rudi1976 / Depositphotos.com
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – We all watched the same speech on Tuesday night.
Apparently the American public liked it more than I did.
I suggested on yesterday’s program that the speech was too long… beyond the attention-span of most viewers. And I didn’t like that it didn’t state an overall theme, which should have been American exceptionalism. While the speech was divisive, I had no problem with Donald Trump taking democrats to task who’ve lost their collective minds.
Polling by CNN which was done right after the State of the Union was much more generous than I was. 64% of those who watched it had a positive reaction. 38% were very positive, 25% were somewhat positive.
Some people even think the speech will make a difference. The number of Americans who think the country is on the right track is now at 64%, a 10% increase from the day before the State of the Union.
The speech did leave democrats vulnerable in two areas. The donkeys have put all their eggs in one rhetorical basket: that the nation has an affordability crisis. Trump took a big swing at that. Gas prices are down, there’s a new web site for more affordable drugs, eggs are less expensive. Somehow affordability wasn’t an issue when inflation was at 11% under Joe Biden. Now inflation is 2.4% under Trump and it’s driving the political agenda.
And Donald Trump asked the question should the American government work for the benefit of U.S. citizens or illegal aliens. Democrats sat on their hands. The footage of that will be used in a Republican campaign ad that begins airing today. One take away from the speech is that love of country still polls well. “America sucks” is a losing message.
Chris Conley
Comments