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 applauseSome 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.
Netanyahu today: 43 rounds of applause
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:
No one abstained from any of the applause for Bush, either.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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."
As well he should have.
The greatest man after putin, maybe.
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
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