State of Union teeters on the brink

The state of our union is … teetering on the brink. I will assume that a large number of Nevadans watched President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night. I will also assume that the number of Americans who tuned into Rep. Joe Kennedy III’s response was significantly less. And so, as a public service to our readers, I will try to compare and contrast the two speeches.

When President Trump humanized his speech with reallife American stories, he got high marks. When he tried to manipulate my fellow countrymen into believing that he loved the “Dreamers” and hated the Russians, he fell far short.

While it is not a critique of substance but of style, I would suggest to our president that if he wants me to think he is sincere when he says things he doesn’t believe he should, at the very least, look me in the eye. Whether he couldn’t read more than a few words at a time from the teleprompter, or just had an aversion to looking straight into the camera, I don’t think he spent more than a full minute of the 80-minute speech looking into the eyes of America. That’s not very smart for a reality TV star.

Contrast that with the grandson of Bobby Kennedy, who looked us straight in the eye when he spoke about an America that should be united not divided, and that the richest nation in the world “shouldn’t leave anyone behind,” and the style and sincerity points go to the man who spoke from Fall River, Mass., and not to the fellow speaking to a joint session of Congress.

Kennedy talked about the perilous political times in which we find ourselves. This was before that elementary-school level memo that congressional Republicans conspired with Trump to release on Friday. Release of