From Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), here’s a look at some of the State of the Union rebuttals speeches from the 2000s.
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Washington (CNN) — Three speeches, three days.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is starting to look a lot like someone who is picking up the pace of a presidential campaign — complete with the perks and the challenges that come with it.
On Wednesday, she spoke to the University of Buffalo. Thursday, she returned to Washington for her place in the lineup of high-profile public figures at a conference the Center for American Progress was hosting. Friday night she did Colgate University’s “distinguished speakers” series in upstate New York.
Asked in Buffalo what her ideal presidential candidate in 2016 would look like, she said: “I’m not as interested in what the candidate looks like as what the candidate stands for and what the candidate really believes needs to be the agenda for America’s future, particularly as it relates to young people like students at this great university.”
And in what could be interpreted as either a slight dig at President Barack Obama — or at least a way of differentiating herself — she added, “and what the candidate brings to the table in terms of being able to not only present the agenda but have a very specific set of plans of implanting the agenda and bringing the country along.”
Candidate Obama, of course, was viewed by critics as a powerful speaker with less experience and less of a vision to implement, and Clinton could be playing on buyer’s remorse.
But the tests she might face on the left and the right were in play this week.
She didn’t veer far to the left in her remarks before the wonky liberal crowd at the St. Regis in Washington for the Center for American Progress gathering, but her presence was notable.
CNN contributor Ron Brownstein cautioned that if she faces a challenge in a Democratic primary, it’s likely to be from the liberal left.
“It is very hard to imagine somebody beating Hillary Clinton from the center of the party,” he said. “If there is going to be anybody who could even give her a tough time, it would be somebody coming from more of a fringe of the party, something kind of a tangent of the party — either a generational argument or a populist argument.”
Brownstein specifically mentioned Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has become a hero to the populist wing of the party, as a potential challenge to Clinton.
And yet, advantages come for politicians who are considered overwhelming frontrunners like Clinton. Just this week, liberal billionaire George Soros said he’s jumping on the bandwagon to draft Clinton into the 2016 race by becoming a co-chair of the “Ready for Hillary” super PAC’s finance team.
Even though Clinton is not exactly lining up donors and bundlers for her own campaign just yet, the commitment to her is a significant one in what could be a quest to sew up her left flank.
But she’ll have other issues on the right, if she reaches the general election.
On Wednesday, a protestor in Buffalo heckled her over the biggest black mark on her record, the death of four Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, during her tenure as Secretary of State. Democrats and Republicans alike say it could be her biggest weakness if she becomes her party’s nominee.
“Benghazi. You let them die,” the protestor said.
And that weakness leads some to wonder why Clinton is sticking her neck out so far so soon.
Brownstein said he’s surprised by how visible and vocal she’s been this fall.
“I think a lot of people thought that she would basically go under the radar for as long as possible to stay out of the fray, kind of shorten the race,” he said. “So it is a somewhat different strategy — maybe they are trying to sort of avoid the sense that she is kind of an imperial candidate who believes that this is hers by birthright or succession.”
Bill de Blasio speaks to supporters after taking a decisive lead in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. Plus, a wrap-up of speeches from his primary opponents Anthony Weiner, Christine Quinn and Bill Thompson and Republican primary winner Joe Lhota. Video: AP
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U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at Marine Corps Base-Camp Pendleton in California, August 7, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The economic policy speeches President Barack Obama has been delivering in recent weeks are turning out to be blunt attacks on Republicans, with an eye toward coming fiscal battles and the 2014 congressional elections.
Obama’s basic message across the country, most recently sounded on Tuesday in Arizona, is that while he has made great strides in improving the economy, further progress is being thwarted by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.
By obstructing his proposals, Republicans are hurting the nation’s “most vulnerable children,” Obama said, along with farmers, the military, home-buyers, middle-class job seekers, immigrants and businesses seeking to hire immigrants.
From Galesburg, Illinois, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Phoenix, Arizona, Obama has been unrelenting in tone, attacking “slash-and-burn partisanship,” “phony scandals,” and the “gutted” farm bill – all the work of Republicans now spoiling for a fight that “could plunge us back in financial crisis.”
Offering what he considers a moderate position on overhauling policies governing the housing industry, Obama said in Phoenix on Tuesday: “First, private capital should take a bigger role in the mortgage market. I know that’s confusing to folks who call me a socialist.” [ID:nL1N0G71IR]
Republicans, equally combative, began their counterattack even before Obama hit the road on July 24. “He ought to stop threatening to shut down the government unless we raise taxes,” House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said. “Americans aren’t asking the question ‘where are the speeches?’ They’re asking ‘where are the jobs?’”
The barbs are likely to continue for some time.
The president and Republicans in Congress confront two major spending showdowns this fall: the first over a bill in September to continue funding the government and the second, probably in October, to raise the government’s borrowing power so it can keep paying its bills.
CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISING WELL UNDER WAY
The midterm elections, held in years when a president is not being selected, are in November 2014 and fundraising by Democrats and Republicans is well under way. Both parties need issues to inspire contributions.
It is normal for a president to join the fray on behalf of his party in a midterm election, though White House officials insist that beyond fundraising for Democrats, Obama is not focused at all on the 2014 races.
“The president is focused on using every day in office to try to advance his agenda and when it comes to affecting the outcome of the midterms, the Republicans appear to be taking the lead on that,” said a senior White House official.
But bit by bit, Obama is building an argument for why he feels many Republicans are willing to do damage to the U.S. economy for political gain.
Brad Woodhouse, head of the liberal group Americans United For Change, said Obama’s speeches are helping to crystallize where the parties stand on the issues in a way that will prove helpful to Democrats in 2014.
“I think all of us would just prefer get the two parties together and get something done but I think it really does lay the groundwork for a foundation about priorities in midterms,” said Woodhouse.
The potential for a government shutdown over the budget is tricky politics for Obama. On the one hand, Americans have generally sided with the president against attempts to shut down the federal government over budget politics.
But on the other hand, Obama was widely viewed as the loser in the debate over $ 84 billion in “sequestration” budget cuts that began in March. In most cases, Americans have simply shrugged and gotten accustomed to the cuts.
This makes it essential for Obama to make sure the blame falls squarely on Republicans for a government shutdown should one occur this fall.
“It feels like a campaign and it feels like they are setting it up so he (Obama) can’t be blamed if they go to a government shutdown,” said one Democratic loyalist.
While the outcome of the budget showdown could potentially help Obama politically, he still faces difficulty in turning this into votes for more Democratic lawmakers in November 2014.
Democrats need a net gain of 27 seats to win control of the House. They control the Senate with a 54-46 margin and may see their majority narrowed in 2014.
Dave Wasserman, an expert on House races at the non-partisan Cook Political Report, said he could not see how Democrats can pick up House seats in 2014, but that Obama has to make an effort to improve chances that he can get some action taken on his agenda before he turns into a lame duck president.
“Obama has very little choice,” he said. “The parties in Congress are so polarized that he can’t reasonably search for Republican votes in the House. They simply aren’t there on big ticket issues.”
(Editing by Fred Barbash and Mohammad Zargham)
It’s that time of year. The sun is shining, the flowers are in bloom and all across America, graduating students are forced to endure that dreaded rite of passage, the commencement speech. Often boring, typically clichéd and frequently self-aggrandizing, commencement speeches form their own subgenre of fatuous prose.
Get out the barf bag! Here are a few choice orations from some of America’s most illustrious jerks.
1. Ivan Boesky at Berkeley, 1986
Ivan Boesky was a big-time stock trader who hustled his way to riches betting on corporate takeovers. On May 18, 1986 at the University of California, Berkeley, he shared these lustrous pearls of wisdom with business school students:
“Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”
Boesky clearly felt very good about himself at the time. But not for long. Several months after the address, Boesky was nabbed by the SEC when it found that his stock manipulations were often based on tips from corporate insiders which is –oopsie! – illegal. Mr. Greed soon found himself in possession of a nice prison cell.
Oliver Stone used Boesky’s speech as the inspiration for one given by the ethically challenged corporate raider Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film Wall Street. “Greed is good” became the catchphrase for Wall Street callousness and excess.
2. Jamie Dimon at Syracuse, 2010
Just two years after the Wall Street-driven crisis left many Americans itching to grab the nearest pitchfork, the JPMorgan Chase honcho was invited to speak to Syracuse students, despite a wave of protests. His speech pretty much alternates between insisting that he’s not like the rest of those banker a-holes and finding new ways to praise himself. He also makes a stab at humor:
“Graduating today means you are through with…the cold sweat of sleepless nights preparing to answer seemingly impossible questions. Well, that’s a feeling we banking executives know pretty well these days – we call it ‘testifying before Congress.’”
Haha! LOL! In 2012, Dimon demonstrated his coolness under pressure by calmly lying to Congress when questioned about the infamous London Whale fiasco in which billions of dollars went missing from his bank.
Which is interesting when you consider how much lip service he gave to the subject of honesty in his speech, including this gem: “One must be honest with one’s self to be accountable. Shakespeare said it best: ‘To thine own self be true.’” (Dimon evidently skipped English 101 in college, or he would have known that Shakespeare was being sarcastic.) It must be said that Dimon honestly likes being really rich, so in that sense he has remained remarkably true to himself.
3. Lance Armstrong at Tufts, 2006
The cyclist and doper extraordinaire gave the commencement speech at Tufts in 2006, where he was also awarded an honorary doctorate (since rescinded). The subject of Armstrong’s oratory was the need for students to follow his shining example and become actively engaged citizens. At one point he describes his cancer doctor speaking to him of the need to fight for the cure:
“I, of course, loved the idea that he wanted to talk to me about something that even mentioned the word "cure," thinking he might want to tell me he snuck me the secret stuff that works every time.”
Turns out Armstrong knew all about the secret stuff that works every time. Too bad for the millions of kids, sports fans and cancer patients who looked up to him.
4. Glenn Beck at Liberty University, 2012
Liberty University teaches its students that the Earth is 5,000 years old and that dinosaur bones washed up in Noah’s flood. So it’s little wonder that the school would not only select the loony and fact-averse Glenn Beck to address its graduating seniors (which included his daughter), but award him an honorary doctorate, a gesture that gave Beck the weepies.
“We live in a time when it seems truth is on the run,” said Beck, an observation that no doubt stemmed from watching reruns of his Fox TV show (since canceled). The man who says what people who aren’t thinking are thinking, as Jon Stewart aptly described Beck, began with various meditations on the evilness of Barack Obama and then launched into a tidal wave of homilies, which included a mandate that students always ”shoot to kill.” This from a man who was constantly warning of the inherent violence of the left.
5. John Ashcroft at Bob Jones University, 1999
Attorney general-designate John Ashcroft delivered a speech-cum-sermon to graduating students of Bob Jones University, the great bastion of Christian fundamentalism, in 1999.
“You could quote the Declaration with me, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus.”
All righty then! Social studies teachers across America, take note that the country"s founding document is actually a religious pronouncement.
But Ashcroft is just a godly sort of fellow. After having Clarence Thomas anoint him with oil, a ritual he insisted on before taking each office in his career (and which was once performed by his father with a dollop of Crisco), Attorney General Ashcroft expressed his unique vision of America’s holiness in his dedication to initiating secret detentions, thwarting gun control, and hounding physicians who help terminally ill patients commit suicide.
Ashcroft has also been famed for his Christian charity, evidenced in his reasons for vetoing funding for an AIDS care center when he was governor of Missouri: “Well, they"re there because of their own misconduct, and it wasn"t very reputable misconduct, either.”
He is now a highly paid lobbyist in Washington. God works in mysterious ways.
6. Alan Greenspan, Basically Everywhere
Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand acolyte and free-market fundamentalist, was a favorite commencement speaker at elite colleges for decades. As white-collar criminologist Bill Black put it, “his standard commencement speech while Fed Chairman was an ode to reputation as the characteristic that made possible trust and free markets.”
In his address to the 2005 class of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, the Master of Disaster goes to great lengths explaining how the markets magically regulate themselves and make themselves resistant to fraud without any need for oversight. Companies would not cheat or violate ethical standards, he assured, because they value their reputations and would quickly be driven out of business if they misbehaved. While acknowledging a few business scandals in the 1990s, Greenspan blithely asserted “We should not be surprised then to see a re-emergence of the value placed by markets on trust and personal reputation in business practice.” Bernie Madoff certainly hoped so.
Less than three years after Greenspan made that speech, the fraudulent and criminal behavior of large financial institutions nearly wrecked the global economy. And the crime wave continues, in part because of the widespread acceptance of Greenspan’s discredited economic theories.
7. Manny V. Pangilinan at Ateneo de Manila University, 2010
It’s so damn hard to think up what to say to graduating students. So why bother when you can just pinch someone else’s words? The great tradition of plagiarizing commencement speeches has been carried on by Ivy League valedictorians, law school students, politicians, deans, and school board chairmen.
Telecom mogul Manny V. Pangilinan, head of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Inc., made his mark in this fine tradition by admitting that his speech included portions lifted from commencement addresses given by Oprah Winfrey, Conan O’Brien, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and President Obama. (Like a true corporate titan, he blamed it on his speechwriter.)
In addition to the old “I was born poor” story and a variety of platitudes, Pangilinan’s speech contains a section on the various types of bosses students were likely to encounter in their careers, including despots and narcissists. He neglected to include cheats, which are easily just as abundant.
