We've got the State of the Union streaming after the jump (with cute little White House videos playing beforehand). I'll be blogging thoughts and observations as it goes along. Please feel free to share your own from whichever network you watch from. Join us!
The speech is scheduled to begin at 9 PM ET.
9:38 PM Lots of applause for call to reinstate unemployment insurance. Not from Boehner, though.
9:40 Obama: We are stronger when America fields a full team.
9:47 HUGE applause for better pay for women. Biden has a smile, Boehner doesn't.
9:54 Ack, some of my comments got deleted. But there was a huge round of applause for Obama's call for raising the minimum wage to $10.10. He asked Congress to "join the rest of America" and raise it. He asked mayors, governors and state legislators not to wait for Congress.
9:55 Obama taling about ObamaCare now.
9:56 BIG cheer when Obama says "Let's not have another 40 votes to repeal a vote that's already helping people like Amanda."
9:57 Biden really grinning.
9:59 Obama talked briefly about voting rights but quickly moved on to gun violence.
10:01 Talking ending the war in Afghanistan now.
10:08 Obama talking Iran. "With our allies and partners, we're engaged in negotiations to see if we can achieve a goal we all share - preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
10:09 We are clear-eyed about Iran's support for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah. ...If John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan can negotiate with the Soviet Union then surely we can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today.
10:10 We must give diplomacy a chance to succeed.
10:13 Do I hear "USA" chants after Obama says US Olympic team will bring home the gold?
10:!4 First time I saw military members stand was when Obama said he's working to make sure veterans get their benefits.
10:18 Very tourching moment as the crowd salutes a wounded warrior sitting next to Michelle.
10:20 Closing words: If we work together; if we summon what is best in us, with our feet planted firmly in today but our eyes cast towards tomorrow – I know it’s within our reach.
Believe it.
God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
10:22 I'm looking for Hannity as President Obama shakes hands throughout the chamber.
10:26 Still to come... the GOP response. The moment Fox has been waiting for.
10:42 Hard to describe Cathy McMorris Rodgers but here comes the Fox News plaudits.
10:53 OMG, Rand Paul just mentioned Bill Clinton again. Said he brought up Clinton because he was asked about it, but I don't believe that's true.
“neocons don’t want to put Americans back to work!”
That is, in jobs OUTSIDE of the retail and services sector, especially “McJobville” (i.e. McDonald’s) and “Wallyworld” (i.e. Wal-Mart), two of the LARGEST American employers today.
Boehner: not clapping.
Will he be sitting next to Willie Robertson, who is going as a guest of some bayou congressman? Hannity is the the guest of Texas’ great Amerikan Louis Gohmert.
On the radio today, besides his gushing over Stewart’s putdown, Slanthead kept saying he was hoping so much to meet Robertson.
I really don’t know why Hannity is even there in the first place. I really don’t think (as I suggested the other day) that he will leap to his feet and screech: “You lie!”
But what he may very well do is mutter under his breath while Obama is speaking. He does this on air all the time when he plays audio clips of the president: scoffs, mocks… “Uh huh… sure…. yeah…. right…”
Basic respect, for anyone let alone a sitting president, is something slimy Slanthead, knows nothing about!
