Clintonesque. That's what all the talking heads were saying about the president's State of the Union. And they didn't mean long.
Clintonesque means Barack Obama projected confidence and optimism.
It means he connected with his audience, that he looked and sounded BIG. Not a whine in sight. Not an excuse to be heard. He was the president.
And most of all it means he grabbed the Republican's issues and forced them to squirm — trying to decide whether to stand and applaud or sit there, like John Boehner did for so much of the speech, looking uncomfortable.
Are you for giving local schools and communities more control over education?
Do you really think rich investors should pay higher taxes than hardworking folks who just earn their money?
More boots on the ground to police the border? Good or bad?
How about the fact that Osama bin Laden is dead and Americans are no longer fighting in Iraq?
And what about that moment when Gabby Giffords and the president embraced? Just a few tears...
Now, back to Mitt Romney's taxes and Newt Gingrich's lobbying and mineral mining on the moon. And — oh, yes — don't forget his temper tantrum, oft cited as one of the reasons he shut down the government: Newt wasn't happy about his seat on Air Force One for Yitzhak Rabin's funeral. Oh, sorry, all that and the adultery part and the rest was before he found redemption.
He was only in his 50s then.
The economy isn't where it needs to be, but it's on the right track. Right track/wrong track is the most important indicator of who wins. Wrong track, the incumbent loses. Right track, he should win.
The other gauge you watch is whether the candidate understands the problems of "people like me." Romney? The guy who wants you to understand that he should pay 15 percent while all of us poor slobs who work for a living pay more, because putting your money in the Cayman Islands or in a Swiss bank account is so much more productive. Sorry, guys. That doesn't play in Peoria. If ever there was a guy whom I can't imagine understanding the problems of working people, it is a governor's son who made millions and lives off the millions he gets for not working. He's going to connect with the pain of unemployment? Not.
Democrats have been worried, and with reason. They've been whining about their president, and for no reason if you ask me. This is certainly no time for complacency. Not even close.
But something changed on Tuesday night.
The president took the stage in front of a joint session of Congress as the leader of the country and the free world.
The Republicans kept throwing mud at one another in Florida, looking like petulant little boys.
Democrats started saying to one another: Maybe this is '96 again. Clintonesque.
To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
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13 Comments | Post Comment
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Obama and the SOTU bilge Clintonesque ? As in filled with hubris, lies, deceit and distortion? Or as in avoidance of the issues particularly the national debt of which obama is singularly responsible for over $5 trillion in just three seemingly endless horific three years ? Or as in avoidance of direct unarguable culpability for the worst economy in living history? Or as in avoidance of the broken promises by way of example the tax increases for every level of society enshrined in obamacare? Or maybe nearer to the truth as in the fact that obama is sodomizing the American people collectively from the oval office rather than just an intern in the oval office .
Comment: #1
Posted by: joseph wright
Thu Jan 26, 2012 2:44 PM
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Susan ohhhh you are so right!!! Everyone said to me obama is just like Bill. Is being like Bill Clintonesque? Who would have thought someone would come up with a nice way to describe a liar, cheat, disingenuous scumbag, and womanizer, Clintonesque. Hum is clintoneque suppose to be capitalized? lower class seems more appropriate don't you think? Great the way liberals can come up with something nice to say about everyone. clintoesque, I will have to remember that one!
Comment: #2
Posted by: bruce
Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:20 PM
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Dear Ms. Estrich,
Just how can you and other Liberals stand former president Bill Clinton after all the lies, betrayals of family, friends, and the American people?
As for former governor Mitt Romney being super wealthy: 1. It would be very difficult to 'buy' him! 2. Bill & Hillary went from a gov't salary to over $100,000,000 in eight years, yet why can they know and appreciate how the lower & middle class makes it in today's world, whereas Mitt Romney can't. I really doubt either knows anything about the lower & middle class!
Nuff Said...Dennis
Comment: #3
Posted by: Dennis
Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:41 AM
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Explaining Boehner's expression -
When you're listening to someone lie, lie and lie some more and you can't speak.
Comment: #4
Posted by: Early
Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:05 AM
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Not your usual balanced rhetoric, Ms Estrich. This could have been written by Michael Moore or Chris Matthews.
Comment: #5
Posted by: Motley Wisdom
Fri Jan 27, 2012 5:41 AM
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Clinton was not a Marxist!
Comment: #6
Posted by: Early
Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:51 AM
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---Yes, Clinton was a Marksist ----a la his Rockefeller blood link.
"understand, the BIG bankers ---were and ARE the source of
the USURY EUGENICS management system known as Marksism."
CHECK IT OUT ----Milner Group ---etc.
DEADLY
Comment: #7
Posted by: Mus ANon
Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:24 AM
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Re: Motley Wisdom
Susan IS Michael Moore and Chris Matthews! Just ask her!
Comment: #8
Posted by: Early
Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:53 AM
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Re: Mus ANon
Bill is a Socialist, Hilliary is the Marxist.
Comment: #9
Posted by: Early
Fri Jan 27, 2012 8:00 AM
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Clinton never even got fifty per cent in any election in which he ran for President.
Comment: #10
Posted by: Cowboy Jay
Fri Jan 27, 2012 11:56 AM
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Re: Cowboy Jay
Ah, the reason former president Bill Clinton never got 50%+ of the 1992 vote was because Ross Perot got 22% of the vote. Ask Ms. Estrich and any of her Liberal friends! Of course these are the same people who believed Bill Clinton's denials, and still fervently believe it all was a conservative conspiracy.
Of course if you believe a single vote meant for Bill Clinton went to Ross Perot, I have a gold mine I want to sell you!
I never heard of a single Liberal who voted for Ross Perot, and if one could be produced, they'd be rarer than a dodo bird.
Hmm, come to think of it, perhaps I can interest some of those Liberal Clintonites in buying my gold mine... They'll believe anything.
Nuff Said...Dennis
Comment: #11
Posted by: Dennis
Fri Jan 27, 2012 7:01 PM
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OMG! I must have had the wrong channel on! The speech I saw was nothing like the one Susan describes. Definitely, it was long and disjointed though well-read off the teleprompter-- that was certainly Clintonesque. But he's gutting the defense department and putting 150,000 military on the streets that already have 15% unemployment? We're pouring more borrowed money into more phone "green" jobs a week after he kills the Keystone Pipeline and the same week three more of the companies he's backed have declared bankruptcy and fired hundreds of workers? He doesn't mention that next year we'll be saddled with the horror of Obamacare that he only got passed through corruption and cronyism. He doesn't mention that we're $15 trillion in debt and our grandkids owe $45,000 each to pay for his disasterous administration? What planet are you on, Susan?
Comment: #12
Posted by: Lesley Barnard
Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:06 PM
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Could this possibly have been the same speech that Charles Krauthammer viewed and wrote on? His critique seemed much more in line with what what was actually said than Susan's.
Comment: #13
Posted by: Lillian Mitchell
Tue Jan 31, 2012 8:05 PM
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