He offers a heartfelt and generous concession and recognizes the historic nature of Barack Obama’s victory. By calling for support for the new President he once again puts country first. He looks tired and a bit glum as one might imagine after such an arduous journey. He had the great misfortune to be running at the moment in history that was simply not his.
The mention of Sarah Palin lifts the spirits of the crowd. She looks about ready to cry. He lets it be known that her career is far from over.
After all the criticism and venom of the campaign he leaves with a patriotic, high-minded and decent finish.
The Commissar told her what to write and like a dutiful apparchick she wrote it. What’s the big deal? sarc/off
Wow! That’s amazing! Jennifer Loven, who’s going to win the Kentucky Derby? And the World Series? What am I going to get for my birthday? Is my daughter’s baby going to be a girl or a boy? There’s so many questions I want to ask you!
Her real name?
very funny post, Abe.
Other stories already written in the MSM.
“Barack Obama saved the world, brought peace, and ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity. This was achieved with old socialist theories, failed around the world for at least 150 years, but yet, Obama managed to make them work. And, he did it all in his usual Reaganesque style”
gotta love the MSM and their candor.
Pushing what they would push anyway, crisis or no crisis: nationalized healthcare and alternative energy. Both are political projects that have nothing to do with improving the economy in the short or long term. Alternative energy is a dead end if it means biofuel or wind.
Getting out of the governments most legitimate function (defense) and getting into everything else. Raising taxes on the “rich”.
He inherited the mess, and a quick turnaround is unlikely. Not only did the recession emerge on Bush’s watch, the Bush approach wasn’t the right one.
Whiner. Reagan arguably inherited as big a mess and turned it into a 20 year expansion. We had lots of recessions but no really bad one after 1982. Bush inherited a mild recession plus 9/11. I can´t remember them spending time excoriating their predecessor. And how did Bush´s approach differ from Obama´s between September and February? Of course, as long as they can blame everything on Bush, they must hope the recession lasts a bit longer. The things you can get away with as long as people are scared…
Pre-scripted MSM “news coverage” has been going on for a while. Back in 1993 there was a gay rights march in Washington DC that – while it was going on – was being hailed by the MSM as proof that gays in America were now mainstream. Trouble was, the images of the march being televised resembled nothing so much as a freak show. It was embarrassing to watch, but highly revealing.
My personal belief is that the MSM already has most of their stories about the “Obama Era” already written; merely in need of having a few details filled in.
Agitprop Media: “Its Morning in Socialist America!”
There, I’ve saved you all the time of tuning in and reading your fave propagandist tomorrow.
Once you think about it, it is not surprising. They hand out the speech beforehand to ensure the stories are done in time after the show is over. If you read the story, they already had the GOP boilerplate:
Comments on Obama’s address came in early from Republicans, many hours before he had uttered a word.
Premature? Gee, they make it sound so dishonest.
So why bother with reading the speech at all? As far as I´m concerned they can skip that part.
Ah yes… time travel. Is is just a coincidence that in the movie ‘Back to the Future’ the Delorean had to generate 1.21 gigawatts to get safely to the future, and Obama’s bailout plan is costing about 1.21 trillion dollars to get us safely to his future?
I think Jennifer Loven not only has a surname that reveals how she feels about Obama, but her flux capacitor is more aptly named the fluff capacitor. When activated, it dispenses fluff.
I thought his speech was a little flat, but I did enjoy the candor. It’s not very often when a politician comes out and speaks with such honesty. For example, when he talked about how he really doesn’t understand the economy, and that he thought a “stimulus package” referred to instant coffee.
This is silly. The article does not claim to have been written after the speech was given. It’s written in an anticipatory way. For example:
“In contrast to many State of the Union addresses by George W. Bush, Obama was not expected to emphasize foreign policy. He planned to touch on his intention to chart new strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan and to forge a new image for the U.S. around the world even as he keeps up the fight against terrorism. ”
Even the opening sentence that Abe quotes, saying that Obama “aimed to balance candor with can-do,” is just an awkward way of saying that this is what he is hoping to do, not what he has already done.
Hey Jennifer Loven, what are Fridays Mega Millions numbers, thanks.
Steven, do you speak English?
“Standing before a nation on an economic precipice, President Barack Obama aimed to balance candor with can-do Tuesday night in his first address to a joint session of Congress. Millions more anxious Americans were tuning in on TV.
Obama was arguing that his still-unfolding economic revival plan has room for—even demands—a broader agenda including dramatic increases in health care coverage and wiser, “greener” fuel use. He was addressing an ebullient Democratic congressional majority and an embattled but reinvigorated GOP minority as well as worried viewers at home. ”
Pretty awkward, I agree.
We could have interactive speeches, where the advance text gets circulated (and spun, of course), and all readers can send back their additions and corrections, which are implemented in the text according to some kind of statistical model—before or after the speech is actually given. If this is done after the speech, all extant recordings of the speech adjust accordingly, automatically.
Steven did you read the article? If your post wasn’t a joke you are.
You all need to relax. This is the same sort of preview story AP has done for every State of the Union speech of my lifetime. There’s nothing unusual or biased about it–just a reporter trying to get a wee bit ahead of the story.
One funny bit of bias, though…
“Comments on Obama’s address came in early from Republicans, many hours before he had uttered a word.”
So it’s okay for the AP to do it, but not the GOP? Chortle…
Well, I found his address overlong and the president peckish.
Seriously, though, I can’t wait to get a gander at the First Lady’s gallery of “guests [that] are selected to serve as living symbols of the president’s goals.” I fully expect it to be a continuation of the parade of human misery that Obama put on exhibition during his campaign and especially at the convention. I have always appreciated that particular aspect of the SOTU (which I know technically this is not) because the people and their stories are generally heartwarming, uplifting and inspirational (there are, after all, so many American success stories). I fear tonight will not be more of the same, but I could always be wrong. Hope so.
Well, nothing really wrong with Loven jumping the gun. This is the type of copy that will also be written after he actually speaks tonight. The journalists who report on this stuff aren’t just in the tank for him – they’re also Americans, with real 401ks and 529s, and they’re scared too, like most of America is. Brace yourselves, those of us who are skeptical of his policies: his speech tonight will receive rave reviews and his poll #s will go higher.
For a while. But like CK McLeod said somewhere else today, there will (if our skepticism is well-founded) be a sobering morning after down the road somewhere. And if our skepticism isn’t well founded – then good, I’ll become a Democrat.
“He enters the chamber to lawmakers of both parties hanging into the aisle for a chance to shake his hand or exchange a word. The gallery is filled, including a special section hosted by first lady Michelle Obama in which guests are selected to serve as living symbols of the president’s goals. Cramming the floor are the leaders of the federal government: Supreme Court justices, all but one Cabinet member—held away in case disaster strikes—and nearly every member of Congress…..”
This is my favorite part of Jennifer Loven’s pre-reporting.
Sooo Maureen Dowd….
What a bunch of RETARDS these Dems are!
“In other news, President and Mrs. Lincoln attended ‘Our American Cousin’ last night, and loved every mirth-filled moment.” Great moments in pre-journalism, the writing style that gave “Stop the presses” all its existential punch.
Date line Roma, DCCIX AUC. Ides of March: Gaius of the Julians gave a keynote speech…
Obama gets another tongue bath from the media