Yeah. Me too. But then, we're not George W. Bush.
Here's the Washington Post's Tom Shales on the speech:
Last night Bush was assertive nearly to the point of bellicosity as he discussed his pursuit of the war in Iraq and his version of U.S. foreign policy, which dominated the second half of the speech. "We will deliver justice to our enemies," he said with a kind of Old Testament thunder. "Al-Qaeda is on the run in Iraq, and this enemy will be defeated," he declared, adding, a little later, "We will not rest until this enemy has been defeated."
He did not speak softly, but he carried a big shtick.
The Republicans in the House chamber naturally loved it and interrupted the president with applause more times than even he appeared to expect. There was one dramatic wide shot of the chamber right after Bush demanded renewed funding for the interception of communications among terrorist groups. "The time to act is now," he said, and in the shot one could see precisely half the assemblage -- the Republican half -- rise as if one person, while the Democrats, in the foreground, sat still in their seats.
Will somebody please tell members of both parties that all the standing and knee-jerk applause amakes them all look like complete and utter sycophants?And so, by the way, does the pleading way in which they thrust out their programs for Bush to sign..... ¶ 6:21 AM
: January 29, 2008 11:27 AMWhy?
This is another instance of fake journalistic 'balance.' It's a knee-jerk response to the process of typing anything that might seem to a Martian to be partisan, and it makes you like foolish.
And in any event, when Bill Clinton was president, the Democrats did the exact same thing.
So, yes, members of both parties.
You are very quick to decry "balance," but in fact, sometimes balance really is fairness.
Maybe you'd like to give an example of Democratic herd-mentality applause lines from the 90s. I seem to recall that maintaining party unity was a challenge for Clinton, and that Theda Skocpol wrote an excellent book about that fact.
Try not just saying things cause they sound like they might be true.
SE
I don't know Skocpol's book—apologies, I'm sure that, as someone who was covering politics during that decade, I should —but you don't have to be a brilliant political scientist to know that Clinton had trouble maintaining party unity, whether it was raising taxes early in his first term or health care or during the Lewinsky scandal.
That said, the Democrats did exactly the same thing that the Republicans did during various States of the Union—hopped to their feet on cue, clapping their hands together like trained poodles.
This is from memory, but I believe that silly tradition started during the Reagan presidency.
But to me, it's more offensive when Democrats stand because they're afraid that they'll look unpatriotic or something if they don't...
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