Republicans fighting among themselves
“The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period.
It’s not even close.”
President Barack Obama, in his seventh and final State of the Union address.
Let the Donnybrook Begin
President Obama was on his game last Tuesday night.
He predictably managed to inspire Democrats, and anger Republicans with the last of his seven State of the Union messages.
He launched zingers; waxed philosophical; appeared, at times, to be introspective about a presidency that had fallen short of some of his expectations – while he issued a challenge to the nation to find comfort in the true greatness of America.
Greatness, the president wants us to know, that a certain Republican presidential candidate refuses to acknowledge.
Who on earth was he talking about?
Donald “Make America Great Again,” Trump – of course.
While the president stood in the well of the House of Representatives, extolling the virtues of the country, Trump sat at home with his Twitter account, tweeting his rebuttal.
“The #SOTU speech is really boring, slow, lethargic – very hard to watch!” wrote Trump.
Trump must’ve felt a sense of self-satisfaction that Obama would devote parts of his speech to his candidacy.
“Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction,” said Obama.
Trump consistently relies on the supposed economic failures of the Obama administration in his stump speeches.
There were seven veiled references to Trump and his provocative rhetoric in the president’s speech.
“When politicians insult Muslims…that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country,” Obama bristled.
Trump, though, had little time to send out more Tweets, when he became part of a message he hadn’t anticipated.
Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, who’s been widely mentioned as a likely running mate for the eventual Republican presidential candidate, took her turn to offer the Republican rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union message.
Establishment Republicans see Gov. Haley, the daughter of immigrants from India, as a bridge that could broaden their support next November.
But she started an intra-party donnybrook.
“Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. That is just not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume,” Haley said.
Who on earth was she talking about?
Donald Trump – of course.
She’d not only claimed that Democrats and Republicans shared responsibility for the dark shadows that engulf Washington, but she, like Obama, minutes before, threw jabs at her own party’s frontrunner.
Haley, a shining, Republican star, dimmed greatly, in the eyes of her far-right wing fellow Republicans.
“Obama & Haley should have appeared together in new spirit of bipartisanship to offer a joint rebuttal to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz,” wrote Laura Ingraham.
Ann Coulter, who’s never at a loss for insults, Tweeted, “Trump should deport Nikki Haley.”
Coulter knows that Haley’s parents didn’t come from this country, but that Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, – but those minor details get in the way of a good gut punch.
Despite not being named as the person with the “loudest voice in the room,” or somebody who needs to “turn down the volume,” he felt insulted.
So, the following morning, he attacked Haley on Fox News.
He claimed Haley is “very weak on illegal immigration,” and that, “She certainly has no problem asking me for campaign contributions.”
He also indicated she probably won’t become his running mate when wins the Republican nomination.
I don’t think Haley cares about that.
Especially since the following morning, she answered in the affirmative when asked if she was talking about Trump, specifically, in her speech.
“Mr. Trump has definitely contributed to what I think is just irresponsible talk,” she told the TODAY Show’s Matt Lauer.
So the plot thickens, and Republicans, who’re hoping to beat Hillary and Bernie, are busily beating up on each other.
Wonderful!
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net