Sebelius

This is bad. On the other hand, SOTU responses are always bad. On an appropriate curve, I think she's doing pretty well. But on another level, it's just an impossible task; I think a sensible person would refuse to do it. In policy terms, I basically agree -- S-CHIP good, global warming bad, etc., etc.

UPDATE: As many people are reminding me both in comments and IRL, Jim Webb gave a good response last year. Sebelius is, at any rate, better than such fiascos as Tim Kaine 2006 and Gary Locke 2003.

Comments

Webb was good last year.

Posted by UberMitch | January 28, 2008 10:24 PM

Jim Webb's response was awesome. Strong, confident & smart. It can be done.

Posted by Kay | January 28, 2008 10:25 PM

This corpse is supposed to be the next best thing for the democrats? Jeebus, good luck with that.

Posted by JBJB | January 28, 2008 10:25 PM

Too slow/stiff.

Posted by mad6798j | January 28, 2008 10:25 PM

Seriously. I guess the way to win in Kansas is to lull the electorate to sleep.

Posted by Jake | January 28, 2008 10:25 PM

Damn you UberMItch she says, shaking her face and facing the moon.

Posted by Kay | January 28, 2008 10:26 PM

Is there a legal requirement that the response be delivered from a small, wood-paneled warren with a crackling fire? I mean, sure, it looks comfy. But an audience might help lend some energy to the presentation.

Posted by southpaw | January 28, 2008 10:26 PM

Damn you UberMItch she says, shaking her fists and facing the moon.

Posted by Kay | January 28, 2008 10:26 PM

She even tops it off with wishing everyone a good night's sleep.

Posted by mad6798j | January 28, 2008 10:27 PM

Another episode of "Government will take care of you, no personal responsibility needed."

Posted by Nicole | January 28, 2008 10:27 PM

It was boring.

The only interesting part was the use of Obama language - "a new majority" of people looking for change.

Posted by Neil | January 28, 2008 10:29 PM

My ex-wife was from Kansas. This explains the "ex-" portion of that phrase. Oy.

Posted by docciavelli | January 28, 2008 10:30 PM

docciavelli:
Yeah, the speech sucked. But the "ex-" part is more plausibly explained by your reflexive need to view people as fleshy stereotypes.

Posted by Kansan | January 28, 2008 10:34 PM

1) Bush and the Republicans have fucked this country like dogs for the past 7 years -- and there's not the slightest PEEP from the Democratic spokesperson???

2) Not even a mention that Bush's call for a balanced budget is the height of two-faced deceit given the $4 Trillion in debt he has raised and pissed away in the past 7 years.

3) God, I am fortunate. That I will never have to follow these fucking zombies into combat.

Posted by Don Williams | January 28, 2008 10:35 PM

Why is it that a fucking REPUBLICAN Congressman named Ron Paul is a far more scathing critic of the Bush regime than our alleged leaders??

I guess I can see the reason for Democratic leadership's calm. THEY , after all, haven't suffered under Bush -- just the constituents who trusted in them.

Posted by Don Williams | January 28, 2008 10:39 PM

Seriously. I guess the way to win in Kansas is to lull the electorate to sleep.

And that's why she simply MUST be Obama's VP nominee. Seriously, how are you going to beat her? You can't. It's like running a race against your own mother. How do you win a race against your mother? Can't be done. Debate your mother? If she's as boring as Sebelius, everyone will just assume she's right on every last thing she says and any sort of disagreement will just be frowned upon. Grandma knows best.

I dub this theory the Grandma Reagan Effect.

If Reagan was your grandfather, Sebelius is your grandmother. You don't question grandma.

Posted by Abe | January 28, 2008 10:43 PM

Why even bother trying to craft a response that rebuts or spins the points the President makes? Seems a better use of the air time and public attention would be to simply outline their own agenda. That way the response wouldn't come off as some bland 11th hour speech.

Posted by Andrew | January 28, 2008 10:44 PM

Yeah, she's wooden, but I enjoyed her rebuke of Bush for refusing to sign S-CHIP with the words "That's what grownups do."

Posted by MikeT | January 28, 2008 10:48 PM

It was a little deer in the headlights ...

But that speech will look a little different once she officially endorses Obama in a day or two. She used tons of Obama's language in there -- really direct quotes, in fact. She made "Obama-speak" (yes, I made that up!) the language of the Democratic Party's official response. That's significant.

Posted by Callimaco | January 28, 2008 10:49 PM

It seemed like maybe her teleprompter was slow or something. There was a significant pause after every line.

Posted by ben | January 28, 2008 10:58 PM

1) The Sebelius speech is what will save George W Bush. While he's not the brightest bulb on the Christmas Tree, the voters know that at least he's not doped to the gills with Valium.

2) I wonder if there's any Republicans out there who smoke pot? If so, a videotape of this Sebelius speech would definitely be a keeper -- it would send them into gales of uncontrollable laughter ever 30 seconds.

Posted by Don Williams | January 28, 2008 10:59 PM

I was struck by the Obama-speak too.

I was also struck by how, when she was talking about the costs of Iraq and the war "against terrorism", she didn't say "OH AND BY THE WAY MR PRESIDENT. YOU SAID AMERICA DOESN'T FUCKING TORTURE. AND IT TURNS OUT WE DO. WE DO FUCKING TORTURE. PLEASE STOP FUCKING TORTURING."

Which seemed like a missed opportunity.

Posted by william | January 28, 2008 11:02 PM

Sebelius is only 59 - she's more like one's mom than grandma, I should think, unless one is a very small child.

Posted by John | January 28, 2008 11:03 PM

Re "Sebelius is, at any rate, better than such fiascos as Tim Kaine 2006 and Gary Locke 2003."
----------
Yes -- plus she's sexier than Madelaine Albright.

Posted by Don Williams | January 28, 2008 11:03 PM

I'm glad I'm not just mean. I had heard a lot of VP hype for her, then this speech just sent me to do odd jobs around the house. I could give a good one of these, I would have just said that George Bush's speech writers took every speech he ever wrote, put it in a small computer, and had it randomly piece crap together. And that is what he thinks of you , the people of the U.S. And then I would point out that he was reading using his finger at different points. With a President hated by his populace giving his last SOTU speech, mockery is the way to go.

Posted by flounder | January 28, 2008 11:04 PM

Re "She[Sebelius] used tons of Obama's language in there "
---------
Oh, NOW I understand. This is all a clever plot by Hillary to destroy Obama by using a surrogate to mock him cruelly.

After this public satire, Sebelius's endorsement should polish Obama off.

God, the fiendish cunning of it all!!

Posted by Don Williams | January 28, 2008 11:13 PM

I do like the picture of Matthew watching Sebelius in stunned disbelief and then looking at his beer glass with a suspicious eye. Checking to see if it actually is filled with vodka, perchance.

Posted by Don Williams | January 28, 2008 11:18 PM

Now, from our "More Things MattY Doesn't Know" file:

1. What was the third speech delivered tonight, and who gave it?

2. Why is it more like something you'd hear in the Balkans?

3. What did she mention in her speech that wasn't mentioned at all in Sebelius' speech?

4. Why does it reveal that the Democrats are, for lack of a better word, too sleazy to lead?

Answer here.

Posted by TLB | January 28, 2008 11:22 PM

"I do like the picture of Matthew watching Sebelius in stunned disbelief and then looking at his beer glass with a suspicious eye. Checking to see if it actually is filled with vodka, perchance."

For some reason, I picture Yglesias as a hard drinker.

I guess it might be the old stereotype of reporters and politicians as being alcoholics.

Posted by thehova | January 28, 2008 11:29 PM

"Will you join us Mr. President?" Please, that was the weakest load of crap I've heard from the Dems in a long time. Asking that putz to do anything is pointless, dragging his dry drunk ass kicking and screaming is the only way.

Posted by tom.a | January 28, 2008 11:29 PM

I have to confess to something like sexism: I don't like any of the major women Democrats qua media figures. Not Hillary, not Cantwell, not Sebelius, not Feinstein, not Napolitano; I don't enjoy seeing any of them on tv.

Barbara Boxer is the only exception to that rule: smart, sympathetic, and not annoying. But that's it.

Posted by lampwick | January 28, 2008 11:30 PM

It seemed like maybe her teleprompter was slow or something. There was a significant pause after every line.

No, the prepared text read

that way,

too.

Answer here.

Blogwhore somewhere else to pay for your Cheetos, Kelly. The 'you are dumb -- link here' is tiresome.

Posted by pseudonymous in nc | January 28, 2008 11:46 PM

Maybe they should have ended it with Jim Webb biting the head off of a bat, just to give it some balance and excitement at the end.

Posted by Reality Man | January 29, 2008 12:29 AM

Mild disagreement with some of the comments here... This was my first time to see Sebelius. I thought she seemed a little wooden and slow, and the backdrop worsened the problem. But I liked her! She was easy to listen to and believable. Just wish she had jazzed it up a little.

How much support does the person giving the response get from the DNC? It seemed to me that the DNC should have provided support or national-grade campaign advisers to help get the image right. (Altho I'd guess all of the latter are a LITTLE busy this week.)

Posted by Rachel Q | January 29, 2008 1:04 AM

I had seen a few of Governor Sebelius's commercials over the past week, and she was pretty lively and compelling in those. This speech... not so much. Really, I thought the content of her speech was fine, and I thought she did fine with the tenor of her voice. But that teleprompter must have been in slow-mo or something, because her deliver was waaaaay too protracted. And she needed to loosen up a bit. But the speech was nice, and I guess it'll play well to midwesterners or something.

Posted by jbryan | January 29, 2008 1:28 AM

Speaking as a Midwesterner (albeit an upper one - MN and WI - as opposed to true Middle America), the speech played OK by me. Not great, but OK.

Yes, the delivery was incredibly stiff. The person I was watching with commented that Gov. Sebelius' eyebrows didn't move during the entire thing. But once I got over my initial reaction to the total lack of style and actually listened to the words (not too hard considering the total lack of other sensory stimulus), I was fine with it. I'm strongly left wing but not particularly into hyper-partisan rhetoric, so I rather appreciated the message.

Did I see a potential VP? Jury's still out on that one, though I'm now interested in looking for more of her work to see if this was representative.

Posted by Mercutio42 | January 29, 2008 1:44 AM

This is why you don't have cautious red state Dems give your response. You need someway to aggressively lay out the Dem agenda for the coming year. You could frame it as working with the president to get your agenda passed but you need to be forceful.

Posted by not in Kansas anymore | January 29, 2008 2:31 AM

I guess I'm just a concern troll or something, but I think the progressive blogosphere has been making WAY too much of a deal about Sebelius' speech. Sure, it wasn't terribly inspiring, but, seriously, no one cares about SOTU responses! And the Republican responses during Bill Clinton's administration were just as bad. Anyone remember the Bill Frist/Susan Collins tag team? And this speech has zero bearing on any future possibilities for Kathleen Sebelius. Remember Bill Clinton's dull nominating speech for Dukakis at the '88 DNC? The one that was supposed to have killed off any chance he had to be president?

Posted by C.L. | January 29, 2008 7:20 AM

I have to confess to something like sexism: I don't like any of the major women Democrats qua media figures. Not Hillary, not Cantwell, not Sebelius, not Feinstein, not Napolitano; I don't enjoy seeing any of them on tv.

By any chance, did you see Caroline Kennedy yesterday during the Obama event? She was fantastic.

Posted by Moonlight | January 29, 2008 7:39 AM

Another wasted opportunity trying to win voters we'll never, ever get anyways. Shoulda cut Chris Dodd or Sheldon Whitehouse loose for the occasion.

Posted by dr. bloor | January 29, 2008 8:30 AM

I too, was disappointed with her delivery. Not the least because, as I can tell you from personal experience, the lady is whip-smart, engaging and absolutely fearless in person.

Also, an absolutely terrible speech. I wonder who wrote it.

Posted by Brautigan | January 29, 2008 8:55 AM

1) The Emotional Message the average voter got from Sebelius is that Bush must have been doing a Great job over the past 7 years -- because the Democratic spokesperson did NOT have a single complaint --not a SINGLE serious criticism.

2) Given Sebelius sleepy calm, the nation must be in GREAT Shape! Everything's just going swimming!

3) Somewhere, Karl Rove is laughing his ass off. HE could not have arranged a more inept response from the Democratic Party if he had been controlling it himself.

Hmmm. Maybe that's what happened. Maybe Karl Rove used advanced CIA techniques to hack into the TV Network satellite feed and inserted a sabotage broadcast from a Sebelius double. Like on the Twilight Zone. "WE are in control of your television set"

4) Either that or Sebelius's has been taken over by an alien parasite from a distant galaxy whose melded into her spinal cord and turned her into a zombie.

Posted by Don Williams | January 29, 2008 9:08 AM

YES! I remember now.

That's where I saw that blank stare, that wooden expression, the slow speech pattern: the X-FILES.

Posted by Don Williams | January 29, 2008 9:13 AM

Yeah, if Obama pulls it off, Webb as to be on the A list for Veeps. (Along with Edwards).

Posted by AJ | January 29, 2008 11:04 AM

I imagine Webb needs to come out and endorse Obama if he expects to have a shot at a VP nod. Sitting on the sidelines won't earn him any acclaim.

Posted by jbryan | January 29, 2008 11:19 AM

I was driving home last night, and I heard the second half of the SOTU and the majority of the response on the radio. And I thought it played just fine. It was basically forgettable, but then I don't remember anything anyone has ever said in one of these responses. And it was a foil to the president's speech, which was completely unremarkable. Her speech gave the idea that Democrats are ready to do the people's business, and then framed the debate in ways favorable to the Democrats. Especially in a time of such economic uncertainty, to worry less about scoring political points and more about a willingness to work together to help people, I thought she was serious and credible. Even with Bush being president and even if Sebelius is Obama's running mate, these two aren't setting the terms of the largest debates of the year.

Maybe it is because I am familiar with her and have seen her speak and lead and be energetic and insightful, I am disposed to give her the benefit of the doubt on this.

Posted by Curtis | January 29, 2008 11:44 AM

As a Kansas resident this doesn't really surprise me.

It really needs to be like the Geico -- "so we hired actor Martin Sheen."

Posted by MikeKC | January 29, 2008 11:48 AM

wow!
i watched the state of the union speech last night.
and i was really looking forward to seeing and hearing this kansas governor give the response because i'd heard so many wonderful things about her, and she's had incredible success in a state that had been a solid red state for so long.
but she started her speech and the next thing i know, it's 8 am in the morning here on the west coast!
i just woke up, after being knocked out for over 12 hours!
man, much, much better than any sleeping pill i could ever imagine. she should patent her style and gimmick -whatever it is! - and give up this politics business. she could make a fortune selling sleep-deprived americans her guaranteed remedy!

Posted by frankie d | January 29, 2008 11:53 AM

I just don't understand the hate--I thought she was good. I think that a strategy of talking down to Bush like he's basically irrelevant is much smarter than arguing on his ground.

Posted by Sean | January 29, 2008 11:54 AM

sean,

i don't hate sebelius. i didn't hate her before the speech.
i'd been reading so much about her that i was really excited to get a peek at her and see what had helped change kansas around, politically, for dems.
personally, i was really, really disappointed. i couldn't believe how bad she was.
i'm willing to give her a mulligan, and chalk last night up to one poor performance, but i also have to imagine that last night simply reflected a style that kansas voters respond to positively.
by comparison, webb's response last year made bush's sotu look pale. he diminished bush, actually looked more authoritative and presidential, and with that one speech, he may have vaulted into contention for the veep spot, whoever wins the nomination.
(i think he'd be a great choice!)
my bottom line on sebelius: she was boring as hell, and any consideration she may have received for the veep spot, if obama is the candidate, just went out the window.

Posted by frankie d | January 29, 2008 12:19 PM

can you say botox? her face did not move. no expression. smooth forehead and cheeks, then below that, wattle? ew.

Posted by boy tox | January 29, 2008 7:38 PM

[Obligatory geek correction]

Don: "Like on the Twilight Zone. "WE are in control of your television set"

Uh, actually that was "The Outer Limits"...

Same thing...

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | January 30, 2008 5:48 AM