Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

In my day, never was longer.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Tuesday Evening Open Thread

Tuesday Evening Open Thread

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In honor of Romney’s docu-dump (550 pages, more than a ream of paper) of just two years’ worth of tax returns, I give you Doghouse Riley:

… There’s no sacred text of Alexander Hamilton which consecrates what was done at Bain. There’s no shrine to unfettered rapine honored in every American household. What Bain did–what Willard Mitt Romney and his two hard-scrabbled Hahvahd degrees did–was take every advantage of a gamed system, a gamed system we can call, not for want of a better term but because there is no better term, the Reagan Revolution.
__
Faced with a troubled, stagnant economy which was in trouble, and had stagnated, largely because its multinational colossi did not want to be bothered adapting to a changing world–one in which energy wasn’t plentiful and cheap, one in which the United States did not stand as the only global player, one in which consumers had begun to take their rightful place in the endless merry-go-round of merchantilism–in other words, the world of the 21st century, the one we’re failing to adapt to today–unless their built-in advantages were preserved. So the Reagan administration, and the Western-Southern alliance in the Congress, defanged and dismantled the legislative safeguards which had for two generations somewhat leveled the playing field, and protected the vulnerable public from the worst of Boom and Bust. Which allowed the “visionaries” and “tenacious achievers” to bleed the system, to convert assets into cash. Meanwhile destroying the assets.
__
Fooled plenty of people. Made Reagan look like an Economic Miracle Worker, provided you didn’t look too closely or ask why he simultaneously had the worst jobs creation record of any post-war President. Until his successor inherited the snake oil inventory.
__
That’s what Romney did; his tireless efforts were designed to prove that any idiot with money can make more money, provided making more money is the only thing he cares about.

Apart from the State of the Union address — or, as the Media Village courtiers are pleased to call it, “President Obama’s inaugural campaign speech of 2012” — what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Bless their dedicated souls, the Guardian is liveblogging the State of the Union!

Reader Interactions

330Comments

  1. 1.

    Death Panel Truck

    Actual (not shorter) GOP response to the State of the Union address:

    “Obama’s a failure! Obama’s a failure! Obama’s a failure! Other than that…we got nothin’. Thank you, and good night.”

  2. 2.

    Veritas

    Shorter Doghouse Riley: WAAAH! WAAAH! WAHAAAAA! It’s NO FAIR some people are more successful and wealthier than me! WAAAAHHAAA! Daddy Government, DO SOMETHING! WA-HAAAAAAAH!

  4. 4.

    Mark S.

    If any good comes out of this, hopefully every new tax proposal will be subjected to the question, “What would Mitt Romney pay under such a system?” Because if that fucker is paying a lower percentage than someone making minimum wage, it is a flawed tax system.

  5. 5.

    lamh35

    so josh marshall made a gr8 point on twitter. that romney campaign thought by releasing the tax forms today that they’d get buried in the SOTU coverage but…not knowing POTUS would be discussing fair tax and equality, and the Buffett Rule…by releasing the taxes today, Romney just became the poster child for the Buffet Rule…

  6. 6.

    Stillwater

    his tireless efforts were designed to prove that any idiot with money can make more money, provided making more money is the only thing he cares about.

    I think that’s unfair. Romney isn’t an idiot.

    He’s a sociopath.

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    That’s what Romney did; his tireless efforts were designed to prove that any idiot with money can make more money, provided making more money is the only thing he cares about.

    You can substitute many names for “Romney” here. First one that came to mind for me is “Trump”.

    Note to Veritas/RealityCheck: Please inform us in advance of the type of upholstery you desire for your tumbrel.

  8. 8.

    Frankensteinbeck

    It has to be a campaign speech. To ‘journalists’, the idea that he might want to discuss policies and inspire the people to make this a better nation is incomprehensible. It simply cannot be so.

  9. 9.

    MikeJ

    @efgoldman:

    If what he says tonight isn’t charged throughout with the fierce urgency of That, then it will be the last wasted opportunity of his political life, too.

    Since he’s not going to call for the nationalization of the the entire banking, insurance, and health care industries he’s obviously just like bush and is throwing our veal pens under the bus.

  10. 10.

    Trentrunner

    If any one can supply the goddamned subject for that goddamned first sentence of that goddamned second paragraph, I’d be fucking obliged.

  18. 18.

    Svensker

    @Raven:

    Did someone have a root canal today?

    :)

    Be sure your dentist isn’t fixing things in there with paper clips…

    As the proud owner/recipient of many root canals, may I sympathize? But boy did I impress my newly acquired Vietnamese Torontonian dentist with all my gold crowns — with the price of gold these days, my teeth are my 401K.

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    In honor of Romney’s docu-dump (550 pages, more than a ream of paper) of just two years’ worth of tax returns

    People are rightly making a deal about Mitt’s tax returns.

    But Newt’s may be messier.

    After reviewing the 2010 federal tax return Gingrich released last week, the tax experts said he may have left himself open to an IRS challenge.
    __
    “That could be the type of return that would be flagged for an audit,” said one of the experts, Robert McKenzie, a tax attorney at the Arnstein & Lehr law firm in Chicago.

    Good times.

    On to the State of the Union. Warren Buffet’s secretary is sitting with the First Lady. Expect Obama to make a point over who’s paying their fair share and who is not.

    The widow of Steve Jobs has been invited as well. Nice touch.

    And if you haven’t done so yet, a prior poster noted the cool site dedicated to enhanced info about the State of the Union Address.

  20. 20.

    David Koch

    Poignant.

    Gabby Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, chatting with Steve Jobs’ widow in the gallery.

  24. 24.

    geg6

    David Koch @17:

    I have yet to see FLOTUS look anything other than stunning. I’d kill for her arms.

  26. 26.

    Benjamin Franklin

    @Veritas:

    Could anything he says be worse than the prevarication and hegemony of Bushs’
    2003 SOTU?

    I will never allow the bastards to forget they’re promotion of that travesty.

    GFY

  28. 28.

    MikeJ

    Oh how I wish CSPAN was in HD. I’d prefer to watch in HD but without the graphics and talking heads.

  29. 29.

    Cacti

    @JPL:

    By the way, the NYTimes dining section has Mormon recipes

    As one who sat through many years of Mormon potlucks. Wasatch Front “cuisine” is just awful.

  32. 32.

    jrg

    Spent some time today reading the CNN message boards. It’s amazing how many Republicans will defend people worth hundreds of millions of dollars that pay less as a percentage of income than middle-class families do.

    Even more amazing is that half those “conservatives” were accusing people of wanting a free lunch, or living off the government. How fucking stupid do you have to be to accuse someone paying a higher tax rate than Romney a welfare queen? It’s absolutely astounding.

  33. 33.

    scav

    @Cacti: 7th Day Adventist Hospital food level or worse? If worse, it’s a little worrying to know there are still depths that might be plumbed.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    Who is the first conservative to embarrass themselves. Maybe they will stand and say I will not use modern day technology. lol

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Raven: I am scared of dentists (even though I have not had a filling since I was 16 y/o) and clowns (b/c they are creepy).

  38. 38.

    Benjamin Franklin

    @Baud: ot?

    “To serve Mormon

    No man can serve two masters: Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. ~Jesus, Matt 6:24, Luke 16:13

  39. 39.

    geg6

    Raven @33:

    Man up, dude! You had a frickin’ root canal! That is nothing! Says the woman who’s had two gum surgeries and had to have her jaw broken in order to get her wisdom teeth out.

  40. 40.

    barath

    You know what would be awesome? If Obama announced Jimmy Carter as his new secretary of energy, and said he’d be a recess appointment.

  46. 46.

    liberal

    @Veritas:
    Shorter Veritas: I luvs it when people get rich making money from government-granted privileges while making no actual productive contribution to the economy.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    I’m busy boggling at the incompetence of the Indian bowling in Australia. Clarke has already reached a double century, and Ponting is just 2 runs away. India is setting itself up for its third innings loss in 4 tests, which is just crazy. This isn’t just a defeat, it’s a massacre.

  59. 59.

    Chyron HR

    @Veritas:

    The one-two knockout punch of IA-NH will give Romney the momentum needed to win SC! VICTORY!!

    So were you born stupid or just raised that way?

  60. 60.

    Cacti

    @lamh35:

    so rachel says that Mitch Daniels response is extremely partisan…color me not suprised

    Lemme guess…

    Blah blah blah Tax Cuts blah blah blah burdensome regulations blah blah blah job creators.

  68. 68.

    Veritas

    @Cacti

    Yup, I sure do. Gonna whine some more about that election, loser?

    Gore lost. Kerry lost. It was a real pleasure especially to watch John “F’ing” Kerry go down in flames. Boy, that was a thing of beauty!

  72. 72.

    JGabriel

    Holy shit. Republicans didn’t stand to applaud bin Laden’s death: I guess that makes them objectively pro-terrorist.

    .

  73. 73.

    JPL

    When my 32 old son was in third grade he admired a gal who was Mormon. She was in a tragic car accident and suffered severe burns and could not go to school for six months. The family had 11 children. The hospital released the little girl after six weeks if the mom could return her each day for treatment. The mom slept 4 hours a night. Where was the dad?
    He had to work and that wasn’t his responsibility. That’s what I know about Mormons. My son used to read her school work in the afternoon.

  75. 75.

    Roger Moore

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    How many cricket fans frequent this blog?

    I’m not sure. I don’t even know if I’d classify myself as a fan; I’m more in the cricket curious category. It might help if I could actually watch it on TV sometime instead of just checking the test scores on the BBC web site.

  76. 76.

    SIA

    I love BHO’s confidence and how it makes the wingers chew out their stomach linings. Osama mentioned in the first three minutes! Go Prez!

  77. 77.

    wobblybits

    @Raven: Met with my chair, who said it looked like a dissertation proposal by a history student and not a lit student so back to the drawing board I went and re-worked it. This is version 3.4

  80. 80.

    dmsilev

    I’m pretty sure the real John Boehner has been replaced with a mannequin that blinks occasionally. The mannequin would probably do a better job running the House.

  81. 81.

    Cacti

    @JGabriel:

    Holy shit. Republicans didn’t stand to applaud bin Laden’s death: I guess that makes them objectively pro-terrorist.

    Of course.

    Remember when they were openly rooting for Somali pirates?

  88. 88.

    Brian R.

    @SIA:

    Osama mentioned in the first three minutes! Go Prez!

    That should be part of every answer during the debates.

    “Well, Brian, your question about housing policy reminds me of when I decided to have our troops make a housecall on Osama Bin Laden. Knock, knock. You’re dead.”

  89. 89.

    JGabriel

    @Veritas:

    Obama bragging about following Bush’s Iraq strategy?

    If Obama was following Bush’s strategy, he’d have left the troops in Iraq with inadequate support until the next president came along.

    So, no, not so much.

    .

  90. 90.

    dmsilev

    Heh. Obama just called out Romney as a liar on “blame Obama for job losses due to Bush’s recession” thing

  92. 92.

    Montysano

    any idiot with money can make more money, provided making more money is the only thing he cares about.

    That’s some true stuff right there. The whole thing is excellent.

  94. 94.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Raven: I sympathize. I wish Balloon Juice had been around when I had full mouth extraction and five, count ’em, five surgeries for implants. I won’t mention the $75,000 it cost me out of pocket because my otherwise-wonderful health insurance didn’t pay a cent of it. Anyhow, ouch, and feel better soon.

  97. 97.

    Svensker

    @Raven:

    Yea, I’m a whiny little shit.

    Well, I don’t know about that. But there’s something about a fugging root canal that makes ya just want to climb back up into the womb and suck your thumb. Either that or lots of drugs and petting.

  104. 104.

    lamh35

    I see Scott Brown the only Repub to stand and clap…methinks he really wants to beat Liz Warren doesn’t he

  107. 107.

    robertdsc-PowerBook

    Never mention the deficit. Fuck that noise. Otherwise, keep kicking their ass, POTUS.

  110. 110.

    lamh35

    there goes Obama slicing Mittens with a samurai blade and didn’t even have to mention his name.

  111. 111.

    Raven

    @Svensker: It really wasn’t that bad. I’ve had some major shit in my life and this in pretty far down on the list. It sounds good though doesn’t it?

  112. 112.

    Veritas

    GM will have to be bailed out AGAIN in 20 years I’m sure. Just like Chrysler was bailed out already in the ’80s. It would have been better to let Chrysler die in 1980 rather than waste taxpayer money not once but TWICE.

  117. 117.

    dmsilev

    Did John Boehner just swallow a toad or something? I mean, I know he’s always orange, nut he’s not usually this dyspeptic.

  122. 122.

    Veritas

    Shorter TOTUS: “Our Five-Year Plan is exceeding all our expectations. More centralized planning! More taxes! More government! More regulation! More trade wars with foreign powers! MORE MORE MORE!”

    I half expect him to call for the collectivization of agriculture and the liquidation of the kulaks as a class.

  129. 129.

    Veritas

    I hate these stupid personal anecdotes. Was it Clinton that started that shit?

    “Granny McWrinkles is from Richmond, Virginia. She’s 85, and on a fixed income blah blah blah….zzzzz”

  132. 132.

    Raven

    @Veritas: Hey douche bag, here’s what your stupid fucking bullshit looks like through the pie filter:

    “Bye, bye. Miss American Pie.” That’s the saddest line I’ve ever heard.

  134. 134.

    dmsilev

    @Veritas: I’d worry if I were you. When the FEMA concentration camps come online, first theyll come for conservative Internet commenters.

  136. 136.

    Anne Laurie

    @Dexter: The official explanation, here in MA, is “ice hockey accident”.

    It’s been an abnormally warm winter here, but not so much that windsurfing is possible. And Kerry actually did play hockey in college, IIRC.

  147. 147.

    geg6

    Raven, I missed the GED stuff. You remember that I have an interest in that subject. Point me to a linky or explain. I’m interested.

    Meanwhile, work study shoutout! Woohoo!

  150. 150.

    Montysano

    I know that doesn’t really matter that the First Lady, besides being intelligent and accomplished, is also drop-dead gorgeous, but it surely doesn’t hurt.

  153. 153.

    wobblybits

    Ha! Did you see that smirk from Pappy McCain when the President dare mention congress sending him a bill to create a path for students to earn their citizenship?

  154. 154.

    wobblybits

    Ha! Did you see that smirk from Pappy McCain when the President dare mention congress sending him a bill to create a path for students to earn their citizenship? Dream Act ho!

  156. 156.

    Svensker

    Did y’all realize that TOTUS indicates “teleprompter of the U.S.”? Isn’t that just the cleverest thing? Cuz that Obambi guy is just dumb, ya know.

  157. 157.

    General Stuck

    Was wondering if Obama was going to go for immigration reform, rather than not with the complicated politics of that issue. Was glad he mentioned it, and hope dems take the risk of pushing for comp reform before the election. I think it’s a winner, overall.

  160. 160.

    AA+ Bonds

    If you’re wondering what else the money behind Newt Gingrich is doing, it’s this (NY Times link):

    In Police Training, a Dark Film on U.S. Muslims

    Ominous music plays as images appear on the screen: Muslim terrorists shoot Christians in the head, car bombs explode, executed children lie covered by sheets and a doctored photograph shows an Islamic flag flying over the White House.
    __
    “This is the true agenda of much of Islam in America,” a narrator intones. “A strategy to infiltrate and dominate America. … This is the war you don’t know about.”
    __
    This is the feature-length film titled “The Third Jihad,” paid for by a nonprofit group, which was shown to more than a thousand officers as part of training in the New York Police Department.

    Sheldon Adelson, people. I told y’all: crazy fuckin billionaires

  162. 162.

    lamh35

    ooh, looks like Sully’s not enjoying the SOTU. That means it’s must be hitting the right points then.

  163. 163.

    KDUN

    Any predictions on which “columnist” will do the predictable annual “I, me” count on the speech?

    …and no fair calling the Gateway Dumbshit. Hoft only does one every year to prove that he can, in fact, count.

  166. 166.

    Raven

    @geg6: My dissertation was a qual study of GED grads. Why they quit, why they went back and what they made of the process of preparing. I got mine way back in 1967 when it was mostly a reading test but it was an honor to work with the folks in my study.

  171. 171.

    Ogliberal

    Sully is having a huge hurt over Obama’s populism…translated as making the GOP look like heartless idiots. Translated as telling it like it is.

  173. 173.

    fleeting expletive

    I’m liking this SOTU. “I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy”— oooh, ending oil industry subsidies!

    Judas E, indeed it is.

  174. 174.

    Veritas

    Great clean energy companies like Solyndra! Oh, wait…

    I’m for American energy, that’s why I trashed the Keystone pipeline and will make Canada export oil to China instead!

    Obambi is a fucking fraud.

  175. 175.

    dmsilev

    Heh. “end oil company tax breaks”, and all the Republicans just sit there stone-faced. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

  176. 176.

    Trentrunner

    Uh-oh. Sully’s falling out of love with Obama.

    Get ready for Dish for Ron Paul, bitches!

  179. 179.

    JPL

    In the last State of the Union he focused more on Elementary education and had students sitting with Michele. It’s a nit and maybe a little nit but since the repub candidates haven’t spent two percent of their debates on education, I wish more time was spent on Elementary Education.

  180. 180.

    Judas Escargot

    @freelancer:

    You and I are not a “normal” audience.

    This is the kind of talk that could get a Republican father-in-law to vote for him.

  183. 183.

    General Stuck

    @freelancer: It’s a Norman Rockwell speech. Maybe that is the best tact at this particular point in time. Boring may be a good contrast with batshit crazzzzzy gooper POTUS candidates shredding each other round the clock

  187. 187.

    JPL

    @Veritas: Where’s your stamp and envelope. If you don’t like modern technology then don’t use it. The last thing you want to be is a hypocrite, right…hahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahha

  190. 190.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Veritas: Wait till they start pointing out all of the wasted money the government spent on your education.

  191. 191.

    Keith G

    @lamh35: Actually his reaction is mixed – some good stuff and some not so good stuff.

    But that’s the way most SOTUs go.

  192. 192.

    Veritas

    Financial fraud?? One of the biggest frauds of the past four years was Solyndra, and that was on the taxpayer dime you incompetent shit. God I can’t wait until January, 2013.

  194. 194.

    geg6

    Aaaaack! Lieberman closeup!

    Love my preznit tonight. Even the stuff I don’t like is not the worst thing I could imagine. Love this “I won’t go back” stuff.

  201. 201.

    lamh35

    @Keith G:

    “9.48 pm. This speech is beginning to make Bill Clintons’ look like clear and visionary. But people loved Clinton’s long laundry list of micro-policies. I think this is the worst SOTU Obama has given. But maybe it will work. It sure seems like it has been put through a software program to pander to various industries.”

    It’s mostly dislike.

  204. 204.

    Ben Cisco (mobile)

    Damn, he is taking it to them. Pivoted from killing silly rules about milk spills to enforcing new ones to prevent future bailouts, and introduced Cordray to boot! BRING IT!

  211. 211.

    freelancer

    @General Stuck:

    No it makes sense. With the other side stuck between a doughy secessionist and a craven robot who, right now, is probably asking his aides, “Well Jeez, can we just PAY them to like me? Y’know, like cut everyone a $50 check?”

  213. 213.

    Elie

    @Judas Escargot:

    This is the vow, the recap of what is important. That you can’t hear that is, well, disappointing. You hear what you value and since you don’t hear it, makes me wonder what you value… if the delivery is the main point for you, then you will sleep through a lot of important things in this life… most of which is quiet ..

    I find him vigorous, energetic and renewing what he staked himself to 3 short years ago. If that doesnt energize you, then …

  214. 214.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Cantor looks like Severus Snape right after a trip to the barber. I wish they’d stop showing him. My tv is in danger of being smashed.

  216. 216.

    MazeDancer

    Build, Baby, Build!!!

    love the constant references to “Public investment”

    That Government can’t create jobs stuff not gonna work for 9 months. Especially if their candidate is a guy who destroyed so many jobs.

  222. 222.

    JordanRules

    Wait, why do we get a ‘dedicated’ thread for the 50-11 clown car races and not the SOTU?

    I think there’s some great stuff in this one, for those willing to listen.

    Ahhh, the Buffet v. Secretary tax line. Nice.

  225. 225.

    lamh35

    @Keith G:

    “9.52 pm. A big idea… Pure populism. Pure redistributionism. But the speech has lacked any big sustaining argument about the inequality and unfairness that has marked the last few years. And so all of this sounds like a series of shameless panders that someone has to pay for.”

    It’s mostly just negative. Interspersed with some random positivity…dude is def falling out of love

  227. 227.

    WyldPirate

    Interesting tautology Obama made re: putting higher ed “on notice” about holding down costs. Costs are going up for two main reasons:-1) decreasing funding by state governments that shifts more costs to students and 2) bloated bureaucracies of assistant to the assistant VP of masturbatory affairs and the like.

    If the trends in #1 and #2 continue, costs will continue to rise. His threat will further ratchet up costs.

  233. 233.

    Cacti

    @MazeDancer:

    That Government can’t create jobs stuff not gonna work for 9 months

    Someone should tell Raytheon, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin that the government doesn’t create jobs.

  234. 234.

    lamh35

    Obama: “When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it’s not because they envy the rich”

    Another rapier cut.

  237. 237.

    Birthmarker

    A bit of googling revealed that actually the government never gave Chrysler a penny. The govt guaranteed traditional loans. The loans were fully repaid in 1983.

  241. 241.

    freelancer

    @Keith G:

    Agreed, it’s picking up. But Sully is going to take his ball and go home, it seems. I’m guessing the old Tory was hoping he’d re-embrace Bowles Simpson or the Ryan plan, not go centrist by using the government to do things that are popular with most people, aka petty populism.

  245. 245.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Basically, a lot of this has been, “Congress, do your freaking job.” Also, “I am sane and grown-up.” Nice two pronged thrust.

  246. 246.

    fleeting expletive

    NANCY SMASH in the house! And Hillary, who looks a little tired, but that very long blonde flip is working for her. My hair is that long, but much more gray and I am almost her age. I wonder if it would work for me. I don’t wonder enough to dye it again, gave that up quite a few years ago.

  247. 247.

    Kyle

    @Veritas:

    I hate these stupid personal anecdotes. Was it Clinton that started that shit?

    That was Reagan, the king of cheap, transparently-manipulative sentimentality that goobers like you ate up with a spoon.

  248. 248.

    Keith G

    @lamh35: The finish of that point was the bulls eye:

    …that shortfall will either be added to the deficit of be made up by others with less money*

    A battle cry that needs to be repeated every week.

    *paraphrase

  249. 249.

    Anne Laurie

    @JordanRules:

    Wait, why do we get a ‘dedicated’ thread for the 50-11 clown car races and not the SOTU?

    FYWP has got the slows for me, too. Couldn’t get a new post up until you guys were well into the commentary!

  252. 252.

    jl

    @scav:

    I wonder who is the winner (or loser, depending on your viewpoint) here of their drinking game tonight.

    OK, people, do not use everclear or other dangerously high proof spirits for these drinking games. You’ll put your eye out, kid

  256. 256.

    wobblybits

    @FlipYrWhig: It’s cultural studies 20th century (looking at the silencing and later (re) construction of collective national memory with regards to a brazilian national lit written in german during the time of nationalization)

  258. 258.

    Judas Escargot

    @Elie:

    Perhaps I’ve been too vague: I agree that this is an energizing speech. But we live in an age where cynicism passes for sophistication.

    There are words here that might get through.

  259. 259.

    dadanarchist

    I have to echo everyone else: Sully is rolling out some Class-A Butthurt right now because Obama is actually laying out a liberal agenda.

    It’s hilarious/glorious to watch.

  264. 264.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Omnes Omnibus: He also misses the part where Bush was the one who guaranteed the loan in the first place.

    But that’s ok, I’m pretty sure Veritas’s biggest accomplishment in life is blowing his wad after typing something here he thought was witty.

  266. 266.

    lamh35

    @JPL: when he’s on his game, it is like shooting fish from a barrel

    He’s been pretty fiesty since the beginning.

    RAchel said Mitch Daniels response was “partisan and pugnacious”…I wonder if they anticipated how fiery POTUS might be/

  268. 268.

    Chris

    @Kyle:

    That was Reagan, the king of cheap, transparently-manipulative sentimentality that goobers like you ate up with a spoon.

    “I heard this story about this black woman from this white judge in Chicago, therefore welfare queens driving Cadillacs are the source of all our nation’s woes.” Yeah, that was Reagan, all right.

  271. 271.

    jl

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I wasn’t referring to you necessary. But, if your absinthe starts tasting like mint tea, you’ve had way too much.

    You damn kids get off my lawn, I’m trying to listen to the President.

  276. 276.

    wobblybits

    I refuse to watch the republican reponse. what’s the point? It will just be: obstruction, obstruction with a few soshulist, kommunist, alinsky, and he-is-not-like-us thrown in for good measure

  278. 278.

    Elie

    @robertdsc-PowerBook:

    Abso-fucking-lutely… flat as shit..

    the repugs look like stupid stumps sitting there — unable to admit that Obama is speakin truth… they KNOW he is but are not mensch enough to stand for our country — together…

    Whateveer some of y’all are gonna pick apart about what is or isnt to your liking tonight… your choice is clear and you cannot say that this man — this LEADER is not speaking the truth and to the heart of what we say we value. All the rest falls aways as bullshit.

    That’s all

  280. 280.

    dadanarchist

    @DCLaw1: @dadanarchist: “His accurately describing GOP intransigence is so out of tune with those promises he personally made to me about bipartisanship!”

    I can hear Sully’s bipartisan boner wilting all the way down here in Tennessee.

  281. 281.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Dudes who killed OBL might have been Republicans, might have been Democrats. In the Situation Room I sat next to Bob Gates, Dubya’s SecDef, and Hillary Clinton, my rival for 2008 Dem nom.

    Wow.

  282. 282.

    garbo

    @dadanarchist: Best part…A recent poll of Sully’s readership showed that they are mostly Liberals. So he’s preaching to a choir that is lapping this speech up. Poor Sully. He’ll get beat up by his readers and then come around.

  286. 286.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Let’s see. More ideas in about seventy-five minutes than zero in eleventy GOP debates.

  288. 288.

    Scamp Dog

    @Trentrunner: I think I found the subject. If you delete huge amounts of the first sentence to get this:

    largely because its multinational colossi did not want to be bothered adapting to a changing world … unless their built-in advantages were preserved …

    and combine with the nominal second sentence, minus its first word (So):

    the Reagan administration … defanged and dismantled (etc)..

    …then the subject would be the Reagan Administration.

    Doghouse Riley could use an editor. Just like most of us bloggers and commenters, come to think of it.

  289. 289.

    General Stuck

    Now its Mitch Daniels to tell us we are owned by Citibank, and should be grateful. Especially those heathen labor unions.

  291. 291.

    Southern Beale

    Howard Kurtz, on Twitter:

    Going on one hour. Would it be unsportsmanlike to suggest that this guy could use an editor?

    Correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t he a member of the political press? Isn’t this … his job?

  292. 292.

    middlewest

    Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

    He is ready to destroy Mitt. He’s already tasting the blood in his mouth.

  294. 294.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @jl: Absinthe tastes nothing like mint tea.

    As to the Pres., I think it was well done. He went for sane and sensible with liberal underpinnings.

  296. 296.

    JPL

    Peggy Noonan said a speech about everything is a speech about nothing. Gotta say Peggy there is medicine for your condition and under the Obama health plan you also, too can afford medical care.

  298. 298.

    geg6

    Took it to them where it hurts, pugnatious, mostly liberal, policy wonk heaven.

    I liked it. Sully hated it. Which is good enough to me. Who is this on MSNBC talking about overseas corporate income? If it’s a juicebox mafia member, I’ll forgive his next libertarian bullshit post/op-ed just for that.

  299. 299.

    Angela

    Sully must be mad that he was reprimanded by the WH for printing something that was embargoed.

    I loved the ending, we are all Americans perhaps a few people in one party could start to remember that.

  300. 300.

    fleeting expletive

    Why doesn’t Sully just go back to Jolly Old E? Who f’ing needs him over here? I never read his shit because I don’t care for the dude. Remember when he scratched his ass/pulled his knickers from out his butt after being on Bill Maher’s show?

    Also, that chamber must have a lot of exits, it emptied rather quickly.

  302. 302.

    dmsilev

    As I said an hour or so ago, David Brooks really needs to be slapped in the face with a large wet fish.

  308. 308.

    middlewest

    I’m trying to remember why old Bell Curve Sully’s opinion matters, and for the life of me, I can’t.

  311. 311.

    jl

    I did not have the guts to read, or listen to, Romney’s prebuttal.

    So, not sure whether Obama keyed more off of Romney tax return release, or the prebuttal.

  315. 315.

    Benjamin Franklin

    He went for sane and sensible with liberal underpinnings.

    Why do we place such import on words. No, rhetoric.?

  316. 316.

    clayton

    Listening to the old white guys on CBS after the speech and that they focus on the taxes tells me why I don’t give much weight to their analysis.

    It’s always about their taxes. Always about their money. It never changes.

  320. 320.

    Montysano

    Did Daniels really talk about unemployment in terms of “men of prime working age”? Did he just come through a wormhole from the ’50s?

  322. 322.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Keith G: Yeah, well, as has been said before, the bully pulpit is a tool. Sometimes it is the right tool for the job; sometimes it isn’t. It works better during campaign season than it does during policy debates.

  323. 323.

    Montysano

    @Montysano:

    Did Daniels really talk about unemployment in terms of “men of prime working age”? Did he just come through a wormhole from the ‘50s?

    And “freeborn”? What is this, 1875?

  324. 324.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Villago Delenda Est: You really are a bit of a late 18th century guy at heart, aren’t you?

    Also too, Daniels is a charisma vacuum. You feel the personality being sucked right out of the poor camera man as we watched. It was horrible.

  325. 325.

    Keith G

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    the bully pulpit is a tool. Sometimes it is the right tool for the job; sometimes it isn’t. It works better during campaign season than it does during policy debates.

    Progress.

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Sully made a few on target observations, but they got buried by a whiny affectation that seemed to have the character of a scorned lover. Sometimes he can live up to the worst stereotypes.

  326. 326.

    dww44

    @JordanRules: I agree. I thought the speech was very effective. Full of stuff to chew on. Replete with specifics and positive and upbeat and determined. He covered most if not all the bases he needed to to slap down all those GOP charges about not being pro America. Started off with his Grandfather fighting with Patton. He goes a little far, IMO, with how great America is, but I darn well know why he does it. Humility in the face of all that lying and misleading from the right is no virtue.

  327. 327.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Keith G:
    Alright, we’ll do this again. And again, and again.

    The ‘bully pulpit’ is laughed at, because people like you kept coming forward and saying that Obama could make a speech to the nation and thus move congress. No, that does not work.

    Obama DOES give great speeches about liberal values. I’m glad you listened to this one. They can be very moving, as you see. It’s a shame the media does not report very many of them, but thankfully they can’t miss a SOTU, and now it’s campaign season.

  328. 328.

    General Stuck

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    You see. Entitled white progressives cannot fathom that Obama can succeed unless they listen to them on what he should do. And is thoroughly lost on them, that the are intellectual pipsqueeks compared to the black guy that got his self elected president OF THIS country.

  329. 329.

    Cacti

    @General Stuck:

    You see. Entitled white progressives cannot fathom that Obama can succeed unless they listen to them on what he should do. And is thoroughly lost on them, that the are intellectual pipsqueeks compared to the black guy that got his self elected president OF THIS country.

    They’re the other side of the coin that insists on seeing Obama’s transcripts, birth certificate, student loan records, etc., because it’s just un-possible that a Knee-grow could win the WHITE house without cheating somehow.

  330. 330.

    Jebediah

    @Cacti:

    They’re the other side of the coin that insists on seeing Obama’s transcripts, birth certificate, student loan records, etc., because it’s just un-possible that a Knee-grow could win the WHITE house without cheating somehow.

    You’re right, sadly – and I really thought that the US of A would be closer to over that shit by now. Is it going to take another 150 years?

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