President Obama’s Address to Congress
Well, like most other Americans, I also tuned into President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress and was struck by three things:
1) He is unparalleled in his rhetorical ability
2) He actually lied on at least 3 or 4 different occasions but people don’t seem to care because it’s Obama. Here’s a big one “I’m proud to pass a stimulus bill with no earmarks”…what?!
3) His speech was like a campaign speech: high on rhetoric, low on substance. People love to hear all the nice things he’s saying but don’t seem to notice the real inconsistencies between what he’s promising and what he’ll actually be able to do and how he would have to do them (like…by raising taxes…a LOT)
I thought this Economist article was illuminating on the topic
A theme that permeated the speech was rapidly rising national debt, following the budget-busting $787 billion stimulus that Mr Obama just signed. “Everyone in this chamber—Democrats and Republicans—will have to sacrifice some worthy priorities for which there are no dollars. And that includes me,” Mr Obama said. But he has yet to say what he is prepared to sacrifice. He still plans to expand publicly financed health care, make permanent tax credits to the majority of workers, expand college assistance and invest in alternative energy.
I thought Governor Jindal‘s response started off slow but picked up steam towards the end. I was reading along in the pre-released text and it definitely read better than it sounded. But I think this is the fundamental difference between Obama and Jindal. Obama is unmatched in his ease with the teleprompter, but is quite lost without it. Jindal is not very comfortable reading a speech, but he can talk with great ease about policy because he actually is brilliant when it comes to policy.
This interview on the “Today Show” should make that point abundantly clear:
