Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The willow is too close to the house.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Let there be snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Events / State of the Union Open Thread

State of the Union Open Thread

by | 212 Comments

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Official White House.gov link here.

Guardian stream & liveblogging here.
*******
From the Guardian: Obama breaks from the script after a litany of cheerful economic statistics to remark, “this is good news, people.” The crowd laughs.
*****
The President: “We need affordable, high-quality child care more than ever.”

Forget the chamber — I think we could all here the applause from people’s living rooms.
******
Wild applause & loud cheers for raising the minimum wage… and especially for making Congresscritters who refuse to vote for raising the minimum wage try to live on “less than $15,000 a year”.


***********
“Give me a free hand to negotiate trade deals” not getting nearly as much applause as earlier proposals. Sunshine’s a great disinfectant, President Obama! — the only ones in favor of fast-track secret deals are corporations and their enablers.
***********
Bipartisan applause for “reserving the right” to “take out terrorists without reserve.” So there’s that, at least.
**********
Commentor CCKids points out, per TPM, tonight’s “Designated Survivor” is Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx:

Because I just find it funny, just in case there’s some Tom Clancy “catastrophic event” tonight, our new President will be . . . another black guy!! Too perfect. You can just see the wingnuts cheering, then looking up to see: Anthony Foxx. “Dammit!!”

***********
At least the front couple rows of Repubs stood up to applaud for “It’s time to close Gitmo.” Good news!
*****
“I have no more campaigns to run… “ Mild applause… “I know it, because I won both of ’em.” Audience: OOOOOOOOO!!!

Even his fiercest critic would agree that the President deserved that one zinger.

Reader Interactions

212Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    So how many “responses” will there be, and will there be anything to distinguish between them?

  2. 2.

    Elizabelle

    I would just love it if Joni Ernst’s response had pigs squealing in the background.

    It’s how I always picture her. Scary woman.

  4. 4.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @efgoldman: I’m tempted, so I can understand some of snarkier live-tweets, but… meh. I got a meal to cook and some good music playing.

  5. 5.

    janeform

    Cokie Roberts: This speech is about 2016.

    No, it’s about what we should do in 2015 to improve peoples’ lives, dumbass.

    Edited.

  6. 6.

    Southern Beale

    I think last I hear there are two: the Official Response (Joni Ernst), and a Tea Party response (Rep.Curt Clawson).

    Got me thinking, if there’s ever a Republican in the White House (God forbid) and there’s more than one liberal response, you KNOW the Republicans are going to scream and squawk and complain like stuck pigs.

  7. 7.

    Southern Beale

    I really do think a big part of the conservatives’ wretched behavior these past 8 years has been all about them refusing to allow Barack Obama to have any kind of legacy. First black president, that’s all he gets. He can’t be credited with anything else, like saving the economy. They just refuse.

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    @janeform: It’s both really. The big stuff (e.g. the tax proposal) won’t go anywhere in this Congress, but it helps shape the ground over which the 2016 election will be fought.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    @Southern Beale: Don’t forget the Republican Latino response, which will be (and I swear I’m not making this up) a Hispanic Representative giving a literal Spanish translation of Ernst’s speech. Outreach!

  21. 21.

    Anne Laurie

    @Southern Beale:

    I think last I hear there are two: the Official Response (Joni Ernst), and a Tea Party response (Rep.Curt Clawson).

    There’s a brand-new Latino Congressman gonna give the GOP rebuttal in Spanish — but it’s just a Spanish translation of Ernst’s speech, because the GOP doesn’t trust the guy on his own, apparently.

    And Rand Fox is “covering” the speech for Fox News, which is probably gonna get more GOP views than the official response.

  22. 22.

    dmsilev

    They really shouldn’t have a giant flag right behind John Boehner; his late-stage orangeism has proceeded to the point where he’s starting to blend in with the stripes.

  32. 32.

    dmsilev

    Obama: “All those predictions of doom from the GOP? Wrong, wrong, wrong”

    Boehner looks like he just swallowed a toad.

  33. 33.

    jl

    @Southern Beale:

    ” the conservatives’ wretched behavior these past 8 years ”

    Probably won’t be as much, or any, overt disrespect this year. McConnell said the Congressional GOP is serious people. Have to try to act like mature adults. Whether some of the loons can maintain in the post speech interviews (which I will avoid like the plague) is another question.

  35. 35.

    Helen

    Yeah this is the neener neener speech. Awesome. When he said “This is good news, people” and everyone laughed it took all of Boehner’s strength not to laugh too.

  37. 37.

    cckids

    @Corner Stone: I love how both R’s & D’s are pretty much approving of everything, while Independents are the most disagreeable on all counts. What else is new??

  38. 38.

    TheMightyTrowel

    I’m watching the white house feed and it cuts boehner off just below the nose. the weird mouth pursing he’s doing makes him look like one of those tank cleaning fish people keep.

  40. 40.

    cckids

    @Helen:

    Yeah this is the neener neener speech. Awesome.

    Yep. “We need to aspire to more than just trying not to screw things up”. YES.

    Of course, the R’s don’t like that.

  42. 42.

    mdblanche

    @jl:

    McConnell said the Congressional GOP is serious people

    And McConnell is an honourable man.
    So are they all, all honourable men.

  43. 43.

    Davis X. Machina

    Did he call on us to expropriate the expropriators yet?
    (I was making a cup of tea…)

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @cckids:

    Yep. “We need to aspire to more than just trying not to screw things up”. YES.

    Of course, the R’s don’t like that.

    Given that they’ve devoted the last few decades to screwing stuff up, it’s easy to see why.

  51. 51.

    tazj

    @cckids: Of course, they know more than us partisans.

    A tax credit for each child? But Eric Cantor said he wouldn’t do that.

  52. 52.

    MomSense

    Universal child care, paid sick and maternity leave, guaranteed overtime, equal pay for women–oh the Republicans are maaaaad. Steam is practically coming out of Agent Orange’s ears.

  53. 53.

    dmsilev

    So, this speech is basically one long upraised middle finger at the Republicans and conservatives in general. Fun.

    (and yes, I know it won’t make any real difference in terms of what legislation lurches out of Congress)

  56. 56.

    cckids

    @Corner Stone:

    I had to change to CBS. That shit was driving me nanners.

    I shifted to just listening for the most part. Watching Boehner’s face is pretty funny, as is seeing all the Repubs sitting on their asses every time Pres. Obama states some idea that will help the lower/middle classes. If every Democratic consultant isn’t making notes for killer ads for next year, they are fools.

  57. 57.

    lamh36

    @JackiSchechner 27s28 seconds ago
    GOP not applauding pd sick leave, equal pay for equal work, min wage increase.. quite the visual of old white people scowling instead

  58. 58.

    JPL

    Am I wrong, but I think “Hemingway” or the pirate or what ever he is called did good on this speech.

  59. 59.

    cckids

    @Roger Moore:

    Given that they’ve devoted the last few decades to screwing stuff up, it’s easy to see why.

    Yes, keeping things f*cked seems to have been their main priority since 2008.

  61. 61.

    jl

    Here comes the free college!

    Rubio was on some talky this Sunday and he called US higher education a ‘failed system’. First I ever heard that line.
    The GOP is so threadbare, they just spew insults.

    I was giving this speech I would still be ranting about Rubio’s BS, with a lot more slides than the WH is showing. Next hour, I might have time to cover other topics.

  62. 62.

    Mike in NC

    Funny how people seated on the left half of the chamber are animated and applauding, while the folks to their right are scowling and look too constipated to move a muscle.

  63. 63.

    Corner Stone

    @jl:

    Rubio was on some talky this Sunday and he called the US higher education a ‘failed system’.

    “Higher education” ??
    What was he talking about?

  65. 65.

    cckids

    From Sully’s live feed: “A reader notes that Boehner’s face is darker than Obama’s”.

  67. 67.

    Southern Beale

    We were watching the SOTU on MSNBC but they have this stupid poll thingie running at the bottom that was so distracting to I just switched to network TV, but they aren’t doing a lot of crowd shots. I haven’t seen Turtle McConnell. Is he there?

  69. 69.

    jl

    I like the slides with data and facts and stuff. Probably skeer the pundits into a rage, since they might as well be in Old Gothic as far as they are concerned.

    Interesting to see if the slide stop the fact-checker rackets from BSing too much.

  71. 71.

    Davis X. Machina

    @jl:

    Rubio was on some talky this Sunday and he called US higher education a ‘failed system’. First I ever heard that line.

    Parts of it are sort-of-non-profit. So it’s a failure.

  73. 73.

    jl

    @cckids:

    “A reader notes that Boehner’s face is darker than Obama’s”.

    But Obama’s face does not have that warm fluorescent glow.

  74. 74.

    lamh36

    @hardball 24s25 seconds ago
    Pres @BarackObama: “So let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline….let’s get it done.” #SOTU #BingSOTU

  75. 75.

    Violet

    @lamh36: That’s exactly what I’m seeing. Old white people scowling at everything that sounds good and helpful for the majority of Americans.

  78. 78.

    cckids

    @jl:

    But Obama’s face does not have that warm fluorescent glow.

    Boehner looks like he grew up out here in NV as one of the “downwinders”, eating nothing but Kraft Mac & Cheese.

  80. 80.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Violet: They’re going to die some day. Some day soonish. They know it. And they’re pissed about it. The rest of us suffering helps somehow.

  83. 83.

    Elie

    I have the teevee on in the next room and am listening to it but blogging here with you fine folks.

    I am tired of this scene — of having good, decent leadership and meaningful discussion of issues be turned to a forum for immature and/or sick people to actually make things worse or make them not work. I have no idea why these sickos get to keep doing this. I just cannot fully accept that this is what Americans really want… I have no idea how to break down the wall.. no idea why they don’t want the same things, but there it is…

  84. 84.

    MomSense

    @Violet:

    It’s almost like the madder the old white people look, the more tickled the President gets. He has a wicked, mischievous look tonight.

  85. 85.

    Mike in NC

    @Violet: Old white people like having their Medicare and Social Security benefits.

    God forbid Big Gummint tries to mess with that stuff.

  86. 86.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Elie:

    I just cannot fully accept that this is what Americans really want…

    Just shy of a majority of Americans who actually turn up at the polls in non-Presidential years really want this. The rest of us, not so much…

  87. 87.

    jl

    @Corner Stone:

    ‘ “Higher education” ??
    What was he talking about? ‘

    Rubio had to bash Obama’s free community college proposal, so that was his line. Jackass. Rubio sat there and lied. He said Obama was not paying attention to practical stuff like technical education and retraining, but pursuing an old ’20 century’ policy of churning out a bunch o’ then dayam academic egghead AA degrees.

    Actually, too much emphasis on AA degrees has been a weakness of the Obama community college policy, but Obama specifically said that was not the main purpose of the proposal, technical education and adult retraining was just as important.

    Ol’ Schieff, US corporate media reporter hack, just sat there and let Rubio spout endlessly, what he does whenever a GOPer is on his show.

  88. 88.

    MomSense

    @Elie:

    I am tired of this scene — of having good, decent leadership and meaningful discussion of issues be turned to a forum for immature and/or sick people to actually make things worse or make them not work. I have no idea why these sickos get to keep doing this. I just cannot fully accept that this is what Americans really want… I have no idea how to break down the wall.. no idea why they don’t want the same things, but there it is…

    I feel the same way.

  89. 89.

    Suzanne

    Dude. This speech is making me, uh…..well, I may need a cigarette here shortly.

    I love watching Republicans be sourpusses.

  90. 90.

    mai naem

    Orrin Hatch looks mad about the taxes on rich folks. I guess he trying to save money for his pal Mittens and the inheritance of Tagg, Lagg, Ragg, Bick and Tick.

  91. 91.

    cckids

    Because I just find it funny, just in case there’s some Tom Clancy “catastrophic event” tonight, our new President will be . . . .

    another black guy!! Too perfect. You can just see the wingnuts cheering, then looking up to see: Anthony Foxx. “Dammit!!”

  93. 93.

    Botsplainer

    Watching the Fox feed. Saw Orrin Hatch look like he squeezed out a dookie when Barry Obummer talked about bipartisanship.

  95. 95.

    muddy

    @jl: Bobo was against them today, it was pointless to give free tuition when these poor people had all these other problems that were not being addressed so they would suck at school anyway.

  96. 96.

    Mike in NC

    Talking about killing terrorists finally gets the fucking Republicans to get off their fat asses. Hoping for a declaration of war against Iran?

  103. 103.

    cckids

    I love the joint dig at Russia/Putin & the Repubs who loved him sooooo much last summer.

    Jackasses, all of them.

  104. 104.

    Iowa Old Lady

    The subtext seems to be “I’m still president and you’re not, so suck it up.” I like that.

  110. 110.

    Suzanne

    The thought of Obama’s great big ,black, throbbing veto pen makes them feel all conflicted inside.

  113. 113.

    jl

    @Corner Stone: The Obama discipline equanimity on display.

    Me, I would still be going down my list of Congresscritters I was calling out by name, and dressing down, some in good humor and some not. But that is why I would suck in politics

    “Hey, Mitch, I read in the paper you are stopping the latest nutcase GOP House plot to steal the Social Security money. I guess you are telling the truth, you will be Serious People this session. Ha ha ha!!! I’m sure you’ll want me to tell the country about that garbage. So, anyway, the latest BS plot the GOP hatched to steal your social security money was a real laugher, let me tell you…”

  116. 116.

    Schlemazel

    @cckids: If every Democratic consultant isn’t making notes for killer ads for next year, they are fools.

    Do I even need to say the next sentence?

  117. 117.

    mai naem

    I don’t know what the big deal about community college is. I haven’t taken a community college class in several years and I decided to take a special interest one a couple of years ago just for myself. I was a little shocked when I went to pay for it because it was around $350. i was expecting it to be $120-$180. I know several people who go to community college strictly because it’s cheaper than university and you can for the most part knock out your first two years of university at community college.

  118. 118.

    Violet

    Don’t think Biden has been as much fun to watch during this SOTU as he has in previous years.

  120. 120.

    jl

    @muddy: They wouldn’t be like Brooks, a brilliant student, or might have been if he had not decided to kick back and just use the educational credentials to get an easy career ticket punched halfway through.

    What a contemptible hypocrite.

  124. 124.

    mdblanche

    Why didn’t the cranky white and/or orange guys applaud the mention of the Pentagon and climate change? Why don’t they support the troops? Do they hate America?

  129. 129.

    Helen

    The “agree’ “disagree” at the bottom of MSNBC’s screen is fascinating. The Republican “agree” has been in the high 80’s, low 90’s. I went to Fox and they don’t have one, but they always do. I wanted to see what Fox viewers were saying. Did they take it down?

  133. 133.

    JPL

    oh my goodness… Climate Change and Gitmo.. Boehner might need two bottles in that office of his.

  134. 134.

    jl

    I wonder how all the facts and figure slides will go over. Accused of being superior? Unfair? Divisive?

    Anyone else see them, or probably this is a WH video stream thing?

    But, I can hear it now: “Fact and figures slides, worse than the Gore Sigh, or much worse, or worstest worst misfire in political history?”

  137. 137.

    dedc79

    You can tell a lot about the problems our country is facing just by seeing some of the lines Republicans don’t feel any need to applaud

  140. 140.

    Mike in NC

    Republicans in every state are still talking about a crazy amendment to the U.S. Constitution to make marriage only something between a man and a woman. A very 18th century viewpoint.

  144. 144.

    Anne Laurie

    @jl:

    But, I can hear it now: “Fact and figures slides, worse than the Gore Sigh, or much worse, or worstest worst misfire in political history?”

    The slides & graphs were up last year, too, so it’s a little late to object to their existence. The content, however, is bound to be Twitchy-picked endlessly.

  150. 150.

    Anne Laurie

    @Corner Stone: To be honest, I’d probably fall asleep if I were sitting in that room with my hands folded.

    We haven’t had to put up a second liveblogging post yet, so yeah I guess this qualifies as a “tame” SotU. From all their hard work in advance, I suspect the White House would say Tame Is Good!

  151. 151.

    Elizabelle

    @Corner Stone:

    Basic decency …. escapes those in charge of Congress this session.

    This has been a terrific speech.

    It’s heartbreaking to think of the opposition its action items face.

  153. 153.

    TR

    @Southern Beale:

    We were watching the SOTU on MSNBC but they have this stupid poll thingie running at the bottom that was so distracting to I just switched to network TV

    Same here. God, that was annoying. Nice move, MSNBC.

  159. 159.

    TR

    @MomSense:

    It’s almost like the madder the old white people look, the more tickled the President gets. He has a wicked, mischievous look tonight.

    The little wink and “hey, that’s a good thing!” he shot at the GOP when he was discussing the economic news was amazing.

  160. 160.

    Zinsky

    I gotta hand it to Obama – he is an eternal optimist. I think it’s naive and foolish, given the ignorant nihilists on the other side of the aisle – but the man is an eternal optimist.

  168. 168.

    dmsilev

    “I have no more campaigns to run….

    …because I won both of them”

    Somewhere, Mitt Romney sheds a single tear and then orders the staff to press the down button on the car elevator.

  171. 171.

    Helen

    @Elie:

    I am tired of this scene — of having good, decent leadership and meaningful discussion of issues be turned to a forum for immature and/or sick people to actually make things worse or make them not work. I have no idea why these sickos get to keep doing this. I just cannot fully accept that this is what Americans really want… I have no idea how to break down the wall.. no idea why they don’t want the same things, but there it is…

    Yeah but you know what? I talk here all the time about leaving America. Obama at his best – this speech – makes me want to stay. Imagine if all our leaders were like him?

    And yup – he just told them “Yeah I won both of ’em”

    Jeebus I love him.

  173. 173.

    cckids

    LOVE the comeback by the President “I don’t have another campaign to run”. Republicans sarcastically applaud & cheer, so PBO says “I know, because I won both of them”.

    BOOM

    They just CANNOT stop being dicks.

    ETA: Jesus, you people are fast.

  179. 179.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @TR: That’s just what I thought of, the old fool is probably choking on his own bile reflux right now

  182. 182.

    Zinsky

    A stunning speech, but the cynicism on the right can’t be wilted by words alone. They are the damned – you have to pound a stake through their heart to be through with them…

  183. 183.

    Mnemosyne (iPad Mini)

    @MomSense:

    I listened to a chunk of it in the car on my way home and was unable to stop myself from saying, “Oooh, BURN!” at one point. So it’s coming across even without pictures that he’s really enjoying a chance to tweak them to their faces.

  185. 185.

    lamh36

    The GOP thought they were gonna be cute and applaude at the line about him not running again…and then he dropped THE BOOM!

  186. 186.

    Elizabelle

    Got C-Span on now. Had NBC on for a while, but when Brian Williams threw it to Chuck Todd, who said that Obama has one more SOTU after this one, but who’s going to listen to next year’s because ….

    click by my friend the remote

  188. 188.

    slag

    Pleased that whitehouse.gov is continuing with a post-SOTU chat rather than abandoning the floor to Republicans altogether.

  191. 191.

    Elizabelle

    Not looking forward to the Official GOP response.

    Joni Ernst has enough hair and teeth to be a Kennedy, but the black ugly heart of Antonin Scalia.

  193. 193.

    Elizabelle

    @mdblanche:

    Just checked the advance text. “I know because I won both of them” wasn’t in it.

    Love it.

    PBO knew what was sitting out in the audience.

  194. 194.

    Anne Laurie

    New thread up top, if you want to keep discussing, or make fun of the myriad GOP responses, or whatever.

  198. 198.

    Hal

    @mai naem: One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was not going to community college after I became a CA resident when I moved to San Francisco way back in 1996. I kept putting it off for another years (for many years). Back in 1997, tuition was something like 12 dollars a credit. Books cost more than the tuition.

  200. 200.

    slag

    Dan Pfeiffer on whitehouse.gov: “Americans actually getting a pay cut every year,” due to cost of living increases. Yup.

  202. 202.

    ira-NY

    Good speech. I think tone is the most important thing in SOU addresses. His tone was near perfect.

  204. 204.

    Elizabelle

    Woman calling in on C-Span Republican line just said she didn’t like GOP not applauding for equal pay.

    Host: And you’re a Republican, right?

  206. 206.

    Elie

    He is just as smooth, honest and special as ever. I doubt we will see his like again in my remaining lifetime. That is partially why they hate him so…

    But as was said upstring, pretty words don’t change things by themselves. They do, however, inspire. Who knows what events will be inspired by words either tonight or all the many many times this leader has worked to bring this nation along. I believe in that magic. I think it actually did help him get things done in my opinion….

  208. 208.

    mai naem

    This is the woman who replaced Tom Harkin? Her cadence is horrible. There’s this whine/hum under her voice. Really really annoying.

  212. 212.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    @mai naem:

    A little late, but CC is significantly cheaper. My kid will be starting nursing school in the fall. $5k per year v $12k at the public university (MN)

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