Joe Klein: ...Making Democrats the Party of Optimism

[babylonsister]

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2044563,00.html

Obama's SOTU Success: Making Democrats the Party of Optimism
By Joe Klein Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011

snip//

It was, in fact, amazing how conservative a speech it was. The three big goals — innovation, education and infrastructure — have been around since Henry Clay. Obama talked about them in a manner that George H.W. Bush might have employed. When he dealt with education, he eschewed the standard Democratic talking points about early-childhood programs like Head Start, which have become code words for spending more money on poor kids. Instead, he talked about accountability, which is code for breaking the stranglehold of teachers'-union work rules. When he talked about innovation, it was the small-business loan that a Michigan solar-power company received — or the creative, private-sector by-product of a perceived national security threat, the "Sputnik moment." When he talked about infrastructure, he insisted that "we'll make sure this is fully paid for, attract private investment and pick projects based on what's best for the economy, not politicians." Even his effective defense of health care reform was anchored in promises to lift onerous regulations on small businesses and work for malpractice reform.

Not much socialism there, and nothing for Republicans to grab on to and screech about. There was little substance or controversy of any sort. When the President says he's going to freeze domestic spending for five years, saving $400 billion, and uses a good chunk of the evening to talk about all the breaks he's going to give the business community, it becomes prohibitively difficult for Congressman Paul Ryan, offering the official Republican response, to argue that the country is wantonly heading down the tubes. And I found myself utterly amazed when Obama celebrated our gay members of the military. (See more on Obama's speech and his calls for unity.)

And that was the most remarkable thing about the speech: Obama completely reversed the American political calculus of the 1980s and '90s. He made the Democrats the party of optimism and the Republicans the party of root canal. Someone really should have told Ryan that there isn't much mileage in comparing the U.S. to Greece or Ireland; it's a false analogy, in any case. Indeed, the notion of the Republicans having, as their official spokesman, a guy who has proposed making serious cuts to Social Security and Medicare while privatizing both — positions that are opposed by 80% of the American people — is strong evidence that the GOP, in its post-election exuberance, has already lost touch with the public. (Comment on this story.)

By contrast, Obama's biggest applause line was about American exceptionalism: "As contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be, I know there isn't a person here who would trade places with any other nation on earth." This came near the end of the speech — which is where great applause lines should come — and it was greeted by a visceral roar, and then followed by the story of yet another entrepreneur, the Pennsylvania drilling machinist who saved the Chilean miners. This was deft on so many grounds. It subtly addressed the Republican extremists who question Obama's patriotism, and it put him squarely — with Reagan — on the side of sunshine and enterprise. That is the winning side in American politics: you tell inspiring stories and sell soap bubbles.

[msongs]

1. thanks for highlighting the part where Obama endorse the republican agenda lol nt

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Those of us who remember the real Reagan, smug, isolated

and remaining deep in silent bigotry while the world faced up to the health crisis of our generation do not think of Reagan's time as sunshine but as dark clouds of death upon the people, with a calloused and uncaring leadership making that which was so horrible even worse.
That was when I started seeking decent and fair healthcare for Americans. So while for Obama, Reagan meant lollipops and sunshine, to me, Reagan meant ignorance and oppression. To this day, HIV/AIDS remains the top killer of young African American women. Sunshine and enterprise indeed! While for Obama it was morning in America, for many others it was mourning on a weekly basis, for Americans who died suffering needlessly.
To each his own, I guess.