According to NBC's Kasie Hunt, here's one of the early reviews of President Barack Obama's 15-minute immigration reform speech.
Clik here to view.
Most Congressional Republicans were not in Washington DC to react to the President's speech as they had flown back home for a much-needed break from doing nothing, in order to spend quality time with family and donors.
But the Republican Governors Association, holding their conference in Boca Raton, Florida have been reacting angrily to the speech since yesterday.
Attendees at the RGA were not just seeing red, at least one member reportedly turned red about the speech--even before the President gave it:
[Former Mississippi Gov. Haley] Barbour grew red in the face as he explained his frustration with the media’s focus on immigration. Most of the questions at two separate press conferences, in addition to the panel moderated by [Chuck] Todd, were about Obama’s coming executive order.[...]From where I sit, it looks like the President's speech was affecting and memorable to at least one key segment of his intended audience.“To take up all the time talking about that is taking your eye off why we’re here. That’s what y’all want to talk about,” Barbour said to reporters assembled around him. “If y’all want to talk about it, go somewhere else.”
Most of the governors’ energy was focused on denouncing the president for raining on their parade and spoiling their thunder. There was not much talk about how to deal with the reality that, even if states are the place where policy experiments are best conducted, the modern presidency still holds enormous power to control the national conversation.
