Everyone is offering an opinion about the State of the Union Address. Whatever one thinks about Obama’s policies, there’s no denying it was another oratorical success. The same can’t be said about the so-called rebuttal by newly-minted Virginia governor Bob McDonnell.
It wasn’t simply that McDonnell did little but deliver up the same, tired free-market, small-government, conservative dogma that has been so thoroughly and disastrously discredited over the last three decades. The whole made-for-TV mini-movie quality of the event reeked to high-heaven of the stench given off when fire meets plastic.
Admittedly, McDonnell looked the part of polished politician, another carefully-coiffed, youngish, WASP fresh from Republican central casting. Looks may not be everything, but these days they’re a lot. Abraham Lincoln couldn’t even get nominated in this century’s Republican Party.
McDonnell gets credit for trying; he looked concerned and committed in all the right places, and flashed the occasional engaging and almost-convincing smile. Trouble is he was just a bit too perfect, and a lot too obvious about it all.
McDonnell reminded me of that other Bob, the previous sacrificial lamb the Republicans trotted out in a failed attempt to counter an Obama speech. He was an improvement over poor old Bobby Jindal – though that qualifies as damning with faint praise – but both failed badly at pretending to be real.
But plastic as McDonnell was, he was Laurence Olivier compared to the staging of the event. Pundits tittered when John McCain suffered the infamous green backdrop fiasco, and some feigned outrage at Obama’s stadium event with its Roman columns, but there’s been hardly a whimper about the ham-handed “stagecraft” offered up by McDonnell’s minions.
Now, maybe I’m jaded by too much time spent behind the scenes at Nickelodeon Studios and on movie sets, but this event struck me as amateur hour because “what lies beneath” was all too apparent. The first rule in politics – as in any other theatrics -- is never let ‘em see you sweat (see Richard Nixon), but the second is never let ‘em see the deus ex machina.
The most glaring example of exclusivity, plasticity and duplicity was that even though only a handful of black people were in the room, one of them was strategically propped-up behind McDonnell. On the other side of him, stood someone of indeterminate heritage, obviously chosen to make the Aryan Nation look like the Rainbow Coalition. The only thing missing was someone holding a sign that said “Gays for Greed”.
Even the applause sounded canned, beginning simultaneously, continuing for some apparently pre-determined length of time, and ending simultaneously. Normal crowd sounds filled with spontaneous outbursts and scattered cheers were all but non-existent. The entire event sounded as if everything was on cue – which was likely the case. Well, at least those who staged this farce kept the "applaud" and "stop” signs off camera.
McDonnell himself hinted at all this at the outset, joking that he had to get done in ten minutes so his twin sons wouldn’t miss Sports Center. The best face that could be put on this is that the crowd exhibited military discipline, but the truth of the matter is the entire event – including crowd reaction – was programmed to the point of being robotic.
And therein lies the rub, because the word “robotic” applies to far more than just this event; it describes the sad truth about how far the Grand Old Party has fallen. A party that was once home to people as wildly different as Joe McCarthy and Nelson Rockefeller now requires everyone to subscribe to an ugly and virulent orthodoxy borrowed from the American Independent Party.
Someone described the Far Right as thinking and voting like a school of fish, and this event certainly reinforced that description. Such blatantly obvious pandering and stagecraft ought to be insulting or at least laughable. But this school of fish has proven time and again it’s ready to swallow the bait.
©2010 Tom Cordle
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Comments
I gotta admit this wasn't near as much fun as watching poor ol' Bobby Jindal -- maybe TPTB will put a merciful end to this nonsense
From my perspective there's no real difference between the two major parties and until one or the other of them decides to stand firm on *something* there's no point in me wasting my time paying attention to anything either party has to say. (And that comes from someone who spent 27 years as a certified election official).
The staging was way too obviously meant to simulate the SOTU. A similar, but smaller room and the overhead camera shots, for example. McDonnell's mimicry made him look like Obama's Mini-Me.
I think the "indeterminate heritage" ethnically ambiguous guy was meant to be seen by most viewers as Chan Cisneros, an Asian and/or Latino Republican. The base saw an Asian guy, because they can't see Latinos.
Yes, there were very few examples of ethnic diversity at the fun house mirror SOTU. But to be fair it should be noted that Republican gatherings have at least a 10% minority attendance if they're catered.
Yours is the best analysis of the Republican Regurgitation I've read. It's the only one I've read, but it's a good'n.
Give me the cue and I'll rate you....
Gays for Greed -- think it'll stick?
Don
And a lot people won't
Jeff
And I don't even have a sense of smell!
Glad you found this a-peel-ing
Mrs Raptor
For all you who say it's Twiddlede and Twiddledum, I give you two words to illustrate how great the difference and perhaps give you a different perspective:
Alito and Sotamayor
I'm waiting for the day the Rs nominate Chan Cisneros for President. And I wish I'd thot of this line:
" it should be noted that Republican gatherings have at least a 10% minority attendance if they're catered"
Thanks for you praise, and consider this a cue. (applaud here)
What an apt metaphor.
http://open.salon.com/blog/jk_brady/2010/01/23/a_lesson_in_leadership_-_dancing_with_a_dead_man
"Republican gatherings have at least a 10% minority attendance if they're catered."
I didn't mean to disparage the Virginia Statehouse, it looked like a grand old place to my eye, but the production wasn't Woody, it was pure Polly Esther.
And in order for them to do this, they'd have to work vigorously against everything they've ever stood for or believed in. Obama was certainly late to the church service on bank bashing, but he's started taking up the program since he's seen some whipping done in the special elections since 2008.
And the crystal ball gazers of the economy are almost unanimous in their agreement that there should be an improvement to the economy in 2010, 2011, and 2012 worldwide, and not just in the US.
The short answer is, keep on the sunny side and ignore the coneheads.
It was a lot like the old Andy Hardy movies in which the kids decide to put on their own play -- "my mom has a dais and your cousin is kinda black looking, isn't he?" The guy was a complete mannequin.
I hate the "sham" factor on both sides, but Obama got better scores on my Olympic style rating system for funny asides. His was a cross between Sunday sermon, press club dinner, and 8th grade teacher. Plus, he did the best Ronald Reagan since Ronald Reagan. You get extra points for that.
Thank you, that is hands-down one of the finest comments I've had in a long time, and it's especially gratifying coming from you.
Someone else who is able to do that, love or hate him, is Al Gore, the man can speak in complete paragraphs without benefit of notes. Bush on the other hand reminded me of that scene from the movie Judgment at Nurmeberg in which the Montgomery Clift character is asked to make a complete sentence using the words hunter, hare and field. No can do.
Trig
Agreed -- O'Rourke has a biting wit.
Trilogy
Thanks, I'll give your regards to Polly and Esther, too.
Good call, but I wouldn't hold my breath. The last Lincolnesque character I remember in Washington was Ed Muskie, and we know what happened to him. This Republican Party seems to be perfectly content with empty suits -- Reagan, Quayle, Bush, Palin -- and it wouldn't surprise me to see them embrace Glenn Beck -- tho he'd have to clean up his weepy act or end up like Ed Muskie.
great line. i don't know why you do this to yourself, Tom, but good on ya, brother.
From your lips to the electorate's ears
Barking Lot
Well, besting Brooks and Shields, eh? Well, I'm not certain besting anyone whose initials are B.S. is such high praise, but I'll take it ;-). Good call on your part about Obama channeling the Gipper. Obama has the quickest wit I've seen in a President since JFK, and all three of those men were wise enough to know that humor has remarkable powers to deflect a slight and turn it back on the source from whence it came.
Why do I do this to myself? I'm still waiting to be discovered ;-).
President Obama stands tall still in my opinion.
rated
--
I also think it was inappropriate to fill the state house with his friends and family and have them all sit in the assembly applauding him. They could have done that speech anywhere and they aired all those flat talking points out with the state house instead of one of their many, many McMansions as if they represent more than their private special interests.
But don't bore me. SOTU addresses and the subsequent bullshit that gets spouted by the parties are a waste of money and air time. In the nearly four decades I've been voting, they haven't told me a damn thing I didn't already know.
Hey, politicos - you want to know the state of the union? Go to any small town in the backwater states and walk the streets. THAT'S the state of the friggin' union.
I am proud to stand behind you, rebutthead. Hey, Marvel should make you their newest superhero!
So thanks Tom
P.S. Where can I get my Gays for Greed t-shirt? I'm thinking the lettering should done in sparkles.
P.P.S. Where is Mayberry? I lived in TN when I was young, in Brownsville (near Memphis, and Nutbush!), and also in Elizabethton, near Johnson City.
thanks for the kind words, but I'm always a little nervous when "perfect" is thrown my way, the Greeks tell us the gods get angry at human perfection. That may be why "perfect" politicians like David Vitter, Larry Craig, John Ensign and Mark Sanford end up with feet of clay -- tho their problems were caused by other parts of their anatomy. Clinton has his problems, too, but I don't think anyone was surprised to discover him at a weenie roast.
McDonnell's problem wasn't that he wasn't even-handed (sometimes you just gotta use that double negative), it was that he was stale vanilla. I think he took a lesson from how miserably Bobby Jindal's attack-dog, point by point refutation failed. That old-style debate technique has fallen from fashion among politicians pretending to be moderates in favor of nice hair and platitudes. Attack mode is now the realm of the Rabid Right and dinosaurs like Zell Miller and Sarah Palin.
Serenita
Agreed -- see my comment to Kent above
I didn't mind the venue so much, but making a live audience sound like an applause track offends my artistic sensibilities as well as my political sensibilities. Experienced media people know enough to make even canned audience response at least sound real -- so why make a live audience sound like it's dead? Maybe they know something about the electorate that I don't.
I'm with you on the unnecessity of both speeches, though I confess I enjoyed watching Obama tweak Repugnuts like Can'tor and Boner, and his filleting of Roberts and Alito sitting directly in front of him was delicious -- tho I fear that may come back to haunt him -- and us. Mouthing "that's not true" in response as Alito did may not be on a par with calling him a liar, but it certainly reveals a lack of "judicial temperament.
And you're quiet right about the real state of the union -- and that is why the SOTU address usually ends up being just another wish list for the have-nots -- meanwhile behind the scenes, the have-mores and corporations are getting everything Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy (how the hell did he get in here?), think those "persons" deserve. Ditto for the Repugnuts, Joe Liarman, and the bought-and-paid-for Dumocrats. Did I leave anybody out?
Good rebuttal!
Your "Gays for Greed" T-Shirt is on the way -- I also have some "Stupid for Jesus" T-Shirts -- what size would you like?
Not better or worse, just differently bad. Bobby Jindal was laugh-out-loud goofy -- Bob McDonnell was shake-your-head at dull, disneyesque plasticity
Rather than a rebuttal, McDonnell's national coming-out party was little more than an extended unpaid political announcement utterly undeserving of 15 minutes as national "news". There was nothing new or newsworthy in what he had to say.
I don't think the applause was canned -- it was worse, it was real live human beings on auto-pilot -- but I wouldn't put it past the producers of this farce to have enhanced the applause