January 29, 2003
NON-RESPONSIVE:
Democrats Say the Nation Heads in Wrong Direction': The Democratic governor chosen to respond to President Bush faulted the president on the economy and national security. (CARL HULSE and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, 1/28/03, NY Times)[T]he selection of Mr. Locke was recognition of the party's fortunes in Congress, as well as a desire to present a fresh image. While the opposition's response to the State of the Union address is most often delivered by a lawmaker, the Democrats instead offered the nationally televised spot this time to their governors' association, to showcase a figure from outside Washington and shine a light on the statehouses, one of the few bright spots for the party in November.Mr. Locke, of Chinese ancestry, stressed his roots as he began his speech.
"My grandfather came to this country from China nearly a century ago and worked as a servant," he said. "Now I serve as governor just one mile from where my grandfather worked. It took our family a hundred years to travel that mile."
On foreign affairs, the governor tried to strike a balance between support for a popular president at a time of international tension and encouraging that president to avoid acting unilaterally against Iraq.
"We are far stronger when we stand with other nations than when we stand alone," said Mr. Locke, who, like other Democrats, also noted that while Mr. Bush was focused on Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, remained at large.
Granted it's an awfully tough job, but who in the Democrat Party thought it would be a good idea to have someone most of the country has never heard of, who has no foreign policy experience, give the rebuttal to a run up to war? His personal story is fine, in its place, but this isn't exactly the moment to stress immigration and it certainly had nothing to do with confronting Saddam. The governor was punching way above his weight. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 29, 2003 1:34 PM
That "100 year" line went clank for me. It seemed to me he was complaining about how long it took for an immigrant's grandchild to become governor.
Posted by: David Cohen at January 29, 2003 2:11 PMThe irony of this fellow offering his ancestral story, and then defending Affirmative Action, may have been lost on the Dems.
Posted by: Tom Maguire at January 29, 2003 2:11 PM"100 years to go a mile"
Sounds like the Democratic offensive to take Baghdad.
I didn't bother watching. Someone noted elsewhere that he seemed nice but came across like an 8th grade science teacher.
Dems don't look good by putting up a novice little known governor to follow the SOTU. Yes the SOTU is a tough act to follow but the fact that Daschle, Pelosi, Kerry, etc. didn't do the response shows that they can't take Bush on head to head.
I looked at Article 2, Section 3, and nowhere can I find something about how the after "giv[ing] Congress Information of the State of the Union.." that his opponents get a shot at him by giving some poor schlub face-time to make himself look pathetic.
What we need is for some of the broadcast press to have the guts to put an end to this particular farce, and go back to regular programming, or immediately into their analysis and ignore the "rebuttal."
(As for "100 years"-- the new gov of Michigan was born in Canada. Does that mean the rate of becoming governors varies among immigrant groups, some taking 100 years for the grandchildren, others doing it themselves?)
There's also nothing about the Pres. giving a speech, a modern innovation of, I think
Posted by: oj at January 29, 2003 7:04 PM