By Erick Erickson
According to a CBS News poll of President Trumps State of the Union address 76 of Americans liked his speech and 72 agreed with him on the immigration portion of his speech.
While there were moments the Presidents speech fell flat e.g. the partisan investigations line and there were some awkward transitions like saying all children are born in the image of God lets strengthen NATO (my absence of punctuation is intentional) the President really did a great job of delivering an uplifting speech. It was made more so by his careful use of guests to tell stories.
I noticed some leftwing
hacks reporters claiming the Presidents speechwriters wrote
all the good parts so people would praise him. But thats actually the point.
The President relied on speechwriters and they delivered and then the President
delivered a great address.
In fact just consider the Presidents remarks on immigration.
No issue better illustrates the divide between Americas working class and Americas political class than illegal immigration. Wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls and gates and guards. Meanwhile working class Americans are left to pay the price for mass illegal migration reduced jobs lower wages overburdened schools and hospitals increased crime and a depleted social safety net. Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate it is cruel. One in three women is sexually assaulted on the long journey north. Smugglers use migrant children as human pawns to exploit our laws and gain access to our country. Human traffickers and sex traffickers take advantage of the wide open areas between our ports of entry to smuggle thousands of young girls and women into the United States and to sell them into prostitution and modern-day slavery. Tens of thousands of innocent Americans are killed by lethal drugs that cross our border and flood into our cities including meth heroin cocaine and fentanyl. The savage gang MS-13 now operates in 20 different American States and they almost all come through our southern border. Just yesterday an MS-13 gang member was taken into custody for a fatal shooting on a subway platform in New York City. We are removing these gang members by the thousands but until we secure our border theyre going to keep streaming back in.
These were compelling points by the President. They were not soundbites but reasonable statistics and data that actually do back up his point. Then he made a reasonable compromise. It should be noted that when the President first suggested compromising Nancy Pelosi leaned over to applaud as close to his ear as she could get. President Trump said
My Administration has sent to the Congress a commonsense proposal to end the crisis on our southern border. It includes humanitarian assistance more law enforcement drug detection at our ports closing loopholes that enable child smuggling and plans for a new physical barrier or wall to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry. In the past most of the people in this room voted for a wall but the proper wall never got built. Ill get it built. This is a smart strategic see-through steel barrier not just a simple concrete wall. It will be deployed in the areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need and as these agents will tell you where walls go up illegal crossings go way down.
That bolded part is the Presidents reasonable compromise. Instead of a coast to coast wall or a major expansion hell just take what the border patrol says it needs and it has said since the Obama Administration that it needs more.
President Trump should get out on the campaign trail with that message now.
I applaud the President taking a strong stand on life and calling out Ralph Northams remarks. The national media bent over backwards to avoid Northams infanticide comments and even now are only selectively quoting Northam to push back against the President. Giving the Democrats infanticide position maximum exposure was a good thing.
The President reminding us all of the nations great accomplishments while also saying our best accomplishments are still to come was a great moment. He found moments of bipartisanship that made a very divided room come together.
It was the best speech he has given and if he can consistently use the discipline he showed last night he will be on track for re-election. But with this President that is a big if.
