Like 30 million or so folks, I watched the President’s speech last night. I watched the NBC coverage at first because I wanted to hear the takes afterwards of their two White House correspondents and their chief foreign affairs reporter. I didn’t want to hear the first takes of the partisan talking heads on CNN – they are too predictable. After NBC’s coverage ended I switched to CNN.
I found it interesting that CNN – Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper – announced that their poll of State of the Union watchers found that 51% of the watchers found the President’s second-to-the-last State of the Union speech to be very positive. They mentioned that President George W. Bush’s second-to-the-last State of the Union speech in 2007 drew a 41% very positive rating from watchers.
Blitzer/Tapper went on to explain that watchers are usually skewed toward the political party who controls the White House meaning more Dems than normal were watching last night’s speech. Of course they didn’t have time to mention that more GOPers than normal must have been watching W’s 2007 speech that only drew a 41% very positive rating.
I am getting more and more convinced that on The President’s policies, CNN loses its objectivity in order to hold onto GOP viewers. That’s my take.
I am also thinking that the so-called State of the Union opposition party response is a waste of my time and yours. Last night the Commander-in-Chief spoke for over an hour on a number of pressing national security and domestic issues. The opposition spokesperson who has been a U.S. Senator for a couple of weeks or so addressed us for about ten minutes and let us know that she wore used plastic bread bags on her shoes on rainy days when she was a kid.
I guess that is why her team tweeted out her service-issued camo high heels an hour or so before she went on the air.
CNN tried to draw a comparison between the President’s speech and that of Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and that is when I started surfing the movie channels.
The opposition response by both political parties is nothing more than a showcase of their potential talent and rising stars and really has nothing to do with an opposition response. It is impossible to properly respond to an hour long or so address in ten minutes. It is getting silly and ridiculous. Let’s just do away with this very lame tradition. It really serves no purpose.
Back to last night’s poll numbers. A lot has been said lately about DC gridlock and changing how Washington works, err doesn’t work. The House Speaker and his GOP members probably handed the President some bonus poll points when they refused to give him some applause and just sat there looking like lost toads on issues like equal pay for women and child care tax breaks for middle class families. Nice job!
As of yesterday, name the ‘Stro on the current roster with the most career dingers?
Here is Burkablog’s take on yesterday’s doings in Austin:
What If They Held an Inauguration (And Nobody Came)? That is how I felt about the inauguration of Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. The crowds were modest, at best, on the south lawn of the Capitol for the actual swearing-in. During the parade down Congress Avenue that followed, I saw mostly empty sidewalks with only a few onlookers. Perhaps they were all at Zilker Park enjoying the afternoon instead? Or perhaps I should not have been surprised. After all, nobody voted in the election, so why should anyone expect people to attend the parade?
This is what happens in a one-party state when only a small group knows or cares about the candidates. In a way, it was reminiscent of the election that preceded it. Just as hardly anyone showed to vote in the election, today, hardly anyone showed to observe the festivities. And that’s the future of Texas politics: Candidates whom voters barely know, and insiders who excel at dominating the process. Texas politics is strictly an insiders’ game, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.
Brand new ‘Stro Colby Rasmus of course has 116 career dingers.
Are more team moves on the way?
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