Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Big NIght

Ezra Klein- OBAMA'S NOT-STATE OF THE UNION.

Jon Stewart had a line about President Bush. He used to say it whenever people implied the former president was a dunce. "I don't think he's stupid," Stewart would reply. "I think we're stupid, because if we weren't, he wouldn't talk to us this way."

Obama doesn't talk to us like we're stupid. This wasn't an inspiring speech. And it wasn't a terrorizing speech. It was an explanation. The president told us what he was planning to do. And the speech was written as if he believed that we could understand him. He didn't wrap his agenda in a lot of rhetoric about America's mettle or hide it behind stories and icons. He just sort of said it.

....
He detailed the country's problems, articulated his thinking, and laid out his conclusions. He explained himself.



DougJ: Polling notes
I just got off a conference call with the Greenberg-Quinlan-Rosner polling outfit and the big take away here is that the response to Obama’s speech was almost the same among Republicans as among Democrats. The phrase I heard was “I have never seen anything like this before.”

Another point is that the talk about the bank and mortgage plans went over extremely well (contra Santelli).

But mainly there an amazing uniformity between Republican and Democratic response to the speech.

CBS: Poll: Positive Reception For Obama Address
CBS News and Knowledge Networks held a nationally representative poll of approximately 500 people who watched President Obama give his address to Congress to gauge their reaction in the minutes after the president’s speech.

Though the results are not yet final, here are the preliminary findings.

Seventy-nine percent of speech watchers approve of President Obama’s plans for dealing with the economic crisis. Before the speech, 62 percent approved.

Fifty-two of speech watchers think the president's economic plans will help them personally. Thirty-five thought so before the speech.

Seventy-five percent of speech watchers now say they were able to get a good understanding of Barack Obama’s economic plans, compared to 61 percent before the speech.

Seventy-three percent of speech watchers think President Obama’s plans will make the economy better. Twelve percent think they will make them worse, while 15 percent think they will make no difference.

Seventy-nine percent of speech watchers are optimistic about the next four years with Mr. Obama as president. Seventy-one percent said they were optimistic before the speech.

...

This is a scientifically representative poll of speech watchers. The margin of sampling error could be plus or minus 5 percentage points for results based on the entire sample.

atrios
Really Weird

Watching the speech on MSNBC at the bar I was joking all night about how the Republican viewer response graph red line was usually above the Democratic one and frequently literally off the chart. Very strange times. From email, CNN/NORC poll of people who watched speech.
1. What was your overall reaction to President Obama’s speech tonight – very positive, somewhat positive, somewhat negative or very negative?
Feb. 24
2009
Very positive 68%
Somewhat positive 24%
Somewhat negative 6%
Very negative 2%
Both/mixed *
No opinion *

-Atrios 23:31



Feb. 24: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow talks about the issue of bipartisanship in President Barack Obama's speech and how he reiterated that the differences between parties are really much smaller than the challenges the country faces.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy


Nate Silver:

If it sounds like Jindal is targeting his speech to a room full of fourth graders, that's because he is. They might be the next people to actually vote for Republicans again.


John Aravosis: Bobby Jindal epitomizes Republicanism
Jindal in his Republican response to Obama's address:
Today in Washington, some are promising that government will rescue us from the economic storms raging all around us.

Those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina, we have our doubts.
Let's think for a moment. Who was it who abandoned New Orleans again?


Feb. 24: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow expresses her disbelief that the GOP response to President Barack Obama's address to Congress referenced Hurricane Katrina.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Swampland comments on Jindal's speech:
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