Obama's speech

In his de facto State of the Union address to Congress last night, Obama rose to the heights we know he is capable of, being passionate and inspiring and reassuring and, at the same time, focused and specific and responsible.

Observers have commented on the partisan divide among the lawmakers in the hall in their responses; I think the pundits were looking for something to say. From the camera angles on ABC-TV it seemed, in the standing-ovation moments, Republicans were mostly standing, with the notable exception of comments about the stimulus bill.

Equally important were the reactions of the American people. In instant polls and tracking reactions, the response was overwhelmingly positive and showed support across party lines. A CNN poll showed viewers' reaction: positive 68%, somewhat positive 24%, not positive 8%. That's an incredible 92% who viewed it as at least somewhat positive.

And then there was presidential-aspirant Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana who gave the Republican response. Here's David Brooks' reaction to that. And remember that Brooks is basically a conservative, although more thoughtful and less reactionary than most conservatives. When asked by PBS host Jim Lehrer how Jindal did, he replied:

BROOKS: Not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I opposed the stimulus package - I thought it was poorly drafted - but to come up at this moment in history with a stale, "government is the problem...we can't trust the government"...it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic, now. They may not like the way the Congress passed the stimulus bill. The idea that government is going to have no role in this...in a moment where only the Federal government is big enough to do stuff...to just ignore all that and say government's the problem...corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending - it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. There's an intra-Republican debate: some people say the Republican party lost its way because it got too moderate, some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and he's making that case. I think it's insane. I think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

If that's the best they can come up with by their hottest presidential candidate on the horizon, then perhaps the blogger is right who said that the Republican party is dead and Obama's speech last night was its death knell. Here's what progressive economist Paul Krugman wrote about Jindal's response:

So what did Bobby Jindal choose to ridicule in this response to Obama last night? Volcano monitoring, of course.

And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let’s just rely on self-defense by armed citizens.

The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

But, hey, like Al Gore used to say: when your opponent is in the process of shooting himself in the foot, don't get in the way.

Ralph