"The state of our union is getting stronger."
"The state of our union is grave."
Notice anything funny tonight?
Since the ascendancy of George W. Bush (name ring a bell, 'Pubs?), Republicans have ceded to Democrats their most precious assumed attributes. Dems have become the party of national security, the Mounties who actually get their man. With their insistence on a balanced revenue/spending approach, Ds are now the go-to guys and gals on fiscal responsibility.
Heck, you put Barack Obama's personal life up against, say, Newt Gingrich's, we're the party of family values.
Tonight, hearing the president's State of the Union address and the response from Gov. Daniels, I believe the 'Pubs have handed over their last stitch of Emperor's Clothes: their optimism.
From the dogged certainty of victory of the GOP's first president, through the blind, laissez-faire chipperness of Hoover and the simplistic morning-in-America boosterism of Reagan, even the sunny obtuseness of Junior, Republicans have always held the edge over Democrats in the "Gosh, darn it, things are pretty darn swell" department.
Not that President Obama's vision of the country was blindly hopeful. Mr. Nuance acknowledged the challenges and disparities we face. But he kept returning to the idea of how grand we are and how much grander we can be, painting the portrait of a people whose best days lie ahead, not behind.
In contrast, Mitch Daniels' response was straight up doom and gloom, no chaser. Despite his odd lack of affect, Gov. Daniels did his best to convey the image of a nation doomed, a frail boat headed for a "Niagra." (Really).
As I've said countless times, I am not the sharpest policy pencil in the school box. What I know of parliamentary procedure you could fit in the back pocket of a very tight pair of pants. IANALOMOAE (I Am Not A Lawyer Or Much Of Anything Else).
But I know propaganda. I know what messages ring my countrymen like bells.
And "Morning in America," true or not, deserved or not, beats "We're dooooooomed" every time.
That Republicans, once the masters of message, would cede their strongest meme, is beyond my ability to understand. But not to appreciate.
"Anyone who tells you our influence has declined or waned doesn't know what they're talking about."