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The Spectacle Blog
In my view, last night was the first time in a while that the official Republican response to the State of the Union matched up well against a Democratic president’s speech. Paul Ryan was respectful, measured but appropriately critical and fact-filled. And somehow he managed to strike a tone that was mildly less partisan than the unofficial Tea Party response delivered by Michelle Bachmann. Ryan’s response also underscored the fact that Obama’s newfound spending restraint is mostly content-free.
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More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/01/26/obama-vs-ryan
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Pete| 1.26.11 @ 9:43AM
Content free? What am I, ethnically challenged? You meant to say "full of lies." Be like Ryan, don't sugarcoat.
Ellios Wyatt| 1.26.11 @ 9:44AM
I concur. I thought Obama would deliver an inspirational speech but it fell flat and sounded contrived. He clearly is still out of touch with the American people and his call for massive spending at a time we should be cutting spending drastically seemed bizarre at best. Ryan spoke like he was speaking to adults and was more polished than I thought he would be.
Wayne | 1.26.11 @ 1:00PM
Every speech I have witnessed of Obama has been flat and sounded contrived. This is the first time the pundits seem to agree.
Ken (Old Texican)| 1.26.11 @ 10:08AM
Ryan is always impressive. His measured remarks made Obama look like a duffer on the PGA tour.
Warrior | 1.26.11 @ 11:09AM
Who promoted Michelle Bachman as speaker for the Tea Party? Allowing her to hijack the perceptual leadership of a decentralized organization will only diminish the Tea Party in the long run.
Ryan's response was adequate in the context of the political theater last night was. What difference does it really make when you are responding to a president who has avoided the truth with his every word and action.
PCC| 1.26.11 @ 8:34PM
Warrior is correct. Of course the Tea Party should avoid internecine battles, but it is not in the movement's interest to let Ms. Bachman appropriate the role of chief spokesman for herself.
jersey mark| 1.26.11 @ 1:26PM
Lots of nice sounding words until you sit back and think about them - like the 5 year freeze except he said it would save only 40 billion a year against a 1.4 trillion budget deficit and it freezes in the ridiculous spending increases that occurred over the last two years. After the tax rate extension and his rally in Arizona, I thought he would come out and really nail this speech to solidify his return to positive approval numbers, but instead, it was simply more of the same from his first two years. WE WILL NOT GET OUT FROM UNDER OUR UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM UNTIL OBAMACARE, THE FINANCIAL REFORM AND THE EPA REGULATION OF CO2 ARE PUT TO REST.
martin j smith| 1.26.11 @ 3:40PM
The more leaders who speak up the better.Let the debate begin and let it be open and --here is a strange idea--honest.
JP| 1.26.11 @ 3:48PM
It didn't matter what Ryan's response was, as most viewers were channel surfing 10 minutes into the STOFU. Personally, I was watching QVC after 5 minutes of Obama's gabfest.
S&WM;&P| 1.26.11 @ 4:36PM
Paul Ryan confirmed to the rest of the U.S. what we here in WI have always known about him. He's bright, and he has a plan--B.O. get out of his way or follow his lead!
Stefanie| 1.27.11 @ 1:26PM
The speech may have been out of touch with Republicans, but it seems to have hit home with Independents and Democrats.
"Two polls measured immediate reactions to President Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night. A CNN/Opinion Research poll found 84 percent of speech-watchers reacted positively to his message, 52 percent very positively. A CBS News poll found 91 percent of watchers approve of the proposals the president made.
These overwhelmingly positive reactions must be understood in the context of those who watched the speech. The CNN sample of speech-watchers was composed of 39 percent Democrats, 19 percent Republicans and 42 percent independents. The CBS poll had a similar profile; 44 percent Democrats, 25 percent Republicans and the 31 percent independents. Among all Americans in the last CBS/New York Times poll, 34 percent identified as Democrats, 27 percent Republican and 39 percent independent. " WaPo