Krauthammer: Obama's Speech

Here's video of Charles Krauthammer's reaction to Obama's speech last night:



Transcript

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I thought I was cynical until I heard that speech. It was purely partisan. It was meant as a campaign speech, and I think it was a speech from yesterday. It has nothing to do with the current negotiations.

He's pushing the 'balanced approach,' a word which he knows is tested by his pollsters as appealing to independents. That's all that this is about. He used all the cliches that would help him with that constituency.

As Steve [Hayes] indicated, the Democrats in the Congress have already accepted it's only going to be about cuts. He's talking about the corporate jets again and again. He started his speech by blaming it all on Bush. This is now three and a half years in.

And what was so interesting is that he thought... he's talked about himself as being a new Reagan. That's how he sees himself, the liberal Reagan. Reagan could do one thing that almost no modern president could do: He could go to the nation and sway an issue. This is Obama thinking he's going to achieve that. I don't know if he's going to succeed or not, but he spoke to the American people.

Remember what he told Eric Cantor? 'You call my bluff, I'll go to the people'? That's his attempt. Let's see if it works.