memeorandum: Joni Ernst goes folksy in GOP response (Cristina Marcos/The Hill)

7:30 AM ET, January 21, 2015

Top Items:

The White House / Medium:

President Obama's State of the Union Address—Remarks As Prepared for Delivery — There is a ritual on State of the Union night in Washington. A little before the address, the White House sends out an embargoed copy of the President's speech to the press (embargoed means that the press can see the speech …

The White House:

Remarks of President Barack Obama - As Prepared for Delivery State of the Union Address — The White House is making the full text of the State of the Union widely available on its Medium page. The text, as prepared for delivery, is now online HERE, along with tools that allow people …

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Washington Post and Hit & Run

Dan Pfeiffer / Medium:
A State of the Union Watch Guide (From Someone Who Knows What's in the Speech)

Discussion: ABC News, Politico, Bloomberg View, The Verge, Common Dreams, White House.gov Blog, Daily Kos and Guardian

New York Times:
WASHINGTON — President Obama claimed credit on Tuesday …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Moderate Voice, National Review, Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Washington Post, Gawker, Firedoglake and The Week

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Full Text of Republican Response to State of the Union — The office of House speaker John Boehner has posted the full text of the Republican response to the State of the Union (breaking its own self-imposed embargo), to be delivered by Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa: — “Good evening. — “I'm Joni Ernst.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, US News, Daily Kos, Politico, FreakOutNation, Mediaite, Washington Monthly, Scared Monkeys and RedState

Cristina Marcos / The Hill:

Joni Ernst goes folksy in GOP response — Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) focused on the GOP's policy priorities for the new Congress, rather than making a direct response to President Obama's proposals, in her party's official response Tuesday night. — Ernst, a freshman senator who just won election …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Political Wire and ABC News

Seung Min Kim / Politico:

Joni Ernst's response: Congress is ‘back to work’ — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell tapped the Iowa freshman in December to deliver the GOP's rebuttal to the State of the Union. — Sen. Joni Ernst declared Tuesday that Congress' new Republican majority is “back to work” …

Discussion: ABC News

Mother Jones:
GOP's Big Spanish SOTU Response Will Be a Translation of English-Only Advocate Joni Ernst's Speech

Discussion: Politico, New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo, BREITBART.COM, Fusion, Bloomberg Politics, PoliticusUSA, Mediaite, The Daily Banter and Daily Kos

Bernie Becker / The Hill:

Democrats put target on ‘corporate deserters’ — Congressional Democrats said Tuesday they would seek any and all avenues to curb offshore tax deals, kicking off a new effort to punish what they call “corporate deserters.” — Senior Democrats on both sides of the Capitol brought …

David Espo / ABC News:
Obama Challenges Republicans in State of Union Speech

Discussion: Associated Press

Laura Barron-Lopez / The Hill:
Senate Dems push Keystone amendments

Discussion: Politico and Daily Kos

CNNMoney.com:

Paris mayor: We intend to sue Fox News — Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told CNN Tuesday she intends to sue Fox News in the wake of the channel's coverage of supposed “no-go zones” for non-Muslims. — Hidalgo said the channel had “insulted” her city. — “When we're insulted …

Discussion: CNN, ThinkProgress, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Washington Post, France 24, The Huffington Post, The Gateway Pundit, New York Magazine, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo and Hinterland Gazette, more at Mediagazer »

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:
Fox News: Paris Mayor's Anger Over Reports On Muslims ‘Misplaced’

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Banter and Hullabaloo, more at Mediagazer »

Doreen Carvajal / New York Times:
Fox News Becomes the Unwilling Star of a French TV Satire

Discussion: Mediaite, The Week, Right Wing Watch, Common Dreams, Mashable, TVNewser, Hot Air and Gatestone Institute

Adam B. Lerner / Politico:

Report: GOP women face high hurdles to office — The newly-inaugurated 114th Congress may have the most women of any in history, but the vast majority of gains have been made by Democrats. A new study from Political Parity, a non-partisan research group seeking gender parity in politics …

Discussion: Political Wire

David Frum / The Atlantic Online:
The Real Target of Obama's Speech on Tuesday? Hillary Clinton

Discussion: The New Republic, Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, Just Above Sunset, Ed Driscoll and The Dish

Alex Pareene / Gawker:

The State of the Union Is Dumb Hacks Writing Garbage Speeches — Six years into the Obama presidency, I thought we'd finally run out of hotshot administration bros the political press could glowingly profile in exchange for future access to meaningless scooplets. I was wrong.

Discussion: The Dish, Hit & Run, Balloon Juice and New York Times

Ezra Klein / Vox:

The most important sentence in Obama's 2015 State of the Union — 1) The most striking sentence in President Obama's 2015 State of the Union came near the start: “Tonight, we turn the page.” — 2) It is the seventh year of Obama's presidency. But it's the first in which the economy is no longer in crisis.

Discussion: Advocate

Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:
Obama in a Word: ‘Good,’ ‘Incompetent’

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Washington Post, The Week and Politico

Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:

Obama calls for civility, then immediately taunts Republicans over his two presidential wins … President Obama spent much of Tuesday's State of the Union calling for civility in politics — then taunted Republicans over his two election victories, after many of them applauded the looming end of his political career.

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, The Gateway Pundit and alicublog

Cory Bennett / The Hill:

President makes unprecedented cybersecurity pitch — President Obama made an historic push for cybersecurity action during his State of the Union address Tuesday night. — “If we don't act, we'll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable,” Obama said. “If we do, we can continue …

Discussion: Politico and CANNONFIRE

Adam B. Lerner / Politico:

Rep. Steve King decries ‘deportable’ in Michelle Obama's balcony — Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa) railed against President Obama via Twitter only hours before this Tuesday's State of the Union speech, referring to an undocumented immigrant scheduled to sit with the first lady during the speech as “a deportable.”

Discussion: ABC News

Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:

RON FOURNIER IN EXCELSIS: ADVICE FOR THE PRESIDENT AND TONIGHT'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS … Sometimes the curveball doesn't curve, or the slider hangs, or the fastball isn't fast. This is one of those days. Ron Fournier's advice on what the president should say tonight in his State …

Discussion: Gawker, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice and The Daily Caller

Jay Cost / Weekly Standard:

Obama's Defiant Speech — President Obama talked about spending a lot of money tonight — on preschool care, community college, new infrastructure, and a variety of tax preferences for middle- and lower-income earners. All financed by new taxes, primarily on the wealthy.

Discussion: VodkaPundit and Washington Examiner

Daily Mail:

Gun-toting Christian mother-of-three who made ‘liberal heads explode’ admits cheating on her military vet husband with Tea Party member — Holly Fisher wrote in a statement on Sunday: ‘For a very short period... I actually believed my marriage was over and found someone else’

Discussion: Joe. My. God. and Raw Story

Meghan Keneally / ABC News:

State of the Union 2015: It's Baaaaack! White House Teases Possible Return of Obama's Tan Suit … White House staffers wanted to spice up their official Twitter feed—and the President's wardrobe—by sending out a teasing tweet ahead of tonight's big State of the Union speech.

Discussion: Fusion, Politico and Bloomberg Politics

Radley Balko / Washington Post:

More fallout from Eric Holder's changes to civil asset forfeiture law — On Friday, I posted some analysis of Attorney General Eric Holder's changes to the equitable-sharing program, which allows local police agencies to circumvent state restrictions on civil asset forfeiture …

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Dish and Hit & Run