President Trump’s State of the Union address was too much for Nancy Pelosi to bear. But Chris Cuomo, of all people, found the speech uplifting.
According to Cuomo, Trump “celebrated what the country is about.” The CNN man stated:
Those were some really poignant moments. I don’t know if you saw them, but you should go online and look. The president in that speech tonight celebrated what the country is about from one set of moments, our diversity, how we overcome, how we come together.
Is that what he’s really about [or] something for them to use as a sword and shield? I don’t know. Here’s one thing I know. This country is not just a sum of the actions of its politicians.
Let’s hope it’s more than just that sum.
I found it particularly interesting that Cuomo had good things to say about the speech, given that Trump honored Rush Limbaugh. It was Limbaugh, I understand, who stuck Cuomo with the nickname “Fredo,” which Cuomo hates, understandably.
But Cuomo is right about Trump’s State of the Union address. Much of it did celebrate what this country is about. And there was plenty about diversity.
Trump, of course, took some partisan shots. But so did President Obama in his SOTU addresses. Who can forget the time he attacked a Supreme Court decision in the presence of Justices who were in the majority? Good thing Justice Alito didn’t grab a copy of the speech and rip it up.
As Power Line’s resident curmudgeon, I want to comment about the game show aspect of Trump’s speech. By now, even the most curmudgeonly among us have become accustomed to the honoring of guests in the audience. These guests are basically props, but they aren’t complaining. Neither should I.
But Trump took this genre to a new level. Some of the guests weren’t just honored, they were treated to surprises.
Rush Limbaugh unexpectedly received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the spot. An African-American girl was told she would receive admission and a scholarship to a charter school that she had until now been unable to attend. The wife and small children of a military service member serving in the Middle East were surprised when Trump announced that the husband/father was back in the States and about to enter the visitors’ section.
All of this is great television. If there was dry eye in the viewing audience, it wasn’t mine.
But there is a “Queen for a day” or “This is your life” quality to these flourishes. I would prefer that they not be used.
It was inevitable, though, that one day they would be. And it was natural that President Trump, a master showman, would be the first to do it.
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