A Presidential Address

I listened to President Trump’s address on television last night. I thought it was okay—I wasn’t particularly impressed one way or another. My wife, no Trump fan, thought it was presidential in content and delivery and ventured that if Trump had been behaving this way for the last two years rather than tweeting he wouldn’t be getting the sort of news coverage he’s been getting. I disagreed with that. I think he would get the sort of news coverage he has regardless of his demeanor if for no other reason because he’s not Hillary Clinton. As evidence I would submit the coverage of the address today from the major media outlets. They’re not reporting on the address. They’re reporting on their opinions of the underlying policy.

I thought that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer looked old and tired.

Did you listen to the address? What did you think?

11 comments… add one
  • steve Link

    Your wife is correct. At the end of the campaign they took away his phone for a while. The press then had to concentrate on issues, and Hillary’s emails. That brief period without his phone was key in his racking up late votes. Only place I looked so far was WaPo where they put up the entire text of his speech. They fact checked individual parts.

    Steve

  • PD Shaw Link

    Didn’t listen. I watched with the sound-off, while waiting for my sit-com to start. Everybody knows how important those are to me. I yelled at my wife in the other room that Trump was interrupting Blackish, and she assured me that the networks were only giving him eight minutes, but she didn’t know if that included response time. Response time? Why are they giving the Democrats response time? Why isn’t all of this on the cable news networks anyway?

    Still not listening, but I can see that once Trump stopped, Stephanalapous and reporters are talking with the words “fact-checking the President” on the screen. I yell again: “Trump talked about ten minutes, but the media is doing the response themselves; apparently don’t trust the Democrats.”

    Then the scene changed, a long-shot down a hallway with a lone, no make it two, people standing stiffly behind a podium. As the camera moved forward, the overall effect was funereal, as in I felt I was walking into a funeral home and one of them was going to ask me to sign a book on the podium, and the other was going to slowly raise an arm to show me which room I would be entering. Still not listening, but I get the “united front” symbolism of this, but Chuck didn’t look like he knew what to do, and in fact didn’t quite look himself, either because of the makeup or I’ve never seen him with his mouth closed.

    Still not listening.

  • Andy Link

    I ignored it.

  • Andy Link

    Based on PD’s description I kind of wish I’d watched though.

    This morning I see a lot of memes on the Schumer/Pelosi response floating around which tells me it probably wasn’t very effective.

  • 1. They needed better makeup artists.
    2. Speaker Pelosi needs to declare a moratorium on Botox.

  • Andy Link

    Well, she is 78.

    That Schumer is 68 and Trump is 72 just shows the age bias.

  • mercer Link

    Disappointed.

    The biggest problem now at the border is people wanting asylum not criminals sneaking through weak points in the border. Who gets asylum and how they are treated should be debated but it was barely mentioned by Trump and the Dems. As someone who wants to reduce low skilled immigration I think Trump missed an opportunity to move policy closer to what he and I want.

    He also missed a chance to challenge Dems who call to eliminate ICE about how they want to enforce immigration laws.

  • Gray Shambler Link

    Since this is not about immigration, but power, optics matter. Dems lost optics:
    https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.pDip6cjp6d8pxg0V6ahKsQ&pid=15.1&P=0&w=321&h=181

  • The biggest problem now at the border is people wanting asylum not criminals sneaking through weak points in the border

    The very biggest problem at the border is people who are neither refugees nor criminals but job-seekers using the asylum process as a “Hail Mary” to get legal admission to the U. S.

  • Guarneri Link

    I was on an airplane and didn’t see it, however, oh boy, the Democrat media (but I repeat myself) let me know on no uncertain terms Trump has created a “manufactured crisis.” And I mean every last one of them. I saw a montage of at least 10 “journalist’s” analyses. (snicker) Every last one. Hold on, I need to write it down. M-a-n-u-f-a-c-t………..

    I have to admit, though, I’m a bit confused. I also saw a montage of videos of Obama, Clinton, Pelosi, Schumer all lecturing on how we need border security, barriers and the like because we have a real crisis on the border. Its crazy. I mean crazy. They sounded like Trump. So confusing…….

    I guess they have “evolved.”

    Oh, and today I did see pics of Nance and Chuck. They need to see a doctor……….

  • steve Link

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