2/25: After Round 1, It's Obama 1, Jindal 0

Liberal bloggers loved Pres. Obama's speech to Congress, and they're buzzing about the various polls indicating that most Americans liked the speech as well. The netroots are especially happy about what they perceived to be Obama's "unapologetic, undefensive, and full-bodied embrace of progressive policies." What excites so many lefty bloggers about Obama is that they believe that he has the rhetorical gifts to make a convincing case for "a progressive and active government" -- and they think that Obama did a great job of making this case last night.

Of course, this is precisely what frightens conservative bloggers about Obama. Most righty bloggers conceded that Obama's delivery was excellent, but they're horrified by the agenda he laid out in his speech. As one conservative blogger wrote following Obama's speech: "Oratorywise, so good. Ideawise, so weak. Combination, so dangerous." Righty bloggers are accusing Obama of advocating "a bold list of socialist policies" in his speech, they're worried that his oratorical skills will enable him to convince Americans to accept the "slippery slope to socialism" that his ideas represent. Rich Lowry warns: "[Obama]'s trying to redefine extensive government activism as simple pragmatism, and if he succeeds, might well shift the center of American politics for a generation."

Meanwhile, liberal bloggers universally panned Gov. Bobby Jindal's (R-LA) response to Obama's speech, mocking his "sing songy" cadence and his "stale ideas". The majority of conservative bloggers were also critical of Jindal's delivery, even though they liked the content of his speech. Philip Klein writes: "He may be brilliant, but presentation matters too, and this was a lackluster performance."

OBAMA SPEECH: Another Speech, Another Home Run

Liberal bloggers loved Obama's speech:

• MyDD's Todd Beeton: "What an incredible speech. If the image of the President entering the hall to give his first address to congress didn't get you, surely the content and delivery of the speech did. It was tough, honest, compassionate and chills-inducing, if not tear-inducing on several occasions. He expressed justified righteous anger toward his predecessor but also offered hope to a nation desperately in need of it. President Obama gave the speech that our times required and the off the charts levels of approval from the MSNBC dial poll respondents reflected this."
• FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver: "I thought that [speech] was done, very, very well. If the country/markets/etc. were looking for a symbolic pivot point, this might have been it."
• Firedoglake's Ian Welsh: "[A]nother excellent speech and some policy proposals and rhetoric in it that the most die hard liberal can believe in."
• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "That was some speech last night by President Obama. [...] He was very good -- and set the right tone. Very impressive. We've got a real president now."
• The Huffington Post's Robert L. Borosage: "[T]he president demonstrated clearly once more that he is a leader who can educate and inspire Americans. And he uses that mastery to make the case for a progressive and active government investing in our future. No longer will the president scorn the government that he leads."
• Obsidian Wings' publius: "Make no mistake -- this speech was an unapologetic, undefensive, and full-bodied embrace of progressive policies. Obama walked up there tonight in front of the entire country and endorsed the most liberal legislative agenda since LBJ. I loved it. In front of everyone, he stated that he would pursue major legislative efforts on energy, national health care, and education. Then he said he would raise taxes on rich people. Then he said he would cut spending on bloated defense and agribusiness subsidies. Then he reaffirmed that we would withdraw combat troops from Iraq. Then he reminded the country that he is closing Gitmo -- and explained the national security rationale for doing so. Say what you will about this speech, but there was nothing meek or defensive about it. It was a big speech about big things in historic times."

OBAMA SPEECH II: The Danger He Represents

Most conservative bloggers agreed with their liberal counterparts that Obama delivered his speech well, but they sharply criticized his message:

• The Cato Institute's Will Wilkinson: "Oratorywise, so good. Ideawise, so weak. Combination, so dangerous."
• The New Ledger's Pejman Yousefzadeh: "[W]hile the delivery of the speech was excellent, the actual content left much to be desired."
• AmSpec Blog's Klein: "President Obama gave a characteristically well-delivered speech, and one that demonstrates why he has the potential to be a transformational liberal leader. Sure, his contradictory goals don't stand up to much scrutiny. He says we'll all have to give up some of our priorities even while outlining the most expansive domestic agenda in decades. He says he doesn't believe in bigger government, but vows to pump more money into banks, bail out homeowners, set up a fund to provide auto loans, and spend billions more on education and energy. [...] At some point, he'll face his own day of reckoning, when his rhetorical flourishes will be swatted down by reality. But until that day comes, he'll get much of what he wants. The big question is how much damage he can do before the public catches on to him."
• Townhall's Hugh Hewitt: "The trouble with the speech, of course, is that what the president promises to do simply cannot be done, because the costs are so staggeringly high that the economy cannot bear all or even most of them absent the sort of renewed economic growth that soaring tax rates will snuff out. [...] The president's talk was well phrased and beautifully delivered, and deeply disconnected from the realities of economic growth."
• Right Wing News' John Hawkins: "[W]e essentially have an off-the-charts liberal, who wants to radically change our country, promising everything to everybody and counting on the mainstream media to keep the American people in the dark about the enormity of the changes he's making and the fact that he can't possibly keep his contrasting promises."
• Power Line's Paul Mirengoff: "Oddly, I think Obama is so gifted an orator that he can sell this nonsense, at least on this night. His magical mystery tour is coming to take us away, and plenty of Americans are dying to be taken."

NRO's Lowry sums up the fears of many on the right: "[Obama]'s trying to redefine extensive government activism as simple pragmatism, and if he succeeds, might well shift the center of American politics for a generation."

OBAMA SPEECH III: What Are You Guys Talking About? He Sucked!

A few conservative bloggers criticized both the content and the delivery of Obama's speech, but they were in the minority:

• RedState's Dan Spencer: "All things considered this was not a very good performance for a president widely perceived as a truly great orator."
• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "I thought President Obama was surprisingly ineffective tonight. He started as I expected he would, with optimistic, Rooseveltian assurances. But that theme was forgotten long before the speech ended. Assuming it did finally end -- Obama went on far too long, and television sets were turning off all across America, well before it was over. I didn't make it to the end. I'm sure millions of others didn't, either."
• RedState's Erick Erickson: "There are too many questions out of this speech. He contradicted himself. He refused to give details, just boilerplate pablum. The great oratory failed."

JINDAL SPEECH: Kenneth The Page?

The netroots universally panned Jindal's response to Obama's speech, with many bloggers comparing his sing-song cadence to that of the "30 Rock" character Kenneth The Page:

• TPM's Josh Marshall: "I thought Jindal's comments and presentation was just weird and cringy and awful."
• Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias: "Bobby Jindal apparently believes it's appropriate to address the citizens of the United States in a tone that suggests we're all nine years old."
• Firedoglake's Eli: "Why does he sound like he's narrating a children's movie?"
• Silver: "If it sounds like Jindal is targeting his speech to a room full of fourth graders, that's because he is. They might be the next people to actually vote for Republicans again."
• Beeton: "Is it just me, or does Bobby Jindal sound an awful lot like Kenneth from 30 Rock?"
• Sudbay: "[Jindal] was awful. Unimpressive and uninspiring. [...] Let's admit it: Sarah Palin has nothing to worry about from Jindal."

Of course, liberal bloggers also criticized the content of Jindal's speech:

• TAPPED's Dana Goldstein: "[Jindal's] basic message was that government causes problems, and can't fix them. The thing is, during this time of economic uncertainty, Americans are looking toward government for help and reassurance, not for a cold shoulder."
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "[A]s bad as Jindal's performance was, his ideas were even worse -- tax cuts, drilling, school vouchers, spending bad, government bad. Why bother picking a fresh face if all the party has to offer is stale ideas? Why ask a young governor with a reputation for innovation to present the same old agenda that the GOP has pitched for a generation?"
• Ezra Klein: "[This is] a speech that [House Min. Leader John] Boehner could have given in 2007 and that [ex-Senate Maj. Leader Bill] Frist could have given in 2005 and that [ex-Senate Maj. Leader Trent] Lott could have given in 1998 and that [ex-House Speaker Newt] Gingrich could have given in 1993. Jindal made a mistake accepting the GOP's invitation to give this response. Yesterday, he seemed like a different kind of Republican. Today, he doesn't."

JINDAL SPEECH II: Speaking Of Natural Disasters...

Liberal bloggers were especially critical of two things Jindal said in his speech. First of all, they blasted him for invoking the government response to Hurricane Katrina as an argument against the stimulus bill:

"Today in Washington, some are promising that government will rescue us from the economic storms raging all around us. Those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina, we have our doubts."

• Sudbay: "[U]sing Katrina as an example to tout the GOP? That was sheer brilliance."
• digby: "[M]y God, I'm gobsmacked by the fact that he actually raised Katrina in the way he did, suggesting that they didn't need government help. I just don't know what to say about that."
• AMERICAblog's John Aravosis: "Let's think for a moment. Who was it who abandoned New Orleans again? Uh, that would be the Republican president who ignored Katrina, the Republican presidential candidate who ate an oversized birthday cake in California while citizens of New Orleans drowned, and the Republican Congress who refused to investigate what went wrong. Your point would be what exactly, Mr. Jindal? That voters shouldn't trust Republicans to protect them in time of need?"
• Klein: "It's as if [GOPers] don't think Americans are smart enough to remember who was running the government in 2005."

Liberal bloggers also hammered Jindal for criticizing a provision in the stimulus bill that provides funds for volcano monitoring:

"While some of the projects in the [stimulus] bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes...$140 million for something called 'volcano monitoring.' Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC."

• MyDD's Jonathan Singer: "Jindal coming out against volcano monitoring? Really? Really? Someone from a state that was devastated by a natural disaster doesn't believe in trying to detect natural disasters to warn Americans and save lives?"
• Silver: "Such a strange thing for Jindal to say, especially since he hails from the state that was ravaged by Katrina."
• Yglesias: "What's with the attack on 'something called "volcano monitoring"'? Volcano monitoring is where they monitor volcanos. So as to better understand, better predict, and better prepare for natural disasters. Is that so complicated? Are only hurricanes worth responding to?"
• MyDD's Charles Lemos: "[T]here are 169 volcanoes in the United States. Eighteen of them have been designated as 'Very High Threat Volcanoes' by the United States Geological Survey. Twelve of these have been active or erupted within the last 200 years and eight since 1984. [...] And yet the Governor of a state that was devastated by a natural disaster just three and half years ago thinks that it is too much to spend $140 million, as he put it, 'for something called "volcano monitoring".'"

JINDAL SPEECH III: Good Content, Bad Delivery

Many conservative bloggers criticized Jindal's delivery, even though they liked his message:

• NRO's Jim Geraghty: "I thought the text of Jindal's argument was fine, but the governor's delivery just wasn't working for me. He seemed to have somehow figured out a way to speak too quickly and too slow at the same time. [...] His remarks sounded like they were being read aloud, not spoken naturally."
• Klein: "The substance of his speech read fine, but his delivery was absolutely awful. It's true that whoever delivers the response from a quiet room somewhere is always at a disadvantage, and these type of speeches are rarely memorable. But I thought Jindal came off particularly bad. His delivery was flat and his jokes and anecdotes were awkward, his grin childish. He seemed more like a high school student giving a valedictory speech than a potential future leader of the party. He may be brilliant, but presentation matters too, and this was a lackluster performance."
• Townhall's Amanda Carpenter: "There was a cheesy, salesman-like quality to the response that I don't think connected with the Rick Santelli-inspired anger so many Republicans are feeling right now. And, I'm pretty sure he's going to be SNL's next target. His speech tempo was just, so weird. Enough complaning from me. He didn't pass the primetime test and it makes me sad. I don't want to dwell."
• Glenn Reynolds: "Jindal's reply? I'd say so-so. [...] I thought he was adequate but not great. Audio problems didn't help. Also, work out some, Bobby. Obama has opened space up for skinny guys with big ears, but..."
• Hawkins: "I thought Jindal was good, but not great. He was a bit wooden at first and didn't hit the Democrats as hard as I would have liked. That said, he got better as he went on, was optimistic, had some really good stories, and offered some real options on tax care, health care, and schools."
• The Next Right's Matthew Gagnon: "Barack Obama is a hard man to follow, no doubt about it. [...] But by all measures, Jindal failed, and he failed for a number of reasons."
• Hot Air's Allahpundit: "This was his star turn and he came off wooden, especially at the beginning. Oh well. His loss is the rest of the GOP governors' gain."

JINDAL SPEECH IV: C'mon Guys, Lay Off Bobby

Other righty bloggers defended Jindal:

• Townhall's Matt Lewis: "[T]hose who obsess over his delivery are missing the bigger story. Jindal tonight was likable, his personal story was compelling, and he offered a positive vision of conservatism for America. While it is rare for one speech to change a nation's trajectory, it can at least be said that tonight's speech was one step in the right direction."
• Michelle Malkin: "I thought his delivery was fine. And it's always better to have lowered expectations, anyway. Otherwise, you end up with...the inconquerable hype of the Obamessiah. [...] I'll take Bobby Jindal's genuine faith in American entrepreneurship over Barack Obama's fear-mongering-turned-faux Reaganism any day. His actions and his actual record -- reforming his state's decrepit health care system, fixing higher ed, serving in Congress, tackling entitlement reform, managing natural emergencies, etc. -- remain mightily impressive."
• AmSpec Blog's Wlady Pleszczynski: "Jindal could have been Demosthenes or Al Pacino or Justin Timberlake and he would have come across as lame and out of his depth. There's just no way anyone can follow a gifted political performer like Obama wowing the country and the Congress at his first (de facto) State of the Union appearance. [...] Yet compared to the few other times I've seen Jindal in action, he seemed pleasant, relaxed, a bit youthful, but genuinely friendly and decent. [...] Even in its current condition, the GOP could do a lot worse than have a Bobby Jindal taking it."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: An Open Field For Liberalism?

The Atlantic's Ross Douthat offers his thoughts on Obama's speech and Jindal's response:

"Obama was fantastic -- worlds better than his inaugural. He laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda of any Democratic President since LBJ, and did it so smoothly that you'd think he was just selling an incremental center-left pragmatism. I think that he has an acute sense -- more acute than most people in Washington, probably -- of just how much running room is open in front of him at the moment, and he intends to make the absolute most of it. Burkean temperament or no, this was not a Burkean speech by any stretch: It was the speech of a man seeking to turn a moment of crisis into a domestic-policy revolution, and oozing confidence from every pore along the way. Now all he has to do is find a way to pay for it ...

And Jindal -- yeah, he was just as lousy as everybody's saying. As far as themes and messaging went, he basically chose option A on [Marc] Ambinder's list -- government isn't the solution; pork is the problem; etc. -- and embedded it in a weak, sing-song delivery that I suspect left even the people who respond favorably to that message cold. Sure, responding to a Presidential speech is almost always a thankless, hopeless job -- but shouldn't someone as smart as Jindal have recognized that, and either turned the opportunity down flat, or found a way to sound like something other than a kindergarten teacher delivering familiar GOP talking points? In the event, his speech was the capstone on a lousy night for conservatism: If that's the best the Right has to offer as a rebuttal to Obama, American liberalism is going to be running untouched down the field for years to come."

LEST WE FORGET: Area Man Thought He Had More Forks Than This

From The Onion:

"CHARLOTTE, NC -- Rummaging through his silverware tray Thursday morning, database administrator Ben Pagano, 30, was shocked to discover that he owned far fewer forks than previously assumed. 'What the hell? I thought I had a bunch of them,' Pagano said after double-checking the tray's knife compartment and his bedroom nightstand for any wayward forks. 'Didn't I have, like, six when I moved in here? I wonder if Bill took some when he moved out.' At press time, 11 of Pagano's forks and his missing wristwatch were still in the apartment's broken dishwasher, which none of the roommates had opened since April."