State of the Union response: How Bob McDonnell chose his venue
When the GOP's congressional leaders -- Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell --asked Gov. Bob McDonnell to deliver their party's response to President Obama's State of the Union address one of his first considerations was: Where to speak from?
McDonnell's team of advisors considered a variety of venues before settling on the House of Delegates' chamber in the majestic state Capitol.
On Sunday, staffers from both Boehner's and McConnell's offices traveled to Richmond, along with FOX News, which is providing pool cameras for the rebuttal, to inspect the location. They approved.
Read more at the Virginia Politics blog »
By
Anita Kumar
|
January 27, 2010; 5:09 PM ET
Categories:
44 The Obama Presidency
,
State of the Union
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Posted by: rosepetals64 | January 28, 2010 1:52 PM | Report abuse
Here’s a tag cloud of Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address.
http://robvstate.com/2010/01/27/tag-cloud-of-obamas-2010-state-of-the-union-address/
Posted by: robparisblog | January 27, 2010 11:39 PM | Report abuse
As a retired member of the U. S. Navy, I was disconcerted to see, siting behind the Governor of Virginia during the rebuttal to the President's speech, an Army sergeant in uniform. We were always told that while on active duty you never appear in uniform at a political event, as the military must not actively participate in politics. Obviously the Joint Chiefs must appear in uniform at the State of the Union, but they did not applaud after any political comments, as did the Army sergeant following the Republican Governor's comments.
Posted by: tebookout | January 27, 2010 11:17 PM | Report abuse
Does anyone else think that this looks suspiciously like a paid infomercial? If I order now, do I get a free Cap Snaffler?
Posted by: ashevilleshep | January 27, 2010 10:42 PM | Report abuse
The GOP has not only hired crews from FOX News to "produce" tonight's Republican response -- including special lighting, hair styling and makeup -- but they have actually trucked (bussed) in a fake audience, mainly from the Virginia Beach area (howdy, Pat!) to applaud wildly, maybe touch hands like Jay Leno's creepy crowd, and perform standing ovations where the script, and the FOX director, commands.
Who pays for this use of the statehouse chambers is anyone's guess.
But I imagine it won't be Fox News.
Posted by: monklewis | January 27, 2010 8:52 PM | Report abuse
All McDonnell will do is make a fool of himself on national TV and tick off the tea party base. He's a moderate. They'll never stand for that...
Posted by: parkerfl1 | January 27, 2010 5:34 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
This use of the state house of delegates was completely inappropriate. The house should look into disciplinary action against the governor. It was use of public property for a partisan agenda, and it was misleading. It made it look like these were lawmakers instead of paid political hacks.
Also, the military person in uniform should be disciplined for taking part in a televised, partisan event and applauding--implying approval of the military.