I see people talking about the pace of the speech and not waiting for the applause. Did anyone stop to think Biden may have thought "There is a world crisis going on I have to deal with. I am not stopping for your accolades. Let me finish this so I can get back to more pressing matters?" Someone please tell me the last time the SOTU occurred less than a week after a major war started.
Just watched it, moral + 10 I feel more confident and proud to be an American then ever Viv la murica Rusia estas muerto apara me
I respect you. I still believe you are a closet conservative and not just a devil's advocate, with all due respect.
Funny, but sad that our politics is at this level. Not the dolls but those two women acting like idiots.
you know for what it's worth, I guess at this point I'd agree with you on the 'conservative' part (not the closet part necessarily). Whereas I'd still continue to think of myself as the moderate Democrat I've always been, the shift in the Democratic Party makeup changes formerly-moderate members like me into conservatives. Two or three years of discussions here in the D&D have shifted my thinking about that issue. It's taken me a while to realize how dramatically the Democratic Party has tilted leftward. Someone a couple of weeks ago made a reference to a "Bill Bradley Democrat." I think that's a pretty good descriptor for me. If Bill Bradley were active now he would be accurately described as "conservative," not moderate. And clearly compared to AOC, the Squad, and other lefty lunatics on the fringe, I am undoubtedly a conservative.
I mean if that's the way you feel you feel. But to me the democratic party is pretty similar to how it's always been - a coalition of moderates all way to far lefters. I don't see AOC or Bernie as the mainstream. It's still the moderate democrats who control the agenda like always. In fact if anything it's moved to the right as you see democrats being in favor of tax cuts for middle class, more free trade, a stronger foreign policy - all previously territories of conservatives. I see many of your posts are on speech issues and more on what certain people are saying vs the actual policies and bills that are being seriously pushed. Perhaps those are the topics close to your heart and from your perspective where you see a shift occuring. For me, I see it as the right becoming more extreme and the left more fractured.
Except that fighting a war especially in a democracy is as much about politics as it is tanks and planes. Von Klauswitz is very right. This speech was the perfect chance for Biden to layout the stakes regarding Ukraine. It was his chance to rally the country and especially Congressional Republicans for his strategy on Ukraine. Substance wise I think it was good. Delivery does matter though when making political speeches.
Biden Still Wants Government Interfering in All Areas of Life Inspiring support for Ukrainian freedom is undermined by the remainder of the president’s agenda. https://reason.com/2022/03/04/biden-still-wants-government-interfering-in-all-areas-of-life/ excerpt: During the State of the Union address, President Joe Biden's opening comments about Russia's invasion of Ukraine were pretty good—inspiring even. If he'd stopped there, he might have walked away from the podium on a high note. Unfortunately, the president continued to talk, laying out a litany of intrusive and expensive interventions in American life, many of which represent stalled elements of his legislative agenda. He called for higher taxes, more spending, more regulations, and an end to criminal justice reform efforts when he wasn't spitting out word salad. It was a lost opportunity for Biden to take what is usually the best course of action for politicians: support freedom and then shut up. "From President Zelensky to every Ukrainian, their fearlessness, their courage, their determination, literally inspires the world," Biden noted during his early moments on-stage. "Groups of citizens blocking tanks with their bodies. Everyone from students to retirees to teachers turned soldiers defending their homeland." Evocative words they were, living up to CNN anchor Jake Tapper's assessment that "given his speaking talents and challenges, it was a fairly strong performance." If only the president had dropped the mic and walked away at that point. But he insisted on reading the rest of his script. more at the link
Overall approval rating jumped to 47%, up 8 points from the NPR poll last month. Presidents don't generally see much, if any bounce, out of a State of the Union address. Since 1978, there had only been six times when a president saw an approval rating improve 4 points or more following State of the Union addresses, according to the pollsters. Three of those bounces were for former President Bill Clinton. Ukraine handling is up 18 points to 52%. Coronavirus pandemic handling is now 55%, up 8 points. Economic handling up 8 points to 45%.
It amzes me. You have all the poor white people in red states screaming "He wants to raise taxes on people making 400K a year!!!!" Half of these people might see 400K in a lifetime.
I think its a war bounce. People like a good war. In a few weeks when gas hits 4 bucks it will go away.
Why American Mask Makers Are Going Out of Business Efforts to make the supply chain more resilient after pandemic shortages are no match for low-price foreign products, the companies say. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/business/dealbook/american-mask-makers.html excerpt: Today, these small U.S. mask manufacturers are in dire straits — if they haven’t gone out of business already. DemeTech has laid off nearly all the employees it hired to make masks, and it has shut most of its mask manufacturing center. Mr. Olmos, his severance long gone, expects Texas MedPlast to be out of business soon barring a miracle. And PuraVita Medical? “We’re on the verge of losing it all,” Mr. Hickey told me. The government’s answer to this pattern is its own buying power. During his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Biden promised that the government would begin to rigorously enforce provisions in the law that call for the federal agencies to buy American-made goods whenever possible. “Everything from the deck of an aircraft carrier to the steel on highway guardrails” would be made in America, he vowed. The plight of these small mask companies, however, suggests that reviving American manufacturing — even when the underlying rationale is national security — won’t be easy. “Resilience is the byword of the day,” said Marc Schessel, a hospital supply chain expert who is working to develop alternative supply chains for personal protective equipment. And resilience — that is, creating extra manufacturing capacity that can get the country through an emergency — is what the small mask makers say is their value to the country. Sure, they argue, a globalized, just-in-time supply chain for low-cost protective equipment is fine in ordinary times. But we’ve learned these past two years that the country needs domestic manufacturers if we hope to avoid terrible shortages during the next pandemic, and the one after that. But how do you create that resilience? The federal government spent $682 billion buying goods and services from contractors in 2020, according to Bloomberg Government. That’s the sum the Biden administration wants to use to buy American products. And while it’s hardly chump change, it’s only about 3 percent of America’s $21.5 trillion economy. The mask manufacturers I interviewed for this article said the Biden administration had expressed interest in buying their masks, but it has yet to happen. Even if it did, it would be unlikely to put much of a dent into Chinese dominance. As Mr. Bowen put it in a recent email to the White House, “Hospitals drive the mask market.” Since their incentives are to reduce costs, he wrote, “Any plan that allows imported masks to cost less than U.S. made masks will result in a foreign government controlled U.S. mask supply — as currently exists.” To put it another way, the modern imperative of maximizing shareholder value will always put efficiency and cost over resilience. more at the link
