Bob Schieffer Has High Hopes for a Post-State of the Union Washington, DC

As the nation awaits President Obama’s State of the Union address tomorrow night, Imus and Bob Schieffer, the host of Face the Nation on CBS, recalled the President’s stunning oratory performance less than two weeks ago in Tucson, Arizona, where he spoke at a memorial service there honoring the victims of the January 8^th shooting spree.
 
“He showed what a difference a really good speech can make,” Schieffer said of Obama. “And I just thought it was one of the most impressive things I’ve ever heard.”
 
Imus chalked much of Obama’s success in the address, which stressed the need to tone down harsh rhetoric and shed light on the lives of those killed, up to the lack of a teleprompter. Its absence, Imus observed, forced Obama to look down every so often at his notes, making it feel more personal.
 
“You kind of have a feeling this is a speech he might have written himself, or had a hand in writing,” Schieffer said, noting that it would help if more politicians did the same. “It causes you to focus your thoughts, and I think that’s a good thing.”
 
Perhaps Imus should have heeded this advice: moments later, he asked Schieffer to comment on the Obama administration tapping GE head honcho Jeffrey Immelt to lead its new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, even though in 2009 GE employed 36,000 more people abroad than it did in the United States. Schieffer bowed out, saying that while Immelt is “a brilliant man,” he’s not really following the story.
 
Imus responded, however, with a comment on GE’s stock price, forcing Schieffer to plainly declare, “I think I’m going to pass.” Asked what he’d prefer to talk about, Schieffer said, “I’m just happy to be here with you Don, and to renew our old friendship, and make sure you’re okay.”
 
Sensing sarcasm, Imus asked Schieffer whether it matters what Obama says in the State of the Union, or if Washington will carry on as usual regardless of his message.
 
“I think this is going to be a call for working together to try to tone down things a little bit,” Schieffer said. For the first time in recent memory, Democrats and Republicans plan to commingle in the gallery, a move Schieffer thinks will make a difference. “It’s a very, very small thing, and it’s very cosmetic, but it’s gotten to the point around here, Don, that people are so uncomfortable, members of one party being in the same room with people of another party, that I think it’s really a step in the right direction.”
 
He was hesitant to say how long, if at all, such reconciliation might last, but thinks it’s a start. “We do need to dial back, there’s just no question about it,” Schieffer said.
 
Then, to Imus, “Everybody but you, of course.”
 
-Julie Kanfer