Obama Versus Rubio - A Stark Contrast

As one would imagine, the political blogosphere is awash with commentary concerning last night's State of the Union address and Marco Rubio's stunningly poor response.  Obama tried to look forward and asked for Congress to act on both new initiatives and matters that have been held hostage by the economic saboteurs in the House GOP.  Rubio in contrast gave a speech that was an inspired retread of a Mitt Romney campaign speech except with even less enthusiasm and sincerity.  As I said in a post last night, if Marco Rubio is the supposed savior of the Republican Party, the party is in even worse shape than one might have thought.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the contrasting visions offered by Obama and Rubio last night.  Here are excerpts:

If you stepped back and looked at the big picture, it was pretty amazing: An African American man stood in the House chamber and gave his fifth State of the Union speech, and then the son of Cuban immigrants gave the opposition party’s response. It was a moment the country could be proud of.  If you focused more tightly on the speeches themselves, however, the earth did not move.

Let me clarify: I thought President Obama’s address was probably the best he had ever delivered in that august setting. All the ritual and ceremony of the SOTU tend to muffle Obama’s rhetoric, but there was ringing clarity in his call for Congress  .  .  .  .   I heard a president determined to do what he can through executive action. He seemed almost resigned to another year of sour gridlock.

Marco Rubio’s GOP response will be remembered for his awkward lunge for the water bottle. That’s a shame, because the speech itself was remarkable. Not in a good way.

At a moment when the Republican Party needs rebranding, Rubio offered nothing new. The thrust of his speech was “government bad, capitalism good.” Yet he recounted how beneficial government assistance has been to his own success. I expected him to resolve the contradiction, but he didn’t even try.  Someday, maybe Rubio will take the leap and begin to outline a 21st-century vision for the GOP. It would be good for the country if he did. Also if he remembered to hydrate.