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So Proud: NRA-Hole Ted Nugent Nearly Shut Out Of Cable SOTU Coverage
It wasn’t as if Nugent didn’t make himself available, either. Politico (Oh no! They couldn’t resist either!!) reported that Nugent held court with reporters, telling them that Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI), who was paralyzed in a shooting accident, had “Shit for brains” because he was critical of Nugent’s attendance at the address. He also denied threatening President Obama.
NBC News’ Luke Russert later asked Nugent if he thought that was “an appropriate thing to say about a sitting member of Congress who’s in a wheelchair?”
Nugent, no stranger to feces, responded that it would take “genuine fecal material instead of brain matter” to suggest that he doesn’t “feel sorry for the victims of violent crime.”
Nugent demonstrated his sensitivity for victims of gun violence when, in the hours after twenty children were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School, he tweeted “Our family is phenomenal loving we take our kids huntin so we dont hafta hunt for our kids.”
CNN’s Jim Acosta also caught up with Nugent, who told Acosta that he wasn’t packing, but was apparently carrying loaded thesaurus. He told Acosta that his message was “Freedom. Freedom and independence. Rugged individualism, and leave us alone.”
For the most part, cable news laudably appears willing to do just that. Here are the two exceptions, from CNN and MSNBC, each of which aired shortly after five o’clock this morning:
Nugent did, to his minimal credit, manage to keep his yap shut during the speech, and also took off his stupid camouflage hat. Either that, or that’s some really good camouflage.
Van Jones Warns Dems About ‘Dangerous’ Marco Rubio: He Is ‘To The Heart What Paul Ryan Is To The Head’
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat said on CNN Tuesday that, regardless of how Rubio’s water drinking moment may overshadow his address, the Republican Party wants to put him in the spotlight and that is not going to change.
Turning to Jones, CNN anchor Carol Costello said that her only takeaway from Rubio’s address was the water bottle moment. She asked if most voters were like her in that sense.
“Rubio is dangerous for Democrats,” Jones said curtly as the chuckles from the CNN panel faded. “I’m so glad that we’re talking about him and we’re joking about him, because right when he reached for that water bottle he was reaching an emotional part of that speech which he stepped on.”
“The last 90 seconds of that speech shows you the danger he poses for Democrats,” Jones continued. “He is to the heart what Paul Ryan is to the head.”
“This man can connect emotionally. Democrats dodged a bullet. We have not heard the last from Marco Rubio,” Jones added. He said that the junior senator from Florida possesses an “extreme record,” but his political skill should be taken seriously by Democrats.
Watch the clip below via CNN:
The Most Popular Part Of Obama’s State Of The Union Address Was, Well, Not Very Popular At All
According to Bing’s “Pulse Tracker,” which registered 12.9 million votes over the course of the speech, the point when Obama focused on gun control ranked a net -75 among all viewers.
The dip is pronounced among self-identified Republicans and independents, but it is also visible among Democrats (the moderate spike among Democratic support came at the moment when the president insisted that a variety of victims of gun violence, building to crescendo, “deserve a vote” on gun control in Congress).
While this is interesting data, it is hardly scientific. The anecdotal evidence that Obama’s hectoring on gun control was intended only for internal consumption among progressives is, however, backed up by the scientific polling conducted before the speech. Polls found that new gun laws are decidedly low on most voters’ priority list.
A University of Connecticut/Hartford Courant Poll of 1,002 adults found that only 8 percent respondents wanted the president to address gun control in the State of the Union – well behind the 16 percent who wanted Obama to focus primarily on the deficit and the debt and the 44 percent who hoped to hear new proposals to decrease unemployment and foster growth in the economy. Quinnipiac University found similar results when they asked 1,772 registered voters what they wanted to hear from the president. Only 15 percent said they were listening for new gun control proposals.
Bing’s findings do not square with the CNN/ORC instant poll which found that a mind-blowing 70 percent of respondents believe that Obama’s policies on gun control would move the nation “in the right direction.” Of course, the polls partisan composition, with 44 percent of respondents identifying as Democrats compared to just 17 percnet who said they were Republicans, may have slightly skewed the results in the president’s favor.
Outside of the nation’s faculty lounges, gun control think tanks, and the offices of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the nation’s voters are not especially enthusiastic about gun control. Like most of Obama’s address, however, this part of the speech was directed at the faithful. The president needs to rally the troops for a future characterized by legislative gridlock. This was a partisan address designed to appeal to a partisan audience, and the data backs that assumption up.
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