Last night Congressman Boustany delivered the rebuttal to the President’s speech to a Joint Session of Congress. It was a short speech delivered in a Senate office at the Capitol. They had film and the transmission went out like it was supposed to… oh and there was audio as well.
That’s all I’ve got – at least from the list of positives. It may have in fact improved the quality if there was no audio or video either for that matter.
As I anticipated, Republicans made yet another poor choice when given a chance to speak to the American people. They had a golden opportunity to remind Americans that there was another alternative in a political scene that appears to be overrun by progressives and uber-liberals and they failed miserably.
In a quick search to find information on Congressman Boustany once he was announced as the choice, I was able to find clips of him speaking on television programs and in town halls. The only resonating characteristic of any of those findings was his lack of personality, confidence in front of the camera, and general likeability. Ok, Ok, i get it. He is a heart surgeon so he’s supposed to be an expert on healthcare – but seriously, this was the best we had to offer?
Republicans needed one of two things last night. They needed a Republican bulldog who was going to hammer the President and the liberals in Congress or they needed the most charismatic figure they could find to catch the eye of the American people.
In choosing a bulldog, Republicans could have drawn a line in the sand. Everyone knows that they have no real vote in this thing. They could have said, this is where we stand; this is what we want; and this is what we will have no part of. This is the first place where Boustany was a poor choice. he is a relative newby to the Party and frankly no one knows or cares who he is or what he had to say on the matter. He wasn’t prominent enough in stature to speak for the Party so his message would have been lost from the word go. A bulldog would have illustrated and hammered the President for his speech – which only made conservative concessions in the last talking point where he promised to “get his people” to look into tort reform immediately. A bulldog could have drilled him for simply agreeing with every proposal that has been presented so that he can be for or against any bill that makes its way out of Congress. But… instead we got Boustany. Did he even listen to Obama’s speech?
The other option would have been to simply choose a Republican that the American people could have stomached listening to after an hour of President Obama. What brilliant strategy chooses a guy with no public speaking skills to follow one of the greatest political orators of our generation or any in a while for that matter? Boustany was set up to fail. I for one can’t wait until SNL or MAD TV get a hold of last night’s rebuttal because their parody might actually be worth watching. At least it won’t make me weep.
At the end of the day, Republicans are 0 for 2 in the Obama era in choosing those who will respond to the Great One. Jindal tanked, now Boustany has tanked; think we can widen the search to parts outside Louisiana?
see original article about this pick
http://republicanredefined.com/domestic-issues/enthused-choice
[...] put you here or the morons that chose you. You weren’t worse than your fellow Cajun Bobby Jindal, but you were close. Did you even listen to the President’s speech before you started talking? Perhaps you could have [...]