Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Your Morning News: 1.29.08
Posted by Josh in Barack Obama, Democrats, Economy, Election 2008, Iraq, President Bush, Senate, Senator Kennedy, State of the Union
The papers this morning all lead with coverage of the President’s State of the Union address. As advertised, the President focused on jobs and the war in Iraq. He also announced plans for modest new spending proposals on education and economic stimulus. The speech was notable for its lack of ambition. The President, rather than announcing bold new policy initiatives and spending his last year planning his place in history, spent the speech rehashing the events of his Presidency. Rather than go in an experimental direction (Peace in our time) or return to the sound that made the band famous (Axis of Evil), the President just cashed in and went with a Greatest Hits. The upcoming year will see the White House focus on tying up loose ends. You know — make the President’s tax cuts permanent, paint the deck, finally get around to reading that Iraq Study Group report that has been lying on the nightstand for months now — that kind of thing.
After the State of the Union, the Democrats chose to highlight alternative energy by having their rebuttal delivered by an ethanol-fueled robot. The robot urged bipartisanship (which is silly, because robots don’t know how to love). If anyone asks you about it, say that the Democrats in Congress will probably agree to most of Bush’s modest agenda, both sides will call it a win, and everything that is really difficult or contentious will get put off until next year. Bipartisanship!
If you were looking for, say, hope and inspiration from your Government, you had to turn to the other major speech from yesterday. Senator Ted Kennedy endorsed Senator Barack Obama at a rousing speech at American University. After Bill Clinton, Sen. Kennedy is considered the most highly ranked Democrat in the country. The Senator made not-so-veiled comparisons between his brothers and Sen. Obama along with no-so-veiled criticisms of Senator Cinton. If it comes up, speculate on how criticisms of Sen. Obama’s lack of experience will stand up now that he has been endorsed by one of the most experienced politicians in the country.
Lest you think that Doonesbury is the only reality in which we still have troops in Iraq, five soldiers were killed in an ambush in Mosul yesterday.
The Senate is going to offer its own version of the economic stimulus package tomorrow. This made everyone really mad because the House leadership and the White House already had a compromise and then the Senate had to be all dumb and “exercise their Constitutional rights” or whatever. Bunch of jerks.