Who Said What About the President’s Address to the Nation?
Feb 26th, 2009 | one response
The President gave his first Address to the Nation before a Joint Session of Congress Tuesday night.
Politicians, journalists, pundits, bloggers, etc. have all by now expressed their opinions on, and done their analyses of the address.
My opinion of the speech is really not that important—albeit the readers of my posts can probably guess that I thought the speech was “to the right of spectacular.”
So, instead of spouting more opinion, I would like to do a roundup of opinions and verdicts by way of a little quiz.
Below you’ll find, on the left, a sampling of reactions to the speech by various figures, and, to the right, a list of those who have voiced such reactions and comments…but in a random order.
The reactions and opinions are not necessarily on the substance of the speech.
Your task is to match the comment with the commentator.
There are no prizes, no grades, no honors—just a little exercise in recalling who said what.
Have fun (The answers are at the bottom)
1. 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. a. TIME Magazine
2. Yes We Will b. UK’s Guardian.co
3. A Reaganesque exhortation to American resilience c. The Portland Oregonian
4. If you like Barack Obama’s populist wish list, you probably liked the speech, and if not, you probably hated it. d. Publius at Obsidian Wings
5.Obama gives Team America a Pep talk e. Ezra Klein
6. Sounded a note of hope at a time of crisis f. William Kristol
7. A Pre-emptive Rebuttal g. Alex Massie
8.He did himself a lot of good h. John at Powerline
9. Realistic, cautious, optimistic…. i. Hot Air
10. Bang-up first address j. Bill O’Riley
11. More Braveheart, Less Cassandra k. Robert Stein
12. An excellent speech, which perfectly captured the tenor of the country l. Jay Stevens, Left in the West
13. The most ambitious we have heard in this chamber in decades. m. Mark Impomeni Political Machine
14. The speech rocked…but I’m still concerned n. Steve Benen, Political Animal
15. I don’t know when men started to hug each other, but hug they do, and look at that o. Editorial NY Times
16. an ambitious, liberal speech. p. Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La
.
17.It was a speech that would have been too bold for Clinton and too grand for Carter. q. Ed Morrisey
18. heavy on optimism, short on numbers, filled with lofty rhetoric and lined with emotion. r. E. J. Dionne Jr
19. I thought President Obama was surprisingly ineffective tonight. s. Washington Post
20. What was perhaps most striking in the speech is what it ignored: national security. t. New York Times
21. This was not the speech of a man who thinks of himself as a war president. But he is. u. MIchelle Malkin (even before the speech)
22.It’s hard to translate into words how refreshing — how deeply satisfying — it was to see a President stand up and openly embrace such a progressive platform. v. Rachel Maddow
23. Nice speech. It’s refreshing to be spoken to like a grownup. w. David Brooks
24. Obama’s Speech Long on Spending Plans, Short on Specifics x. David Gergen
25.We appreciate his message of hope — but sometimes it seems we look for hope in different places. Democratic leaders in Washington place their hope in the federal government. We place our hope in you — the American people. In the end, it comes down to an honest and fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government. y. Andrew Sullivan
26. Now, he thinks he’s Reagan z. George Will
27. politics and rhetoric are superb…The results are all that matter now aa. Robert G Kaiser, Washington Post
28. Well, this was an extraordinary speech. We certainly do have a new president. My own reaction was that Obama looked stronger and more confident tonight than I have ever seen him before – and he has never lacked for confidence in the past bb.Sam Stein@ Huffington Post
29. An excellent speech cc. No More Mister Nice Blog
Answers:
1-e, 2-k, 3-o, 4-q, 5-a, 6-s, 7-n, 8-i, 9-b, 10-v, 11-c, 12-w, 13-x, 14-cc, 15-z, 16-g, 17v, 18-bb, 19-h, 20-t, 21-f, 22-d, 23-l, 24-m, 25-p, 26-u, 27-y, 28-aa, 29-j
One Response to “Who Said What About the President’s Address to the Nation?”
In his speech Obama said he is going thru the budget line by line.
In his press briefing on Wednesday, Robert Gibbs offered the strongest assertion to date that President Obama would like to see the restoration of the line-item veto.
Asked if Obama would use that legislative tool — which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1998 — to help weed out the earmarks from the forthcoming omnibus-spending bill, the press secretary replied: “I can assure you that he'd love to take that for a test drive.”
Im sure he is and it will be a big waste of time. He will be vetoing his own parties earmarks.
Additionally He said he will cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. That sounds promising but cutting a 6 trillion dollar per year deficit to 3 trillion isnt exactly a feather in his cap.