Letters to the Editor

Letters posted here are associated with the following article:
President Bush's State of the Union was nothing special, but the Democratic response was itself no barn-burner.
The letters thread is now closed.
  • Birds of a feather.....

    Sebelius, on the other hand, stuck mainly to platitudes, especially about her hope that the two parties would come together in a spirit of bipartisanship, and she offered little in the way of concrete policy ideas....

    Update: Marc Ambinder reports that Sebelius will be endorsing and campaigning with Barack Obama tomorrow.

    Hope, platitudes, coming together, but nothing concrete...sounds like Obama wrote Sebelius' response.

  • Thank god she's not endorsing Clinton

    We would have been subjected to 15 minutes of self indulgent screeching.

  • What did Webb's bombast and boots actually accomplish though?

    Great speeches are great not because of what they say, but because of why they DO.

  • VP speech?

    She did sound like Obama-lite.

    A white woman VP candidate from a red state. I'm sure she'd like that, if asked.

  • It was very safe

    Bush's speech was so weak I have a feeling a very strong or confrontational responce from the Democrats would have just sounded nasty. Bush was uninspired and kind of pathetic. I think the Democrats treated him like a nonentity.

  • No "there" there.

    No wonder I reacted to Sebelius's speech the same way I react to Obama's. It's the same collection of substance-free feel-goodism, and try as I might to pay attention, I find myself tuning out within a couple of minutes.

  • Bring back Jim Webb

    Lame Governor Sibelius, lame Ted Kennedy, and lame Barack Obama.

    In the last year of the worst Presidency in the last 50 years, led by a man who ran roughshod over the Constitution, lied in order to start a tragic war, and has nominated authoritarian justices to the supreme court who will adversely affect our legal system for the next 20-50 years, and the sum of the Democratic response is that we are ready to play nice and work with President Bush and the Republicans.

    Are we supposed to get excited that this is our hope to "usher in a new era in politics"? It sounds like a continuation of an era in which Democrats are in the prone position.

    I could never and would never try to take away Caroline Kennedy's tragic wish for someone to take the place of her charismatic father, but Ted Kennedy's jealous rage against the Clintons is a rather pathetic display. And please do not try to co-opt the passionate spirit of Robert Kennedy for the rather tepid, empty rhetoric of Mr. Barack Obama, especially when Robert Kennedy's family is backng Ms. Hillary Clinton. I was inspired by Robert Kennedy, and Mr. Obama you are no Robert Kennedy.

    The irony is that Barack Obama's Republican-accommodating approach seems similar to the moderate approach of Jimmy Carter. Before Ted Kennedy became so cynical he fought against that lame approach in the 1970's and 80's. I think that old Ted is just frustrated about the tragedy that has befallen his futile attempts at the Presidency, and he is taking it out on the Clintons.

  • I did not hear Bush or Sibellius...

    So my question: Is she cute or something? Why Sibellius as VP? If we need a white woman for VP, we have an obvious choice. Hint: She is a Democratic Senator, and she knows how to fight the vast right-wing conspiracy.

  • Wimpy

    Glad I'm not the only one who thought that sounded like a PTA meeting speech.

    Welcome Alex, and for the love of Pete, please don't start in campaigning for Obama.

    Tim Grieve was givin me a headache!

  • Hey, Alex

    When do we get a funny little drawing of you? And shouldn't Timmy's name be gone from the byline?

  • Bombastic??? Check Your Dictionary, please

    Fantastic is more like it.

    Alex, please re-read the speech or watch the video. There was nothing empty, flowery, inflated about it. He spoke simply but eloquently, and more pointedly than is typical in such rebuttals.

    I expect people on the cable news networks to routinely misuse the English language. I expect writers at salon.com to use it correctly.

  • Obama's latest speechwriter

    She wasn't responding to Bush's address. She was campaigning for Obama. Good grief, the more I hear this phony "come together, kumbaya" crap the more sickened and fearful I am that the majority of Americans will buy into it.

    Obama is like Bush. All hat. No cattle.

  • GOOD --- BARRY OBAMA HAS FINALLY TAKEN THE REINS OF THE VAST LEFT-WING CONSPIRACY

    obama has a funny looking head

  • obama has a funny looking head

    and Hillary clinton has a big fat ass

  • POPEYE for PRESIDENT [straight talk] --- "I y'am what I y'am, and that's all what I y'am"

    Ross Perot always looked & ackted & thunk & blabbered just like Amerika's Favorite Hero ---

    So just where are all the Popeyes in this year's election ??

    Ron Paul in swaby duds ? --

    Hmmmm, ---- nah, i dont tink so.

  • Webb was great last year

    But what has he done for us lately? Both he and Jon Tester have been huge disappointments. After a solid year of touting in the left-wing blogosphere, after elation at their election, they've dropped from the radar entirely. The progressive netroots arguably made the crucial difference that sent them to Washington, and they, embarrassingly, have not only failed to step up and lead but ended up wasting time and political capital on things like condemning MoveOn.

  • The Democratic response

    She seemed like she was reading a bed time story. The soft lighting, the tone, the fireplace in the background...it made me sleepy.

  • Dem response

    I listened for about a minute, got bored, turned off the TV.

  • Earth to Sebelius:

    The Democratic majority isn't "new." It came about in the elections of 2006. Maybe it still feels "new" to her because it hasn't done anything yet -- like the "new" hire at a company who actually arrived a year ago but justifies his complete lack of productivity by saying he's still finding his way around.

    The "new majority" smell wore off quite a while ago, Governor. And a different kind of stench -- that of complicity with and capitulation to the Republican minority -- has taken its place.

  • Where's the talk about earmarks?

    Didn't earmarks go down when the dems took over? And now, Bush thinks it's a good idea? The response wasn't even worth making.

  • How to Respond Without Responding

    Bush has done nothing other than damage. Congress has done nothing to check an exponential erosion of freedom, protection and well-being. Democrat leadership has tacitly agreed to allow that erosion to continue unabated. As a democrat, I am utterly embarrassed and at a complete loss to understand why democrats have rolled over while Bush has wrought havoc here, there and everywhere, including an unparalleled and unprecedented razing of the constitution.

  • Silly Response

    This response was weak and silly. The democrats would have been better off with no response than this give the republicans everything they want.How in the world did this nut get elected governor? She is as bad as Nancy Pelosi neither realize that the republican's are not going to give an inch to anything the democrats want to do.I just can't find the words to express how stupid this response was.