SOTU 2011 - Quick Hits

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President Barack Obama has renewed his vow to start withdrawing US troops from Afghan

President Barack Obama has renewed his vow to start withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan in July.

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Former political speech-writer Joshua Greenman concluded in his New York Daily News column that Obama's speech did the job:

Obama was optimistic, as we expect our presidents to be even in troubled times. He was bipartisan, continuing the clear swing to the centre that began after the midterm elections. And he weaved in enough specifics to give Americans hungry for hope something to latch on to - investments in roads, schools and scientific research. These investments may not deliver jobs next week, next month or maybe even next year. But they'll create fresh confidence that the economy is headed in the right direction, which most Americans doubt.
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Gerald Seib, writing in the Wall Street Journal, wonders about Obama's decision to hark back to the Cold War space race:

The differences between now and the Sputnik era are significant... The government had ample resources then, and sags under deficits now. Trust in government was high then, but has plummeted since. Perhaps more important, for many Americans the economic future takes a back seat to lingering fears of the economic present. Many of them are likely to judge the president, as well as his Republican counterparts, above all on how many jobs they can create here and now.
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Jack White, writing for The Root, concluded that, "The president fell back on his old habit of speaking from his head instead of his heart":

John Boehner did not cry.

Though President Barack Obama twice seemed to attempt to provoke a flood of tears from the notoriously weepy new speaker of the House of Representatives, Boehner remained dry-eyed throughout last night's State of the Union address.

Last night we saw the old Obama: the aloof, professorial intellectual who speaks from the head instead of the heart. He seemed like a completely different kind of political leader from the inspiring orator who only a few days ago captured the nation's shock and sorrow in his uplifting sermon in the wake of the slaughter in Tucson, Ariz.

That was the Obama who could have accomplished the goal the president set out for himself last night: to rally the nation in an all-out effort to win the future by encouraging innovation in education, science and industry.

The speech Obama delivered last night didn't come close to achieving that objective. It was flat. The closest it came to providing a ringing rhetorical flourish that the audience could cling to once the speech was over was Obama's proclamation, "This is our generation's Sputnik moment." Not exactly a call to action on the order of, say, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Last night, he seemed to have lost that balance. He didn't even make Boehner cry. And more important, he did not make Americans cheer. The best thing about the speech was that, a few days from now, no one will remember it at all.


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[Upgrade Dave]

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Jack White, writing for The Root, concluded that, "The president fell back on his old habit of speaking from his head instead of his heart":

John Boehner did not cry.

Though President Barack Obama twice seemed to attempt to provoke a flood of tears from the notoriously weepy new speaker of the House of Representatives, Boehner remained dry-eyed throughout last night's State of the Union address.

Last night we saw the old Obama: the aloof, professorial intellectual who speaks from the head instead of the heart. He seemed like a completely different kind of political leader from the inspiring orator who only a few days ago captured the nation's shock and sorrow in his uplifting sermon in the wake of the slaughter in Tucson, Ariz.

That was the Obama who could have accomplished the goal the president set out for himself last night: to rally the nation in an all-out effort to win the future by encouraging innovation in education, science and industry.

The speech Obama delivered last night didn't come close to achieving that objective. It was flat. The closest it came to providing a ringing rhetorical flourish that the audience could cling to once the speech was over was Obama's proclamation, "This is our generation's Sputnik moment." Not exactly a call to action on the order of, say, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

Last night, he seemed to have lost that balance. He didn't even make Boehner cry. And more important, he did not make Americans cheer. The best thing about the speech was that, a few days from now, no one will remember it at all.


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So whether Boehner cries is now the new metric for good speeches? Okay.