Last night after the President's address to a Joint Session of Congress, we noted the following:
Politico's Glenn Thrush is up with an awfully meaty post following the President's first address to a Joint Session of Congress tonight. It says, in full:
It took President Obama 46 minutes to mention terrorism, the military or foreign affairs.
By Glenn Thrush 09:57 PM
I kid you not. He seems to be saying, “Please Matt Drudge, please link to me, pretty please...”
Well, this morning Thrush put up the following defense:
46 minutes (redux)
I took some heat last night/this morning for a quick blog post noting that it took President Obama 46 minutes to mention foreign affairs or terrorism.
A couple of outlets (Media Matters and the Washington Monthly) interpreted the item as an implicit criticism of Obama's priorities.
It wasn't. I made no judgment, just wanted to point out how thoroughly domestic issues and the economic crisis dominated the speech -- a stark contrast to the Bush years.
But the criticism is worth noting. There's still a lot of concern on the left that Obama might still be attacked, Rove-style, for being soft on terrorism-defense-homeland security. At the moment, it seems pretty unlikely given that Obama's nearly exclusive focus on the economy perfectly mirrors public opinion. But, hey, you never know.
By Glenn Thrush 11:05 AM
As you can see, Thrush denies that his comment was criticism, saying that he “just wanted to point out how thoroughly domestic issues and the economic crisis dominated the speech.”
Fine. I'll take him at his word.
But it certainly raises the question of why Thrush has yet to note that Gov. Bobby Jindal's speech did not mention Iraq or Afghanistan, and that his discussion of foreign policy -- which appeared three quarters of the way through his remarks -- was limited to two paragraphs:
As we take these steps, we must remember, for all of our troubles at home, dangerous enemies still seek our destruction. Now is no time to dismantle the defenses that have protected this country for hundreds of years or to make deep cuts in funding for our troops.
America's fighting men and women can do anything. If we give them the resources they need, they will stay on the offensive, defeat our enemies, and protect us from harm.
That's It.
If it's actually worth noting “how thoroughly domestic issues and the economic crisis dominated” President Obama's address, wouldn't the same hold true for Governor Jindal's response?
H/T B.D. and M.G.