The whole thing was somewhat entertaining....
Like usual Obama's speech was fairly vacuous. I suppose his speeches 'get the job done' in terms of public opinion, which I guess is what the speeches are for. So in that sense he is a good speaker. But I've never thought his speeches were that amazing; they never make you think and they're loaded down with vague platitudes. I've always thought Bill Clinton was a better speaker.
The official republican response was pretty lame, as expected. Not Bobby Jindal bad, but bad. I was watching it on CNN, and the analysts seemed to think he did a good job. I guess anything looks good when the comparison is Bobby Jindal? Like Bobby Jindal, he sounded like he was addressing fifth graders. The first few minutes were heavily religious and referenced the shootings in Arizona, amongst other things. The rest was reasonably lofty and vague. The same old 'we want small government', etc. Not that combative though. It was interesting how he kept differentiating how the Republicans and Democrats think, mostly citing the 'stimulus' approach, even though that was a Republican initiative.
Michelle Bachmann gave the tea party response. I was hoping it would be more crazy than it was, but it was still entertaining. She made it seem somewhat like it was so awesome in the Bush years and then suddenly Obama made things so horrible. Maybe in these bar graphs of the deficit, she should have gone back to the Clinton years? It was more vicious and specific than the official republican response.
Some people speculated that it would hurt the Republicans -- having an official Republican response and then a 'tea party response'. I initially thought it might also. But when I saw this it became clear how closely tied the Republicans and tea party are. It's true that some people in the Republican 'establishment' do not like the tea party. But it turns out it's just a matter of some republicans not liking other republicans. The point is that they're clearly all republican. Any 'tea party' candidate is republican. It's a front to rally more Republican support, not an independent movement. It's all a scam. The speeches supported each other, and Bachmann said right at the beginning that this wasn't meant to compete with the official Republican response, which is a clear admission that they are all indeed republicans. It was a second republican response, and I think it is unfair that they are getting this extra publicity.
