No sooner had the clapping stopped for President Obama’s State of the Union address, than the sniping at Fox News began. That all changed after Republican Nikki Haley gave her rebuttal.
“Objective” host Bret Baier kicked off the discussion with a few digs at Obama, saying the speech was “not as short as billed” and noting that President Obama said the war on terrorism is “not World War III,” then gratuitously adding, “something you may remember Pope Francis called it after the Paris attacks.”
Panelist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer was much more scathing: “This was a speech that just appeared totally disconnected from, number one, what’s going on in the world and two, the major concerns of his own people.”
A.B. Stoddard, of The Hill, said, “I think the whole speech was very disjointed just because it had too many goals. He was trying to take credit for some successes on national security. He was defensive and really kind of disconnected, in a bit of denial, actually.” She also said Democrats looked “really wistful,” “really sad” and “at times really bored.”
Charles Lane, of The Washington Post, was “not as down on the speech as A.B. or Charles,” but he wasn’t exactly laudatory. “I like the fact that it’s not a laundry list of legislative proposals,” Lane said and almost apologetically admitted to having a “soft spot” for “the lofty calls of unity.”
But he also said, the speech must be viewed within the prism of 2016 politics “and in that regard, sort of a specter haunts this speech and that is the specter of Donald Trump.”
Stephen Hayes, also a Fox News contributor, was probably the most scorching: “It’s often said of this president that he sets aside reality that’s not convenient to him, that contradicts his policy goals. And in this case he literally did that by leaving out the Americans who are being held by Iran tonight, which I thought was a gross oversight, particularly in light of the fact that he boasted bout his diplomacy, his successful diplomacy with Iran.”
Later, Hayes said, “I was gobsmacked by the fact that the President of the United States would say that his approach in Syria has been, he called it, ‘the smarter approach.’”
After Haley spoke, it was an entirely different picture.
“You can see why she was touted as an up and comer in the Republican party,” Baier commented.
“I thought she did a pretty terrific job,” Krauthammer gushed.
“She was the right choice,” Stoddard agreed. She called Haley’s rebuttal, “flawless…gracious… articulate.”
It was Fox News political analysis in a nutshell.
Watch it below, from Fox’s coverage of the 2016 State of the Union address, on July 12.
And having goals is bad? Um, OK, then.
I’ll keep that in mind next time I hear the repubs mention what their goals are — especially ones about making Obama “a one-term president” . . .
“You can see why she (Haley) was touted as an up and comer in the Republican party,” Baier commented.
I can, too:
- even though both her parents immigrated from India, she identified herself as “white” on her 2001 voter registration card
- in 2013, Haley was fined $3,500 and given a “public warning” by the SC State Election Commission for failing to report addresses for some of the donors to her 2010 gubenatorial campaign
.
President Obama and any Democrat = BAD
Anything repub = GOOD
They are shameless in their propaganda. I refuse to even speak with anyone who says that FOX is their source of “news”. Tells me all I need to know about that person – they are brainwashed and irrelevant.