Repackaged rhetoric

President Donald Trump’s Tuesday address to Congress was more in line with Kabuki Theater. Platitudes, unjustifiable derogatory comments, grand suggestions and likely increases in the federal debt were in abundance but funding solutions were a scarce commodity.

American Elephant @AmericanElephant isn’t buying it:

You flunked American civics ... there is no such THING as a national popular vote. There were 51 popular votes. Trump won 30.

Mr. Trump’s speech lacked justification for the “again” part of his “Make American Great Again” thesis. The speech was repackaged campaign rhetoric once again presented as a Utopian nationalistic theme. It contained self-serving anecdotal comments and an ill-conceived introduction of several people whose family members were killed by illegal immigrants — even though America’s murder rate is nearing an all-time low.

Americans would have been better served by Mr. Trump addressing how he intends prevent many thousands of Americans from killing each other every year. While former president Bill Clinton put 10,000 more cops on the street, we got nothing from Mr. Trump. There was so much extraneous drivel, cleverly packaged by his speechwriters and staffers into a sweet sounding run-on sonnet, that knowledgeable people were forced to separate the harsh reality of his myopic proposals from the evening’s nuanced literary engagement.

On the flip side, the Democrat response by the former Democrat governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, was far better than most past responses. It was clear, concise and to the point.

Kevin @Kevin_Mackie inserts the needle:

Good time to remind you Trump’s giving a speech in front of Congress. What’s Hillary up to this evening?