Liberals vs Conservatives: Response to the State of the Union

In a change of pace, instead of me commenting on the President's State of the Union speech tonight, I instead want to give you folks an idea of how the two ends of the American political spectrum look at the same speech..(and then give my thoughts on the speech).

First, in the "liberal" corner, we have Ezra Klein of Vox.com:

The most important sentence in Obama's 2015 State of the Union- Vox

And in the "conservative" corner, we have Jay Cost of The Weekly Standard:

Obama's Defiant Speech- The Weekly Standard

Interestingly enough, both writers do seem to agree on one thing: The President's speech tonight was NOT one of concession or much compromise. The speech gave the impression of a President who is looking to advance a "new" agenda and be damned what happened last November...

For me, I do have to respect the President's defiance of last November's loss for his party and still propose a wide new agenda that he has to know will likely never be passed before he leaves office. He could talked more compromise given his party's weakened position, but not this President.

That being said, one does have to wonder why real purpose the President thinks this speech will serve, if any, in the long run.

A defiant speech in the face of recent political defeat is great for rallying the troops but could eventually end up wreak of pointless "political theater" to the average voter, who will then be wondering if you he/she will ever get those 90 minutes of their lives back...

On a final note, you may be surprised to hear that I don't really have much to say about my home state's new senator, Joni Ernst, having her shot at the GOP response to the SOTU. I generally don't have anything "nasty" to say about Senator Ernst, except maybe this: The fact she seems to rarely start a speech without mentioning that she is a "mother" and a "soldier" honestly bothers me. I can't really put my finger on it, but something about how she says it and the frequency in which she thinks we need to be reminded of it strikes me as run-of-the-mill campaign catch-phrase for selling political ads. I actually like her stories about growing up in rural Iowa (I can somewhat relate), but that other bit just doesn't come off as being as genuine...

Rant over, have a great week ya'll!

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