Tuesday, March 03, 2015

NETANYAHU GETS MORE ROUNDS OF APPLAUSE THAN BUSH DID RIGHT AFTER 9/11

I was going to look at the number of rounds of applause Benjamin Netanyahu got during today's speech to Congress and compare it to the number of rounds President Obama got during his last State of the Union address, but I know what right-wingers would say to that: Netanyahu is a great man, a great friend of America, and Obama isn't.

There's no arguing with wingers on this stuff, so I looked at another fairly recent speech delivered to a joint session of Congress, one that no Republican could possibly criticize: President George W. Bush's speech on September 20, 2001, nine days after the 9/11 attacks. Surely that speech, also before a majority-Republican Congress, would have been greeted with a great number of rounds of applause -- right?

Well, here's the tally:
Bush, nine days after 9/11: 31 rounds of applause
Netanyahu today: 43 rounds of applause
Some of this has to do with the length of the speeches: a quick word count of Bush's speech tallies it at 3054 words; Netanyahu's was 3918. But still: Netanyahu was applauded once every 91 words. Bush was applauded only once every 98.

Benjamin Netanyahu: the greatest American, according to the current conservative Congress?

(See also the recent Public Policy Polling survey of Republican voters, in which Netanyahu had a higher favorable rating than any likely Republican candidate for president.)

9 comments:

Joseph Nobles said...

No one abstained from any of the applause for Bush, either.

Ken_L said...

The whole thing was a triumph for John Boehner. Every image of a Democrat applauding was an implicit vote of no confidence in the president. Every image of a Democrat sitting stony-faced and not applauding is a club that can be used in future to beat them with charges of not loving Israel.

And to cap it all off, the excitement was so intense that nobody's talking about the craven capitulation over DHS funding. Like I said, a triumph for Boehner. Whether it was worth the price for Netanyahu, we'll know in 2 weeks.

Anonymous said...

Very, er, informative but I can't help worrying about your obvious lack of a social life! I mean, counting the words in politicians' speeches, you really must try and get out more!

Philo Vaihinger said...

See also the recent Public Policy Polling survey of Republican voters, in which Netanyahu had a higher favorable rating than any likely Republican candidate for president.

The power of Fox News.

Victor said...

I am sorry, but it missed POTUS Bibi's speech, so I can't really tell you whether it was worth all of that applause or not.

Unknown said...

Obama didn't read the transcript. We know full well that he watched it in privacy & grinded his teeth all the way from the thunderous opening applause right on through to the final standing "o."

Steve M. said...

As well he should have.

Anonymous said...

The greatest man after putin, maybe.

Jack Weiss said...

It appears that other bloggers have picked up on Bibi's skill at gaining applause. Just saw someone mention it in this funny piece.

http://www.averageskills.com/average-blog/three-weird-tricks-to-win-the-israeli-election