I will be drunk and this thread will be over 200 comments.
Valdivia +1
Ps the asshat the media are already referring to investment as a dirty word. WTF?
Cheryl Rofer
National Journal has a copy of a draft of the SOTU.
RosiesDad
I’m sure the speech will remind me of the old Far Side cartoon where master stands over dog, berating dog for bad behavior. And what the dog hears is, “Blah blah blah Ginger. Blah blah blah blah blah Ginger blah blah blah.”
If he gets up there and calls Mitch McConnell an obstructive, offensive douche bag, I will be impressed.
SiubhanDuinne
Nothin says SOTU like a cheap shiraz from South Australia.
srv
Why not just get this sham of a democracy over with – give Obama a gavel and have an auction.
Jade Jordan
I hope John Cole plays a drinking game and take a drink every time Obama says “together”. He will be sloppy drunk in 10 minutes and can finally stop whining about Cutler and Deion.
4tehlulz
Regardless of the content, it will betray me.
D-Chance.
Time for bed. Although the SOTU is probably the best Sominex ever invented.
RosiesDad
@srv: I’d been thinking the past few days that we ought to auction off naming rights to the three branches, especially since Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia have all been openly and brazenly bought and paid for.
The ExxonMobil House of Representatives. The Beyond Petroleum Senate. The Halliburton Supreme Court of the United States. And the United Healthcare–HCA–Blue Cross/Blue Shield White House.
Perfect.
MikeJ
Sons of the Desert is starting now.
Nick
@MikeJ:
I prefer Sons of Anarchy…which reminds me. Am I the only one who thinks Katey Sagal is more MILFy now than as Peggy Bundy?
de stijl
@RosiesDad:
Rent Idiocracy.
freelancer
@Jade Jordan:
An enterprising soul could take the next few minutes and create a Balloon Juice SOTU bingo card if they so wished.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@4tehlulz: I already feel the shadow of the bus coming to run me over.
Obama has betrayed my hopes in two ways: By keeping the stupid turkey pardoning and the “who’s in the First Lady’s box” thing. Other than that, Ime and O are cool.
RosiesDad
@de stijl: Will pick it up at the local library tomorrow on your recommendation.
Jade Jordan
@freelancer:
Too late. I read a copy of the Speech at The Nation. Lets just say the drinking game is over already!
gelfling545
I really don’t know why he bothers. For a month people in the media have been running on about what he should say. what he will say, what he won’t say, etc, etc. & after he finishes more people will run on to tell us what he said (just in case it somehow escaped us), didn’t say, what it MEANS that he said or didn’t say such & such, the probable symbolism of the color of his necktie & so on & so on far into the night. I’d like to hear the president speak but the accompanying noise is just too much.
de stijl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Are you saying that the President is a cuckold?
Valdivia
Am I in the wrong blog? Why so much hate?
Linnaeus
I’ll do what I’ve done with respect to SOTU addresses of the past: read the transcript the next day. I just don’t get into watching presidential speeches.
Jade Jordan
Oops The Nation is shortbrain for The National Journal.
PaulW
What I want to hear in the SOTU:
“My fellow Americans, what the fuck was the Academy thinking by not giving Nolan a Best Director nod for Inception? I mean, seriously!”
stuckinred
@Linnaeus: Especially with all the great hoops on!
Linnaeus
@gelfling545:
Another reason that I won’t watch the speech and prefer to read it.
Interesting coincidence: posting a comment on this thread and hearing the William Tell Overture on the local classical station while doing so.
Roger Moore
@Comrade Mary:
I would recommend you start out with good bourbon and then switch to cheap bourbon when you can’t tell the difference anymore. Or you could stick with grain alcohol and rainwater so that nobody can sap and impurify your precious bodily fluids.
Thoughtcrime
Has he punched any hippies yet?
Linnaeus
@Roger Moore:
Got some George Dickel in my liquor cabinet as we speak. Bourbons and their Tennessee whiskey variants deserve more respect than they get.
PanAmerican
“You lie!”
Beauzeaux
I haven’t missed voting in an election since 1964.
And, I’ve never ever watched or listened to a State of the Union address. He has to do it becasue the constitution requires it but nothing requires it to be other than a snooooozzzzzzzz
dmsilev
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: with you on the popcorn (just finished making a bowl of the stuff), but I really think either wine or hard liquor makes more sense than beer here.
dms
Mnemosyne
@gelfling545:
Well, there is this pesky Constitutional requirement, but one does wonder if it’s obsolete in the world of 24/7 news and commentary. It’s not like anyone in Congress isn’t sure what actions the president has taken over the past year and needs to be brought up to speed.
MonkeyBoy
@Linnaeus:
I found speeches by GWB impossible to watch because they sounded like he was trying to explain things to a 10 year old (which is how his handlers must have explained things to him). My hands got sore from involuntary middle finger jabs at the TV. I was more than happy to read a brief summary of the high or low points.
I feel Obama is talking more to me than my inner child, and I don’t get infuriated watching him.
suzanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
For a second there, I thought you meant something TOTALLY different.
Linnaeus
@MonkeyBoy:
I stopped watching SOTU addresses sometime during the Clinton administration and the practice of reading the transcript in the NYT or something just became a habit. And Clinton and Obama are excellent speakers, so it isn’t because of anything about them that I don’t watch. For me, it’s about avoiding the hype and noise surrounding the speech.
dmsilev
Wonder what moment of boorishness the GOP will grace us with this time? I’m going to go with “previously unknown freshman moons the President”
dms
J.W. Hamner
The SOTU is an act of kabuki I have always hated, but only realized in the last couple of years that I could totally skip and not miss anything.
Ija
@Cheryl Rofer:
From the speech:
Oh oh. Medicare and Medicaid cuts and tort reform?
Turgidson
@Mnemosyne:
Well…many of the teatarded GOP members are certain Obama has taken actions he hasn’t, all of which incidentally prove he’s not a real murkin and that he loves muslim queer sockalists.
And nothing he can say at the SOTU will change their minds.
South of I-10
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I am having popcorn and wine! Great minds and all that.
J.W. Hamner
@Mnemosyne:
He could just send them a report… as was the case from Jefferson to Wilson… he doesn’t have to give a stupid speech where everybody gets excited about who is sitting with whom and whether people applaud at the right time.
Mnemosyne
@Ija:
I’m still at work, so is that from what you’re watching on the actual SOTU or from that purported draft speech that Cheryl linked to?
ETA: Also, am I the only one who finds it weird that the National Journal is treating the State of the Union speech like it’s “Transformers 3” by publishing bootleg versions?
Ija
No mention of atheist or non-believer this time. I guess the whole Obama is not a Christian thing is getting to the White House.
Roger Moore
@Linnaeus:
I don’t know how much respect they actually get, but they definitely deserve a lot. Good bourbon is every bit as good as- though very different from- a good Scotch. I think of a fine bourbon as being one of the great distilled spirits.
Mnemosyne
@J.W. Hamner:
You mean he should ignore all of those innovative technologies like “radio” and “television” that his predecessors used and go back to writing it with a quill pen?
Seriously, dude. At least give a nod to the 21st century and say he should do it as a webcast.
Just Some Fuckhead
For a couple years now, I always memorize the president’s speech (near photographic memory) and recite it a few seconds before he says it on teevee to the astonishment of the family.
They always tell me I should be a speechwriter when it’s over.
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: There’s no length requirement. I say he should just Tweet the thing. And then we’d get to watch pundits try to spend three hours of air time trying to parse 140 characters…
dms
Ija
@Mnemosyne:
The National Journal one. Of course, it could be fake or something, but I doubt it. National Journal is usually bad at analyzing facts, but I don’t think they would make something up or put it up unless they are sure of its authenticity.
WereBear
I hope he’s just calling their bluff. Though there are frivolous lawsuits in that sometimes whatever happened was nobody’s fault, but someone has to pay for it, and “people” don’t have that kind of money.
And this is due to the screwups of not having health insurance; I’m willing to bet the “frivolous lawsuit” rate in places with actual health care is miniscule compared to ours.
But with the Conservative talent of getting cause and effect completely mixed up and targeting exactly the behavior sure to make things worse, I never expect them to realize it.
Mnemosyne
@Ija:
But “authentic” what? How old is this draft that they posted as being what Obama is going to say tonight?
It just smells like the Bowles & Simpson PowerPoint presentation to me — get your version out there first so you can undermine the real thing. Now we get to watch the media compare the two and wonder why he didn’t say X, Y or Z that the National Journal’s version said he would.
J.W. Hamner
@Mnemosyne:
I totally don’t mind if he sends out the report as a PDF via email… but no amount of technology makes the SOTU anything other than the dumbest and most over-hyped speech in all of American politics.
Ija
@Mnemosyne:
Maybe it is an old draft. I don’t know, it would actually be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison to see what is taken out. At least we can see the progression of their thinking. Maybe the motive for releasing an old draft is nefarious, but I don’t necessarily think there is absolutely no value in it for the rest of us.
Ija
The White House has released the full text of the speech.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/01/obamas-state-of-the-union-address-transcript/70205/
Ija
The two versions (National Journal and White House release) look identical to me. My guess is, someone did leak the actual speech to National Journal, other media companies whine and bitch about being left out, so the White House releases the speech early without embargo to shut them up.
rickstersherpa
Although it is getting little note in the blogs, Obama has shrewdly put something in the water that the donors to Senator McConnell and Speaker Boehner desperately want – a cut in the corporate tax rate. I am afraid that Rortybomb has correctly surmised that any legislation or project for the working and middle classes will have to be obtained with a bribe to our Galtian overlords, and for a varity of reasons, a cut in the corporate rate is regressive so it will mean more money for the Koch brothers and Pete Petersens of the world. And it is something that the can’t on getting after the next election cycle since Obama right now has at least an even chance of being reelected and his bargaining price might be higher (and the House could flip to the Democrats, and even if the Senate slips to the Republicans (as seems likely now just from the numbers) the Democrats as a minority will have a eep desire to make McConnell’s life hell as majority leader). So since pleasing the deep pockets is the sine qua non of McConnells and Boehner’s politics, I expect to see some grand compromises worked out, perhaps after a nice long Government shutdown that blows back on the Republicans.