Speeches

The NY Times has the text of both Obama's speech and the Republican response, given by Gov. Bobby Jindal, an up-and-comer for the elephants. The Obama speech I will leave to you, because I expect you will read it. However, you might have skipped the response, expecting it to be the same tired cliches. In part, it was, but it also had an excellent mea culpa, which could serve the GOP well if they stick to it:

We believe the way to strengthen our country is to restrain spending in Washington, to empower individuals and small businesses to grow our economy and create jobs.

In recent years, these distinctions in philosophy became less clear. Our party got away from its principles. You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline, and personal responsibility.

Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust, and rightly so.

Tonight, on behalf of our leaders in Congress and my fellow Republican governors, I say this: Our party is determined to regain your trust. We will do so by standing up for the principles that we share, the principles you elected us to fight for, the principles that built this in the greatest, most prosperous country on Earth.

Now, the governor is one of those folks saying he might turn down some of the stimulus money (we'll see what he actually does - maybe he'll re-read his Keynes before the money ship arrives, and change his mind). We'll see how voters react if he does so (we'll see how the stimulus does, too).