SOTU Response

I didn’t watch the State of the Union address, which was a record-breaking multi-hour blabfest from the headlines I saw. But I did watch Spanberger’s response, mainly to see what the middle-of-the road, party-approved response would be.

These speeches are always weird because they’re a combination of introducing a new rising star (who, odds are, probably won’t rise that far) and sending out a message.

I have a few minor notes, but overall it was just fine. Of course she led with affordability. I didn’t hear “tax” in the discussion of tariffs. She made sure we all knew that she had a law enforcement background so she could criticize ICE. But her critique was good.

It was a conventionally good speech delivered by a competent orator. Like all these other speeches, it will soon be forgotten. I don’t think it met the moment. There was no real anger. I might have missed it, but not a word about Epstein. As Joe mentioned in the comments yesterday, having some Epstein survivors and former ICE detainees give the rebuttal would have made a much bigger splash.

I think we need more of this: