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GOP "Split" on SOTU Response?
#592220
01/25/11 08:07 PM
01/25/11 08:07 PM
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 13,145 East Tennessee
ronnierocketAGO
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 13,145
East Tennessee
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Since I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, I think I need to.
After the U.S. President tonight gives the yearly Constitution-mandated State of the Union address, this is followed up by the televised "Response" speech given by the opposition party out of power from the White House.
This tradition started in 1966 when Republicans Senator Everett Dirksen and Congressman (and future President himself) Gerald Ford responded to LBJ's SOTU address, and this has continued yearly since then.
Except 2011 will be slightly different. Newly-inaugrated Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was choosen to give the GOP response to Obama's Address, but tonight fellow GOPer Congresswoman Michelle Bachman of Minnesota will give her own "Tea Party" response to the Address.
To say this is unprecedented would be an understatement. Imagine if when Dubya was President, asides from say Tim Kaine giving the Democratic response, you then had Bernie Sanders or Ted Kennedy on a seperate telecast give the "liberal" response. Talk about cutting the legs out from under your own party's message of unity and opposing.
Indeed the GOP leadership says that Bachman's response means nothing. Its so irrelevant, the GOP had to let everybody know very clearly that it doesn't matter. You don't issue press releases for non-problems.
This could mean a further sign of the strains within the GOP, a struggle for power and ideological direction between the Party Establishment and the much more right wing Tea Party grassroots insurgency. This will get uglier before it gets better, especially with the primaries next year.
Or this doesn't mean as much as it might, much more Bachman granstanding and ego-stroking. She reportedly was miffed when the majority House GOP refused to give her a serious leadership role within the party congressional caucus. She might be doing this to stick it the Boys' Club. She also is reportedly considering a run for the GOP Presidential nomination next year, and this "Tea Party Response" would get her more attention and feed her potential primary voting base.
Consider also that CNN is the only TV network that will air Bachman's response. Not even Fox News, who you would assume would also air this program, will televise it.
So what does everyone think? What does this mean?
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Re: GOP "Split" on SOTU Response?
[Re: ronnierocketAGO]
#592268
01/26/11 05:53 AM
01/26/11 05:53 AM
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 13,145 East Tennessee
ronnierocketAGO
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OP

Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 13,145
East Tennessee
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A tweet from the NYT Home page: President Obama: inspirational optimism. Rep Ryan: cautious optimism. Rep Bachmann: The sky is falling! The sky is falling! #Sorry I couldn't help but laugh. EDIT - An interesting graph speculating if that $500 billion "axing" proposed by the GOP tonight became reality: 
Last edited by ronnierocketAGO; 01/26/11 06:19 AM.
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Re: GOP "Split" on SOTU Response?
[Re: olivant]
#592381
01/26/11 07:23 PM
01/26/11 07:23 PM
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Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 592 Chicago Underworld
Frank_Nitti
"The Enforcer"
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"The Enforcer"
Underboss
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 592
Chicago Underworld
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What Ryan left out of both of those is "general welfare" which in both instances comes right after "common defense". I guess the word welfare (especially if it's general) is too strong a medicine for Republicans to swallow. You say that, but fact is, one could make the argument that had the President's speech last night been delivered by a Republican, the Left would be calling today for a rescue of the downtrodden and call to arms against their billionaire oppresors. That's because in the opinion of many, this President is now clearly a centrist, pro-business oriented fiscal conservative when compared to his stance just a couple of years ago when they were against proprietary trading on the desks of firms like Goldman Sachs, etc.
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Re: GOP "Split" on SOTU Response?
[Re: Frank_Nitti]
#592409
01/27/11 12:08 AM
01/27/11 12:08 AM
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Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 13,145 East Tennessee
ronnierocketAGO
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OP

Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 13,145
East Tennessee
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You say that, but fact is, one could make the argument that had the President's speech last night been delivered by a Republican, the Left would be calling today for a rescue of the downtrodden and call to arms against their billionaire oppresors.
That's because in the opinion of many, this President is now clearly a centrist, pro-business oriented fiscal conservative when compared to his stance just a couple of years ago when they were against proprietary trading on the desks of firms like Goldman Sachs, etc.
There is truth to this. People at Huffington were pissy, one in particular called it "the most pro-business SOTU ever given by a Democratic President." Knee-jerk, overblown liberal sentiment, but they are onto something. Certainly the political ramifications and reality of the mid-terms have forced Obama to fight in a triangulation strategy like Clinton, but that speech last night was inspired by/lifted from another President: Reagan. Read that speech. You think Obama previously would ever use that salmon anecdote, much less two years ago? No, but that was the sort of fodder Reagan regularly deployed. Before his election, some analysts considered Obama a possible transformative President who could alter the American political game like Reagan's Presidency did, two charismatic orators beloved (at times) by the base and absolutely despised by the ideological opposition. Jury is still out, but apparently Obama read a Reagan biography over the holidays and I think the influence was obvious at the SOTU. Of course his best "Reagan-esque" speech was at Tucson, which personally demolished the SOTU. It didn't just satisfy what people wanted, it changed the story and the media pretty much quit the "blame game" narrative regarding the assassination attempt shortly afterwards. Hell Appleonya liked it. I think that says enough.
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