Don’t know about you, but I was impressed with Webb’s response to Bush’s State of the Union address last night.
There have been other Democratic responses to other State of the Union speeches by Bush since he took office that maybe made as much sense, and were maybe as simple and direct, but none spoken with so much authority (and not just his referencing of his father’s service during the Cold War, and his own in Viet Nam, and his son’s right now in Iraq, though that sure added to his obvious confidence in dressing down the “president”).
The guy seemed more ‘presidential” than anyone has in many years, on either side of the aisle. I hope he lives up to the promise of that rebuttal. He may even be a last minute viable candidate in ’08, if the others fizzle out or cancel each other out.
Not that they’re not competent. Charles Gibson on ABC tried to paint Hilary into a corner last night in an interview with her after Bush’s speech and Webb’s rebuttal, but she not only didn’t let him, she counterattacked with an incredible command of the facts, without sounding completely wonky, in fact, she impressed me more than she ever has. Maybe that’s what she needs, confrontation from twits like Gibson, who never seem to confront Bush and Bushies like that (does anyone else miss Peter Jennings as much as I do?).
And Obama on CNN with Anderson appeared equally informed and articulate, but not quite as natural at it. He seemed to be second guessing his own answers in the split second before he answered or in the pauses and grammatical glitches between answers. He came across as serious and smart and with his heart in the right place, but a little too conscious of his words and image, like Kerry often did, that constant calculating of effect that comes across as just that.
Whereas Hilary, at least on ABC, came across as not giving a damn about anyone’s spin on the past six years of Bush Republican rule, she had the facts to disprove all that, and did satisfactorily, for me.
But Webb, in the end, was the most impressive. We’ll see where he goes from here.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I saw Hillary on MSNBC being interviewed by Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, and she was similarly impressive and credible. Saw Obama interviewed by the same two, and he was equally impressive - I did not get the same "Kerryesque" vibes you got.
But, you are right, Jim Webb was fabulous. I'll bet you that he actually wrote most of what he said. As you know he is an accomplished novelist, and a deep thinker regarding policy and the world in general. Not to mention the fact that he served as Secretary of the Navy in a Republican administration. Oh, and his whole family are bona fide Leathernecks.
When I compare all three of the above with Bush and any of the lackies who surround him, the differences are stunning. Which means: all three will be subjected to vicious, nihilistic, "swiftboating" from now until November 2008. Uh, let's see: Hilary is a lesbian, Obama smokes weed and has a white mistress, and Jim Webb has longstanding secret ties to Muslim extremists.
I know the State of the Union ends up as being all-talk-and-no-action but I was surprised that Bush was talking about health care, global warming and govt. controls regarding gasoline. Its almost like the guy is turning liberal.
At this point it seems like Webb would eat Obama up.
Actually, the swifboaters have already tried to tie Obama to Islamist terrorists, putting misinformation on the web that he is a practicing Muslim and supports Islamic terrorist organizations, etc.
As for Bush's concessions to perspectives he'd been denying until last night, like global warming, the s.o.b. (and I mean that literally) has always known how to save his own bacon, and usually at the expense of others, in this case all the supporters who deny global warming and had him to back them up, etc. But still, these viewpoint concessions mean nothing in terms of policy, as someone pointed out, he was gracious about Pelosi being the first woman speaker of the house, but made no mention of her extraordinary achievements in that role in the "first hundred hours" actually living up to her promises, unlike him
PS: Not to say it didn't feel like a significant victory to hear such leftest leanings coming out of his mouth. The question for his supporters is, however few remain, why follow a guy who's rhetoric seems to have done a one eighty on several topics, when you can get behind the folks who were already going in that direction long before bozo joined the parade. Although, that could be put more tactfully.
gore/webb in '08. let the right try and argue their patriotism and service. as far as jennings...his spirit can be found taking hold over at msnbc (thank god!). think he'd be having a glenlivet with olberman and matthews right about now.
Post a Comment