State of the Union

[_MeDotOrg]

Subjective reactions, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. Trump reads a little too slowly off a teleprompter. His cadence gets a little monotonous. He tries to counteract this by using a lot of inflection, but it comes across as an actor who's reading a script for the first time at a read-through. The Sotto-voce delivery was noticeably different from the casually animated Trump at a political rally.

2. Someone said the speech was aimed at the demographic area between 39% approval and 50% approval. Sounds about right.

3. The Democrats response came across as being almost like an off-Broadway play venue, with the car with the hood open in the background, looking like a set not to subtly designed to elicit a positive blue collar appeal. And I think it was a bad choice to send out yet another Kennedy. He wasn't a bad speaker, but he sure as hell wasn't Mario Cuomo. And sending out another Kennedy just reinforces the idea that the Democrats have no new ideas. The main thrust of the response, that many 'either/or' narratives constructed are false choices, was a good theme. I think it could have been better presented.

4. It seemed like Trump had more props in the way of valor attaboys for average Americans than I can remember for previous Presidents. More than once it felt like he was trying to hitch his star to their wagon.

5. There was a line about Cabinet Secretaries which gave me pause, when Trump said that Cabinet Secretaries should be given far more leeway to fire "remove employees who undermine the public trust". This is the same man who asks the acting FBI director who he voted for. Part of my brain cannot reject the idea that this is a way for Trump to exert political loyalty control over all his departments.

6. Good new, everyone! The Russian threat is not worth mentioning. Glad to hear we have that all under control.

[_Xenophon]

Good thoughts, MeDotOrg. I tend not to worry too much about the SOTU as it is over-hyped no matter who the President is and in more recent times it has been less and less of an indicator for what policies actually get passed. That said, I think you hit one really important point:

5. There was a line about Cabinet Secretaries which gave me pause, when Trump said that Cabinet Secretaries should be given far more leeway to fire "remove employees who undermine the public trust". This is the same man who asks the acting FBI director who he voted for. Part of my brain cannot reject the idea that this is a way for Trump to exert political loyalty control over all his departments.

I would hope that this is the kind of policy that we would never actually see enacted, I would also expect it to be struck down in the courts if it did happen to make it through. What a troubling thought, for both sides really, the idea that the President could effectively remove anyone from the IRS, DoJ or countless other agencies for basically any reason they wanted.

[_Bach]

Here’s what NBC news discovered about the SOTU speech - 75% approval!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/viewers-ap ... news-poll/

(maybe their editorial board was taken over by Fox News for the evening, eh?)

[_Doctor Steuss]

4. It seemed like Trump had more props in the way of valor attaboys for average Americans than I can remember for previous Presidents. More than once it felt like he was trying to hitch his star to their wagon.

I'm sure you already know this, but for other young whippersnappers like me who may not...

I recently (i.e. yesterday) found out that there's a term for those guests/shout-outs. It's "Skutniks" -- named after the very first one, Lenny Skutnik.

[_moksha]

Did you know there was a State of the Union Address last night? I was surprised his staff let him try it. However, they acquiesced with the insistence that Trump read the speech written for him on the teleprompter and not go off on some wild incoherent rant.

I think Fox News has hailed that speech as the greatest ever given by a U.S. President, even surpassing the Gettysburg Address and delivered by the most handsome, most capable, and best-loved President ever. Upon hearing this praise the other networks were sorry they missed it because they were busy covering Trump.

The chief architect for the speech demonizing the immigrants and providing a love moment for Fox News was Mormon Rob Porter, who was Sen. Orrin Hatch’s chief of staff and is now the White House staff secretary. Elder Porter discussing the goals he was trying to weave in a speech; first of which was that Trump would be able to correctly identify and pronounce the words.

Elder Porter started out with a pep talk to Trump reassuring him that:

There must be over fifty thousand
Screaming love and more for you
Every one of the fifty thousand
Would do whatever you ask him to.

Keep them yelling their devotion
But add a touch of hate at immigrants
You will rise to a greater power
We will win ourselves a Wall.
You'll get the power and the glory
Forever and ever and ever.

Elder Porter kept the pep talk short and sweet to maximize Trump's attention span. That pleased Trump a lot, so he promised this new Mormon addition to the White House that he would stick to the script until tweeting time.

If Elder Porter keeps that extraordinary effort up, when he finally leaves govt service he will probably end up a top lobbyist like the other Hatch Chief of Staff, Mac Haddow, or perhaps be called to serve as the Dick Cheney Chair of Political Science at the Brigham Young University-Provo.

[_Black Moclips]

I think the theatrics of the party not in power pretty funny. I don't doubt some kind of "Facial Expression, Clapping, Standing, and Over-All Demeanor" memo gets circulated before this event to make sure everyone is in line. It was funny how you could tell the Democrats didn't really want to stand at some of the props given by Trump to families and vets, yet they were too afraid not to stand. But keep those expressions dour and sour!

Even if they happen to agree with the words that Trump spoke on unity and working together, there was no way they were going to clap and stand.

Of course its all theatrics for the camera. Behind closed doors the libtards and repubes are all the same - corrupt career politicians looking out for themselves, each having convinced a subset of the population that they are fighting for them!

[_Xenophon]

Here’s what NBC news discovered about the SOTU speech - 75% approval!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/viewers-ap ... news-poll/

(maybe their editorial board was taken over by Fox News for the evening, eh?)

Not really all that surprising given how partisan the SOTU is, no matter who is President. Democrats overwhelmingly watched Obama and I will bet dollars to donuts that Republicans will overwhelming watch Trump. It is easy to be popular among your own.



See also

[_MeDotOrg]

Here’s what NBC news discovered about the SOTU speech - 75% approval!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/viewers-ap ... news-poll/

(maybe their editorial board was taken over by Fox News for the evening, eh?)

Actually when he sticks to a Teleprompter he does a lot better.

But as Seth Meyers said, seeing Trump using a Teleprompter is liking watching a dog wearing a sweater. You know he didn't design the sweater or put it on, and probably can't wait to get it off.

So if Trump actually thought and acted like the Trump chained to a teleprompter I think we would all breathe a little easier. But Twitter Trump is the real Trump. Teleprompter Trump is just a dog in a sweater.

[_MeDotOrg]

4. It seemed like Trump had more props in the way of valor attaboys for average Americans than I can remember for previous Presidents. More than once it felt like he was trying to hitch his star to their wagon.

I'm sure you already know this, but for other young whippersnappers like me who may not...

I recently (i.e. yesterday) found out that there's a term for those guests/shout-outs. It's "Skutniks" -- named after the very first one, Lenny Skutnik.

I didn't know Lenny Skutnik was the first. I actually remember Lenny Skutnik. A passenger jet crashed on takeoff in Washington D.C., and he dove into the ice-filled waters of the Potomac to rescue a woman. It truly was heroic deed.

Mr. Skutnik was a very unassuming man, overwhelmed by the amount of attention he got. I can't find the exact quote, but he said something wonderful about fame. I'm probably paraphrasing a little but it was something along these lines:

If you put a rock on TV and show people the rock, they'll say "Wasn't that the rock that was on TV?"

I love that quote for a couple of reasons. First, it shows how incredibly level-headed Skutnik was. He knows he's just another rock that happened to get on TV. The other thing that he gets is that after a while, you are famous for being famous.

[_honorentheos]

Interesting guy. This makes it sound like he probably voted for Trump.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story ... iew-213522

I don’t know if you can call me a Republican. If you believe in God, you believe in the Constitution, you believe in the Second Amendment, you don’t believe in gay marriage, I guess you’re a Republican. If that’s what a Republican is, I guess I’m a Republican. The Democrats are the other, the opposite. I thought Democrats and Republicans thought the same way.

That says a lot about why things are the way they are, I'll give him that much.