Did you see Barack Obama's discourteous snub of rival Hillary Clinton before President Bush's mail-it-in final State of the Union Speech last night? The peppy Senator Clinton, rather than avoid the headline-making Camelot duo of Teddy Kennedy and his young iconic pal, strode right over and stuck out her hand with that spunky grin of hers flashing serious kilowattage. Recognizing the gamesmanship, Kennedy grinned and shook it. Obama turned away, frowning deeply, finding something much more interesting in the middle distance of Claire McCaskill's hair.
It was a moment of the finest reality programming - described by the talkers and captured in what Keith Olbermann described as Pulitzer shot by veteran AP lensman Scott Applewhite - that a couple of centuries of disharmonious union can possibly produce. This political junkie loves the SOTU, not for the speeches - which drone on incessantly, with their menacing Cheney teeth-sucking backdrop, lately leavened by a dash of Pelosi room-surfing - "oh look, there's Justice Breyer!"
Last night, the drama was in the room, not at the podium - Senator Biden walked Clinton (an endorsement, perhaps?), Senator Obama cutting in front of several colleagues to stroll in with Uncle Teddy, the hugs and kisses and man-punches down the aisle. And there was my Congressman, the large-skulled Eliot Engel, in his usual camping spot, down the row on the left, in prime C-span territory. I remember camping out for Stones tickets, but Eliot pitches his tent for a chance at pumping Steney Hoyer's fist on camera. Traditionally, Engel waiting for the President is the first sign of spring in New York politics, well before the first crocus.
So Obama capped a day that was supposed to lift Democrats' spirits by connecting the martyred vision of JFK with a swarm of young voters with a rude gesture that will only remind many women of his nasty "likeable enough" crack in New Hampshire. For a speaker of such grace, the surprise lies in such boorish moments.
Still, you had to love Teddy's late-season moment in the sun yesterday, even if Chris Matthews did torture his usual logic of a generational "change election" in which political dynasties - like Dylan's cannonball - are forever banned: a difficult argument to make faced with a gaggle of Kennedys led by the 75-year-old lion in winter. Great theater, though. Top drawer.
And while Bush droned on as yesterday's man, one intrepid group I'm proud to know ignored Obama's singularly ungracious moment and soldiered mightily in the cause of analyzing actual policy. The Drum Major Institute for Public Policy pulled the proverbial all-nighter to provide a rapid analysis of the President's proposals to Congress. Please read their analysis and comment on it, but I think Andrea summed it up quite well at the top:
The American people want change. Every Presidential candidate, Democrat and Republican, has made this a mantra. But the State of the Union Address reveals no alteration from President George W. Bush. This year the President labored to keep breathing life into the same worn out ideology that has repeatedly failed America’s current and aspiring middle class.
