YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    SOTU first thoughts: Obama's gun message far stronger than his economic message

    Yahoo! News – Tue, Feb 12, 2013
    Jeff Greenfield is a Yahoo! News columnist and the host of “Need to Know” on PBS. A five-time Emmy winner, he has spent more than 30 years on network television, including time as the senior political correspondent for CBS News, the senior analyst for CNN, and the political and media analyst for ABC News. His most recent book is “Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics.”

    By Jeff Greenfield

    I’ll have a judicious, nuanced, modulated take on President Obama’s speech tomorrow. For now, a brief first read.

    If the point of the speech was to put Obama front and center on the economy, it did not work—primarily because the non-economic part of the speech, specifically the section on guns, was so much more powerful on the purely emotional level. It is simply impossible to put promises of federal-state task forces and public private partnerships on the same level as the evocation of innocent lives lost to the plague of guns.

    There’s no doubt that gun rights advocates will accuse the president of “politicizing” these deaths. But the whole point of the argument is that too many people are dead because the political system has been too fearful of the political might of the gun lobby to do much of anything. In this sense, Obama’s appeal that the victims “deserve a vote” was an attempt to answer to the power of that lobby.

    Will that argument move many votes in Congress? I have no idea. Will it dominate what people will remember about the speech? Without question. By contrast, what will viewers take away from the speech about just what the President means to do about the still shaky economy?

    Right now, I don’t have an answer to that question.

    News for You »

    • Illinois father gets prison in child-binding case

      LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for binding and blindfolding two of his children in a Wal-Mart parking lot in eastern Kansas.

    • Ousted founder of Men's Wearhouse fights back

      NEW YORK (AP) — George Zimmer, the ousted founder and executive chairman of Men's Wearhouse, says Wednesday he was dismissed after he and the company's board disagreed about how it should look.

    • A Frugal Traveler's Guide to Cheap Lodging

      Whether you're looking for a hotel with great amenities, a cozy room that can fit you and the kids or just a place to rest your head, it takes a savvy traveler to find cheap lodging.

    • 'The Daily Show' Is Officially Ignoring the Troll Sarah Palin

      On last night's Daily Show, John Oliver nearly fell into temptation. You see, Sarah Palin returned to Fox & Friends yesterday, and she said a number of ridiculous things. Oliver almost didn't know where to start, but then he realized something: "F--k it. This is exactly what she wants. Just because I walked into a turd supermarket doesn't mean I have to buy anything." 

    • Woods out of action until British Open due to elbow strain

      (Reuters) - Tiger Woods has been diagnosed with a left elbow strain that will keep him out of competition until next month's British Open at Muirfield, the world number one said on Wednesday. Woods had been suffering minor discomfort before last week's U.S. Open at Merion, where he aggravated the problem and was seen wincing and shaking his left arm on several occasions. "I was examined after I returned home from the U.S. Open, and the doctors determined I have a left elbow strain," the American said in a statement on his website. ...

    • Wash. parents' ruse snares man wooing daughter

      SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A father who discovered his 15-year-old daughter was being wooed on Facebook by a man twice her age took matters into his own hands.

    • Man charged with tossing wife off cruise ship

      SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California grand jury has indicted a Florida man on charges he strangled his ex-wife and tossed her off a cruise ship in Italy.

    • Dolce and Gabbana Sentenced to 20 Months in Italian Prison

      Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the legendary designer duo whose billion-dollar fashion empire has been embroiled in a $1.3-billion tax evasion case, were sentenced to almost two years in prison today, Reuters reports — but they probably won't serve any jail time in what would no doubt be one of the stranger times behind bars in celebrity history.

    Show More

    Follow Yahoo! News

    Loading...