A Purple Pleasing Speech?

While this video embed if via MSNBC, I watched the speech on ABC. During to opening chit-chat George Stephanopoulos noted First Lady Michelle Obama's purple dress, suggesting the wardrobe selection was no accident: the president was intent to appeal to the great middle of America (not the blue states nor the red states, but the mixed palette). While I found Obama to be actually quite partisan -- almost extremely so when he blamed the Bush administration for bequeathing him a crisis -- and thus the speech wasn't so "purplish" after all, the dude can f***king deliver an address when the pressure's on! If you get the chance, and I haven't scrolled forward at this video, be sure to look at the president just after signs off with the combative declaration that "I don't quit." ABC News ended their broadcast with a frozen image of the president face, with a clenched-jaw determination and an almost Clint Eastwood squint in his eyes. He's not going to back down, and frankly, as he didn't mention the Massachusetts election, I doubt the supposed reset everyone's been talking about is really going to reset much.

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I'm tired, so I'm not going to spend time right now trolling around for reactions. The text of the speech is at NYT via Memeorandum. My biggest takeaway policy-wise clearly is the president's discussion of the economy. I frankly want to check all his numbers on tax cuts and will look those up in the next couple of days. His claims to transparency in implementing the financial bailout are pure bull, and his call for posting congressional earmarks all together on one website for everyone to see, before a bill is passed, is essentially an a priori lie. Obama talks a good game, but he may have screwed up in asking for suggestions on healthcare. Mitch McConnell was all too happy to stand and applaud at that point, so look for possible gotcha moments on that down the road. (This administration is not known for soliciting outside opinions.) Also memeorable were some of the reactions in the audience of assembled congressional members, Supreme Court justices, and the Joint Chiefs. John McCain looked over to Lindsey Graham and said "blame Bush," Obama's "blaming Bush" for the economic crisis (and this is after the president swore off blaming others previously). Justice Samuel Alito rejected the president's comments that the ruling on campaign finance would "open the floodgates" to special interests. And the Joint Chiefs of Staff sat like cold stones while the president pledged to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" (almost twenty years later, and this seems like something from the first Clinton administration).

Also quite noticeable was the president's faux outrage at the nation's partisan temper. This administration failed at post-partisan transformation all by itself. Thank goodness the GOP's been as unified as it has. I'd expect no less in the face of the Democratic-socialist onslaught.

I should note too that while I can sit and listen to an Obama address, because he really is a talented communicator, up there with Reagan and Clinton, in my opinion, it's not fun at all to have Vice President Biden and Speaker Pelosi back there with their s***eating grins and hubristic nods all night. That was almost too much. Fortunately, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell gave an awesome speech hitting all the right notes. And the Jeffersonian touch -- stressing federalism and states rights -- was perhaps the most important volley of words launched all night. I'll have more on McDonnell's speech later. That man is presidential material, and I hope sooner rather than later.