Og næst á dagskrá: Jim Webb svarar ræðu forsetans

Ok - forsetinn var rétt í þessu að klára ræðuna, og á leiðinni út þurfti hann að skrifa eiginhandaráritanir fyrir herskara af senatorum. Það var eiginlega skemmtilegasti partur sjónvarpsútsendingarinnar. Og núna var Webb að byrja andsvar Demokrata! Byrjar vel... AmericaBlog er með allan teksta ræðu Webb. Hann byrjar vel...

It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President's message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.

Further, this is the seventh time the President has mentioned energy independence in his state of the union message, but for the first time this exchange is taking place in a Congress led by the Democratic Party. We are looking for affirmative solutions that will strengthen our nation by freeing us from our dependence on foreign oil, and spurring a wave of entrepreneurial growth in the form of alternate energy programs. We look forward to working with the President and his party to bring about these changes.

Og Webb hefur líka áhyggjur af millistéttinni og launafólki:

When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.

Webb bendir líka á hið augljósa:

The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable – and predicted – disarray that has followed.

The war's costs to our nation have been staggering.
Financially.
The damage to our reputation around the world.
The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism.
And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.

The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

Og nokkuð góður endir líka!

As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.

These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.

Thank you for listening. And God bless America.

M

Update: Chris Matthews á NBC hélt því fram að andsvar Webb hefði verið "sterkara" en ræða forsetans: "...this was perhaps for the first time since Ed Muskie delivered the Democratic adress in 1970, that the opposition response was stronger than the Presidents own state of the union address..." Þess er skemst að minnast að árið 1970 var Richard Mihlouse Nixon forseti Bandaríkjanna, og að vinsældir Bush núna eru jafn litlar og vinsældir Nixon þegar hann þurfti að segja af sér í kjölfar Watergate!

 

Athugasemdir

[Pétur Gunnarsson, 24.1.2007 kl. 13:35]

Chris Matthews virðist alveg búinn að snúast, hann nánast slefaði af hrifningu þegar Codpiece var og hét - en það á kannski við um alla amerísku pressuna að hún er að missa sitt ótrúlega langlundargeð.

[Þorvarður Ragnar Hálfdanarson, 25.1.2007 kl. 03:02]

Ágætis ræða hjá Webb. Beinskeytt og að mestu laus við kjaftæði.

[FreedomFries, 25.1.2007 kl. 03:36]

Sæll Pétur! Það kom mér líka á óvart að heyra Chris Matthews segja að Webb hefði komið betur út en Bush - Matthews hefur verið ein dyggasta klappstýra Bush síðustu árin. Pressan er sem betur fer hætt að slefa af hrifningu - eins og þú orðar það réttilega! (það var hræðilegt að hlusta á fréttir eða lesa blöð 2002, 03 og 04). En ef ég þekki Matthews rétt verður hann farinn að tala um "leiðtogahæfileika Bush" og hversu frábær forseti hann er við fyrsta tækifæri.

Og ég er sammála þér Þorvarður - ræða Webb var djöfulli góð. Horfðirðu á hann í sjónvarpinu í gær? Mér fannst hann líka koma vel fyrir. Nema þetta vesen með ljósmydina. Það fór svolítið fyrir ofan garð og neðan.