As Alex Koppelman notes, the president says one thing in his State of the Union address, but facts suggest something else. As a textbook author, a college professor, and a scholar of media, I thought it would be fun to read this year's State of the Union address as I might read a typical student paper. Fact checking, confirming sources is a classic freshman mistake; granted, the president is only a sophomore, but still . . .

As I discuss, this error in judgment reflects an increasingly disturbing fact---that the president's sense of reality and priority bears no resemblance to those of the American populace.

You can see what grade the president's speech received here:

http://weeklyrader.blogspot.com/2008/01/grading-state-of-union.html

As Alex Koppelman notes, the president says one thing in his State of the Union address, but facts suggest something else. As a textbook author, a college professor, and a scholar of media, I thought it would be fun to read this year's State of the Union address as I might read a typical student paper. Fact checking, confirming sources is a classic freshman mistake; granted, the president is only a sophomore, but still . . .

As I discuss, this error in judgment reflects an increasingly disturbing fact---that the president's sense of reality and priority bears no resemblance to those of the American populace.

You can see what grade the president's speech received here:

http://weeklyrader.blogspot.com/2008/01/grading-state-of-union.html

As Alex Koppelman notes, the president says one thing in his State of the Union address, but facts suggest something else. As a textbook author, a college professor, and a scholar of media, I thought it would be fun to read this year's State of the Union address as I might read a typical student paper. Fact checking, confirming sources, is a classic freshman mistake; granted, the president is only a sophomore, but still . . .

As I discuss, this error in judgment reflects an increasingly disturbing fact---that the president's sense of reality and priority bears no resemblance to those of the American populace.

You can see what grade the president's speech received here:

http://weeklyrader.blogspot.com/2008/01/grading-state-of-union.html

It's been interesting to read how little pundits have been talking about the Plains states like Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. States like Oklahoma and Missouri are almost *Southern* but without a large African American population.

It was fascinating to see Kansas go overwhelmingly for Obama while its neighbor to the South, Oklahoma, went overwhelmingly for Clinton. The two states share so much; yet no two bordering states have this wide a disparity.

The history of race relations in these two states seems to trump issues of gender here.

As a Native Oklahoman, I am convinced Oklahoma's difficult racial history affects the state's ability to *see* Obama as a legitimate contender.

I actually write about this in my post yesterday on The Weekly Rader: http://weeklyrader.blogspot.com/2008/02/reading-plains-close-look-at-oklahoma.html

In my post on today's Weekly Rader, I actually give McCain's speech a letter grade.

As a speech, McCain's text was less bitchy than Palin's and less humorous. But, it was more specific. He actually proposed things--it wasn't policy he put forth but reassurance.

Most notable, though, was his thinly veiled critique of the Bush administration's low points, the transgressions of Republicans like Jack Abramoff, and the hardness of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney (though none were mentioned by name). To his credit, he acknowledged that in many ways, Republicans have failed.