Bring Back Jim Webb!

It's hard to be a worse speaker than George W. Bush. But Kathleen Sebelius, the Democratic governor of Kansas, gave it a shot. Sebelius gave the Democratic response to the State of the Union. She's not a good speaker—she's obviously glued to the teleprompter, and the speech itself is awful. It's really too bad, because this could have been a great moment for the Democrats. Bush's speech is already being dismissed as a lame duck's list of unfulfilled plans and missed opportunities. Democrats could have capitalized on that. But instead of trying to draw a clear election-year contrast between her party and the huge numbers of congressional Republicans who are still loyal to Bush, Sebelius mailed it in.

My colleague Jonathan Stein points out (correctly) that this is a fundamentally Obama-esque speech. It's calling for unity; it's calling for transcendence. But Obama's speeches take it further than Sebelius did: he uses the force of his personality and charisma to bring people together in the service of progressive goals. Sebelius made a somewhat empty plea for the end of partisanship. It may be a product of Obama's superior speaking ability; it may be the fact that Sebelius had only ten minutes (or thereabouts) to get her message across.

Point is: Obama has ignited something within the Democratic Party, regardless of whether or not he wins the presidency. There will doubtless be Obama wannabes (Obamannabes?) in the next few election cycles. We may have seen the first tonight.

Update: David Corn, our Washington bureau chief, has problems with the whole idea of a State of the Union "response" speech. Instead, David thinks the minority party should send someone out to riff off whatever the President says. He says it would be more spontaneous, more interesting, and more effective than sending out an apparently randomly chosen Governor, Representative, or Senator to read off a teleprompter in monotone. (Although he admits Jim Webb was good). Anyway, I agree, and not just because he's my boss. The current format does not work.

Comments

The Sebelius speech put me to sleep.

But I have to disagree with you on "it may be the fact that Sebelius had only ten minutes (or thereabouts) to get her message across."

Think about the shortness of soundbites, especially in this youtube world. She could have said simply "Bush s*cks. America will be better with him gone." and left the stage and been more effective.

Or she could have attacked proposal by proposal as partisan, unfullfilled, or fantasy (as in tax cuts are fantasy if they increase the debt, which will be paid in the future, or push costs to states, which increases state taxes). And then say why was Bush asleep at the wheel for 7 years if he really wanted this. And then call him "Rip Van Bush".

Either of which could be done easily in 10 minutes, heck maybe even 2 or 3. And either would have stolen the headline from Bush and stalled even the miniscule momentum he would otherwise have from the speech.

Posted by: TarGator on 01/29/08 at 5:22 AM Respond

The Democrats have become adept at missing the entire point of just about anything. One could suppose that will happen while pandering to the lowest common denominator. The Democratic Party is locked into a downward spiral of abysmal failure. Nancy Pelosi claims, "leadership? We don't need no stinking leadership!"

Posted by: Skulz Fontaine on 01/29/08 at 5:55 AM Respond

Everyone is so bloody negative. I thought Mojo was suppose to deliver good, honest journalism. Why put people down so much? Calling Sebelius as much of a sleeper as George Bush in one sentence and likening her to Obama in the next? Yikes. It's negative and poorly written.

And there's no story here until you get to the end of this blog where we finally figure out what you're trying to say - responses to the state of the union are unnecessary. Particularly when little is said.

Posted by: Cathrin Beaumont on 01/29/08 at 7:53 AM Respond

I have to agree. She looked like a deer caught in headlights. I am not sure why the DNC didn't slam dunk Bush last night...it can't be moral highground. They seem to be missing opportunities rather spectacularly.

Posted by: Kristina on 01/29/08 at 2:24 PM Respond

She seemed robotic bordering on Romney.

Posted by: Kyle on 01/29/08 at 4:21 PM Respond