CNN news 2011-02-02
You're watching multisource politics video news analysis from Newsy.In the left corner -- President Obama. And in the right，Representative Paul Ryan，delivering the Republican response.Chairman of the House Budget Committee and rising star of the GOP. Representative Paul Ryan will give the official Republican response after the president’s televised speech.
Did we say rising star of the right? On Fox News, Karl Rove -- raves.
“When it comes to budget, and when it comes to spending, he is the brainiest, most thoughtful, deepest thinker on the Republican side of the aisle in the House.”
“He's very young, 41 years old but has seven congressional terms behind him, clearly a guy who has accomplished a lot at a relatively young age.”
But he’s got some competition. Or does he?As soon as Republican leaders tapped Ryan for the rebuttal - Tea Party darling Michele Bachmann say she, too, is responding -- on behalf of the Tea Party.
The economy will top the agenda - in both the State of the Union address as well as the Republican responses. Initially ，Bachmann’s response was only going to be available online - but CNN has announced plans to carry it live. The network asked Democratic strategist Paul Begala - is a second Republican response a good idea?
“Yes, I think it’s for her, but I don't think it's helpful for the Republican party for the reasons Susan states. And maybe not so much for the Democrats. We go for the glittery sharp object out there, and forget it's a fishing lure and we get hooked. We get distracted by Michele Bachmann when we should be focusing on Paul Ryan.”
And CBS suggests - the whole thing begs the question - who’s really leading the Republican Party?A Republican strategist says - two responses doesn’t mean there’s two different Republican parties.
“There were stories before the election that there was a schism with the tea party and the establishment. Yet, we still won 60-plus seats in the house. So I think that the Republican Party is still unified on core messages, which is we need to cut spending well, need to reign in the size of government and focus on growing the economy, so whether it's Michelle Bachmann giving it in one venue and Paul Ryan giving it in another, the message is still the same...”
Not necessarily - writes Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen，who worries，the fiscal hawk from Wisconsin could get mischaracterized. And that COULD be bad news for Democrats.
“I can only hope that Paul Ryan isn't positioned as the ‘middle’ -- literally and figuratively -- between the president and Bachmann. [Ryan] is after all, a hard-core radical, intent on destroying Medicare and Social Security. Bachmann's wild-eyed craziness shouldn't make Ryan appear reasonable by comparison, but it might.”
Still, The Washington Post’s Adam Serwer says no matter what’s said tonight -- he doesn’t expect much to change.
“After tonight, talking about cutting spending will still be popular, while actually gutting the social safety net won't be. Neither the president's speech, nor Ryan or Bachman's response will change that.”
Stay with Newsy for multi-source analysis of the president’s address and the Republican response.