Ezra Klein has a happy view of what tonight’s State of the Union speech “has done already“:
The president won’t give his annual State of the Union address until later tonight, but in an important way, the speech has already worked. For the past week or so, news report after news report has dutifully relayed the argument the president is planning to offer tonight: America needs to be competitive going forward, and to be competitive going forward, it needs to invest in things like infrastructure, R&D and education, not just reduce the deficit.
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And it’s…worked. The conversation has changed. We’ve stopped just talking about deficits and begun talking about investments…
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A political consultant once told me that the essence of a good message is that it has to turn the conversation over to something popular that you support and — even more crucially — that your opponents don’t support. A good speech full of high platitudes doesn’t do much for you in the long run, because so long as the other side agrees with your platitudes, voters have no reason to prefer you to them. A good speech that focuses the public’s attention on things that they and you support and the other party doesn’t is much more valuable, as it sets up a conversation in which voters can learn that they prefer your vision to the other guy’s.
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In some ways, the danger for Democrats was that Republicans would’ve let the call for investment pass without a peep, agreeing in general even as the House never moved any of the money. But they’re peeping plenty. It looks like we’re going to have an argument over investment in this country, not just over deficit reduction. Obama will get to present his case that economic leadership requires investing in infrastructure and education and research, as well as cutting the deficit, and Republicans will be able to make their argument that the strategy should be pretty much all cuts. And that’s exactly what the White House was hoping for.
4tehlulz
So is there a pool on who’s bringing a gun to the proceedings to make a point about our precious second amendment rights and remedies?
I take Allan West.
Alex S.
Yes, Ezra is very naive:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2011/01/evan_bayh_walks_through_the_re.html#comments
Zifnab
Wait, what media industry has Erza been tuned into? We’ve had the “You Lie!” Inauguration and the “Not True” SCOTUS heckler, both dominating the front page headlines after Obama gave a major televised address.
If everything seems cheerful and optimistic right now, it’s only because we’re sitting in the calm before the storm. I seriously doubt deficits or investments are going to be on the mind of Darrell Issa, once he gets that Impeachment Engine running at full steam.
dmsilev
And after the SOTU speech, CNN will air Michelle Bachman’s “Tea Party response” to such.
Yes, really.
dms
joe from Lowell
@Zifnab:
Actually, I saw people talking about this “investment” narrative on both Morning Joe and CNN this AM.
Face
Am I the only libtard, non-Obamamamot on this crapola blog that refuses to watch the SOTU wankfest? If I wanted to know what Obama will accomplish, I’d just take the reciprocol of whatever Kristol says.
Punchy
@4tehlulz: Adam West? Attached to his utility belt?
Ash Can
@Zifnab: I wonder what tonight’s “You lie!” moment will be. It could have interesting ramifications, too, with the mixed seating for the address. I can see John McCain standing up and calling Obama “boy,” Henry Waxman taking that opportunity to kick McCain’s chair out from under him as he’s sitting back down, and all hell breaking loose. Then, tomorrow morning, Obama will announce that he’s naming Arne Duncan his special advisor in charge of dealing with all the schoolkids and special ed students on Capitol Hill, and that Duncan’s first act in this capacity will be to put everyone in detention and phone their parents.
Oh, and FYWP, too.
Tsulagi
@dmsilev:
Go Crazy Eyes! Look forward to Wednesday when Bachman proposes repealing Obama’s SOTU speech.
Pooh
And a pony…
gbear
Trying to read this at work where only IE is available. The formatting is so completely screwed up I can’t read any of it. No amount of F5-ing will fix it. Why is BJ the only web site anywhere that is so screwed up?
BGinCHI
@Tsulagi: No, she’s for repealing the state of the union tout court.
TPM reporting, btw, that it’s the GOP that’s pissed CNN is airing Bachmann’s harrumph.
Ash Can
@dmsilev: I guess CNN recognizes comedy gold when it whacks ’em upside the head. Michele Bachmann following up Barack Obama? Now that’s entertainment.
matryoshka
The world is moving so fast that social media whippersnappers like Ezra have opinions about things that haven’t even happened yet.
Jeff Spender
I’m horribly disconnected from the media narratives in this country because I’ve largely done away with the media. I swear, the best decision I ever made was tossing television out to the curb.
Afterward, I was sick for a week as I went through withdrawal symptoms, but my mind cleared up and the propaganda and sheer idiocy have no hold over me anymore.
Life is so much better now.
cleek
@joe from Lowell:
NPR was talking about it today, too.
they had some “communications” expert (or whatever) talking about the way the GOP was trying to turn Obama’s “investment” talk into “spending”.
BGinCHI
@cleek: Whether Ezra is right in his prognostication here, it’s a very smart move to get the conversation on investing instead of de-contextualized “spending.”
It’s heavy lifting to get from “young bucks buying t-bones” to bridges, roads, education, and so on, but if Obama can get that shifted with this shitass media we have, then he will have accomplished something major.
jibeaux
@cleek:
I’ve got to get one of those jobs. Communications expert, that is.
Okay, I’d be technically terrible at it, because I’d be forever yelling at people to not get distracted by what anyone calls anything and to focus on the policy and the substance, then questioning why I was even here to talk about the words used and we should talk about what the investing or the spending was going to be used to DO. Which I think would make me bad at communications experting for several reasons.
geg6
@Ash Can:
I couldn’t agree more. I haven’t watched CNN in at least 10 years, but no way am I gonna miss ol’ Crazy Eyes.
catclub
@gbear: I bet there is a version of Lynx for windows.
It was 1996 technology on linux for text based web-browsing. Probably the precursor to wget.
Have you tried Gopher lately? Or have you kids gotten off my lawn yet, consarn it?
El Cid
OK. I guess I should take his word for it.
Because I keep hearing discussions about how to trim spending and from where and about the problems with the deficit and our huge national debt, etc.
catclub
@Jeff Spender: “…the propaganda and sheer idiocy have no hold over me anymore.”
Says someone being held pretty tightly by same at BJ.
Yes, of course, I am too, but I _admit it_ .
joe from Lowell
@geg6:
@dmsilev:
Have you guys seen Bachman’s latest?
“we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States.”
The Moar You Know
She’s like Palin with the speed brake turned off.
Can’t wait, the GOP butthurt about her getting a SOTU in addition to the one to be delivered by their handpicked puppet is already at Level Orange.
Svensker
@joe from Lowell:
She never fails to live up to her idiocy, does she? Can’t. Make. This. Shit. Up.
Edited for idiocy on my own self’s part.
Maude
@catclub:
She prolly can’t change browsers at work. There is a problem with IE and Stacy or someone will fix it when they have the time.
@BGinCHI:
One thing that is in Obama’s favor is that investors have a favorable view of him by 53%, up from 48% in November.
All the trashing by the Repubs, Issa in particular, could badly backfire.
The cut the fed budget meme hasn’t gotten traction.
geg6
@joe from Lowell:
Yep. She really has a future in comedy, if she’d ever get any self-awareness.
BGinCHI
Any truth to the rumor that Paul Ryan is going to be speaking with a Packers helmet and foam finger?
BGinCHI
@Maude: Good point. Let’s hope too that with Larry Summers gone it can only get better.
chopper
@Zifnab:
i’m trying to figure out who will be this year’s ‘crazy scene-stealing gooper’. not bachmann, i mean someone during the speech who does something stupid and takes the entire spotlight away from the president’s speech.
maybe issa will stand up and start rubbing his nipples? barton will stand up in the middle of the speech and loudly apologize to his mother? rand paul will stand up and start stripping paint from a piece of wood with his hair?
Maude
@BGinCHI:
Amen.
It seems that just us chickens around the country know that Obama is doing his best in this awful economy.
Perhaps people aren’t in the mood for fake outrage and endless hearings on trivial nothings against the president.
The Republicans are way behind the curve. They are playing games from the past.
chopper
@joe from Lowell:
yeah, that makes more sense.
geg6
@chopper:
Oh, please, please, please. THIS.
liberty60
@Face:
God I hope so.
You can go and thumbsuck in the corner.
Meanwhile, I have spent the last few months organizing a MoveOn chapter in my area, working on a midterm campaign for a state Assemblyman, getting elected as a delegate to the California Democratic convention, and last night I was elected to the county central committee, as a part of a slate of proudly Liberal activists, trying to turn our red county blue.
We have spent months arguing and cursing the administration for what we think is wrong (civil liberties and the wars) while cheering and working for what it does right (HRC and everything else).
And yes, we will be at a party tonight watching and cheering as Obama takes the stage.
The first part of winning is believing that you can.
El Cid
George Washington was fucking tired by the time he could stop fighting against slavery in 1865. And Thomas Jefferson had been at it so long he couldn’t even remember having written the Declaration of Independence.
Ash Can
@chopper: My money’s on one of the freshman GOP reps leaning over and farting loudly.
dmsilev
@joe from Lowell: Yeah, I read about that. Has anyone asked her whether she believes that Methuselah was one of the Founding Fathers?
dms
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@BGinCHI: Heh. Am I the only one who mentally switches his name to Ryan Paul, as in half-witted half-brother of full dimwit Rand?
BGinCHI
@Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people): I can’t get past the way he parts his hair. It just screams d-bag.
morzer
@liberty60:
Once you have won – what do you plan to do in specific policy terms?
chopper
@El Cid:
that’s what sally hemings said. giggity.
joe from Lowell
@chopper:
Remember when she grabbed onto George W. Bush after his speech and wouldn’t let go?
JITC
@cleek:
The problem is, given their track record, the Republicans just might be successful at turning “investing” into “spending” as the primary way of talking about this. I too heard that NPR story. I also heard the interview afterward with the Obama administration official who would directly and clearly answer the question “are you going to increase investments and at the same time cut deficits.” Her answer over and over was just “he knows he needs to get the fiscal house in order.” It was a non-answer that left open the accusation of fiscally irresponsible spending with no focus on the deficit.
If the Obama administration really does think investing in American jobs, infrastructure, innovation, etc. is more important than tackling the deficit then he, and his spokespeople, should just say so and say so forcefully, clearly and backed by facts. A strong economy, an employed populace, an innovative business environment will itself tackle the deficit. So let’s invest in it.
Why couldn’t the official say this? If Obama and Democrats can’t say this, the Republicans WILL be able to control the language and change “investment” into “spending.”
SteveinSC
@Zifnab:
Ezra’s got a fucking screw loose if he believes investments are on the repukes minds. I would put my bets on a repeat of Repukes 1 Obama/Dems 0 from game one as we enter Round Two. The objective of this game is a republican senate and a republican POTUS. So far the repukes are kicking ass, or haven’t Ezra and the other serioius pundits noticed? Why should the repukes quit while they are ahead?
NobodySpecial
@Face: STFU.
If you don’t like Obama, then his SOTU will give you all the ammunition you want in 2012 if he doesn’t get it done or fucks up. In the meantime, it’s his time to talk to the Congress and the people and make his case. If you can’t give him that, you’re no better than that Repubtard with his ‘YOU LIE’ bullshit.
Respect, do you get it?
quaint irene
Today, if you wanted to get any news, you had just a few choices. On our local stations it was football (the Jets still lost, sob-sob-sob) and the latest snow tsunami that’s slated to hit the northeast. On the national channels, (MSNBC, CNN and FIX) it’s the SOTU!!!!!!!!! And nothing else.
I just don’t get the breathless anticipation of the media. You’d think Obama was going to attempt a triple somersault over the podium, making Boehner weep in admiration.
goblue72
@SteveinSC: That’s been their goal since day one. They started the campaign to defeat President Obama and the Democrats before the ink was even dry on the President’s inaugural address. These are the same people with an overlapping culutral affinity with that segment of the U.S. population that believes in the myth of the Lost Cause, that no one should be offended by a Confederate flag flown over a state capitol, and that Robert E. Lee was a hero & a gentleman (rather than the traitor to the United States that he actually was.)
Or does the way they spit out the words “illegals” and “gays” in the same way segregationists used to spit our “ni**er” leave any doubt in some folks minds?
Splitting Image
General Sherman was a founder?
Joseph Nobles
@Splitting Image: Well, to be honest, Sherman got things back down to the foundation all ready for rebuilding.
Merkin
@dmsilev:
Obviously, if Obama used the bully pulpit, CNN wouldn’t air two Republican responses.
Mnemosyne
Oscar Leroy promised me that Obama is going to announce that he’s going to kill Social Security in tonight’s SOTU, so clearly all of this other speculation is totally bogus.
Merkin
@SteveinSC:
I don’t think Ezra thinks this is actually going to happen, rather Obama will get the chance to make the case for it, in hopes the public will follow suit and punish Republicans for obstructing.
It won’t happen because the only people who will be paying attention tonight are the people who want to throw shit at him, while the ones he’s talking to are going to be too busy sulking over his preempting of The Biggest Loser or NCIS: Los Angeles or whatever crap is usually on tonight to make people forget there are real problems in the world that need to be solved.
joe from Lowell
@SteveinSC:
WTF? Obama passed the largest legislative agenda of any president since Johnson, if not FDR, and is currently the most popular national political figure in America.
I’ll take some more of that ass kicking, please.
Merkin
@joe from Lowell:
and oddly enough, his part lost 63 seats, something unheard of since the 1940s.
joe from Lowell
@Joseph Nobles:
Would the person who created the General Sherman “Don’t Make Me Come Down There!” poster please re-post the link?
Nick
@Merkin: LMFAO. Thanks
SteveinSC
@joe from Lowell:
Damned by faint praise. Try again asshole.
piratedan
@chopper: I’d have my money on either Virginia Foxx indicating that a black man in the Presidency is a hate crime against America or Louie Gohmert feeling that investing his tax money in his fellow Americans goes against all his Rethug principals, which boils down to “me me me”.
joe from Lowell
@Merkin:
They had an unsustainably large majority. It they’d held 40 fewer red-district seats, they would have lost 23 seats.
Hey, you’re the one who set up an Obama vs. Republicans contest. I merely pointed out that he’s won that contest. If you don’t like where your argument leads, don’t make it.
Oddly enough, I don’t find myself wanting to swear at you at all. Gee, I wonder what that means in terms of who’s winning the argument?