Is This the Face Republicans Want to Put on Their Party?

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Delivering the Republican Response to the State of the Union 

Democrats used to complain about being policy wonks but unable to control the political narrative.  But the eighty-year-old Democratic President matched the rudeness of hecklers on the GOP side of Congress during his State of the Union address, including calling out the reaction to his statement, supported by the facts which Republicans can't ignore, that Republicans were planning on putting Social Security and Medicare on five year sunset bills and cutting the benefits.  The proof is in the proposal by Republican Senator Rick Scott.  There's no denying it.  

So the President called them out, stated the facts and where to find them, including for any of the American people who want to look it up and confirm it, and then enjoyed the resulting standing ovation when he declared that, apparently, they all agreed on not cutting those benefits and standing up for seniors.  I consider that an excellent example of controlling the narrative. 

Contrast that with the Republican response delivered by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.  The President emphasized the economic and job growth that has taken place during his administration, resulting from his policies, the cuts in the deficit in contrast to the spending done by his predecessor, and the multiple benefits everywhere from an infrastructure bill that even some Republicans have supported, fearing that the themes in their narrative are being ignored by an increasing majority of American voters. 

Sanders, whom I assume had control over what she chose to address, went right back to the same old talking points that cost the GOP in the mid-term elections, and going back to 2020, cost them the White House.  She assumed everyone knew what she was talking about, though few of those in the polling and focus groups actually did know, including almost all of the independents and many of the Republicans.  I really wonder, in her case, especially after having to put forth all the lies she told when she was Trump's press secretary, if she even knew how to actually be the "response" to the President's speech.  

We're just past two years into the Biden Administration, and after the best mid-term showing for the party of a sitting President in decades.  After predicting that they were going to flip 60 House seats, the GOP had trouble getting to a ten seat majority, and it is far from certain, and getting less certain every day, as the party seems to continue on this losing track, that the majority will hold, especially on extremist legislation and extremist investigations.  The Biden Administration is confident it will get the debt ceiling raised without negotiating anything away, and I'd bet on that.  

So where was Sanders when Biden was giving his speech?  Surely she had a copy of it in advance and was able to see what he was talking about.  But with very little actual rebuttal, she let what the President said stand without a challenge,  wasting an opportunity for a response which would at least demonstrate a realistic grasp of the situation instead of repeating themes in their extremist code language that cost them control of the Senate, several state legislatures and governorships and a disappointingly small majority in the House that will--mark my words--not support the extremism.  

To use a phrase that I sometimes heard growing up in the ranchland of Southern Arizona, she was "all hat and no cattle."  She's a Baptist preacher's daughter who has become accustomed to lying.  

The expression on her face in the photo from the Washington Post says it all.