Forget that you see an all-white crowd. Although that presents a problem for the GOP as minority populations continue to grow, the big problem is that it’s an all-old crowd. Where are all the young people? Where are all the angry college students?

I know that there are some young tea partiers (like my sister, sigh). But their message predominantly resonates with old people. This may create short-term gains for the GOP, especially in the 2010 midterms. But long-term, you can’t rely on a grey-haired revolution.

As Andrew Sullivan likes to say – Know hope.

Ezra: But you liked at least part of it. The Senate health-care bill seems like Wyden-Bennett on the margins. If you were willing to build on Wyden-Bennett, which is a comprehensive solution, why not the Senate plan? Are they so different in theory?

Alexander: I think they are. One thing is you can’t be sure what’s in the Senate bill because it’s 2,100 pages long. You just know there are surprises in it.

In my short career as an engineer, I’ve had to read through the entire datasheet of a microprocessor I never programmed before because my company was switching to that processor the following day. I’ve had to peruse the revision logs and bug notes of multiple versions of memcachedb to figure out that our app was failing because the version of the software we were using could not allocate a memory pool larger than 2GB.

At no point did I say that the problem couldn’t be solved because the documentation was too difficult to understand.

Stop acting like you’re just an average American who finds this stuff to be “too darn complicated”. You’re not an average American. You’re a Senator, a legislator. It’s your job to understand the details and nuances of legislation. Quit complaining and read the damn bill.

The attitude in the beginning was something like, “listen, assholes”. He was telling everyone we had to rescue the banks and provide stimulus to avoid a depression. He got back to the “listen, assholes” tone a few more times, especially with HCR. I liked it, and I think the people who supported Obama want to see him take that stance.

There was a subtle theme of Republican obstructionism which can be used as a jumping off point for a new narrative. By my rough count (I haven’t gone back and listened to the speech), Obama mentioned bills passed by the House, and only the House, four times. “What the fuck, Senate.” He can expand on this theme in coming weeks, but this was a good starting point. He got on base with this, to use a baseball term.

If young people don’t get motivated, 2010 and the rest of this administration is going to be very difficult. He appealed to the base a few times: global warming, DADT, infrastructure, and a bit of civil rights issues. I hope it works. Without an enthusiastic base, we’re fucked.

A lot of the speech was aimed at Democratic Congressmen, especially in the House. We go back to the “listen, assholes” theme. The end was extremely strong, telling people “We don’t quit!”. He showed commitment to health care reform. This was also a reminder to a lot of people of who they voted for. I can’t see the House not passing the Senate bill after this speech. I could be wrong. Democrats might be bigger pussies than I thought. If they give up now, then fuck them. You can’t blame Obama.

The style was very good. I liked a lot of the content and a lot of the policy points. Some things, I disagreed with. I’m not quite sure how the part about defense and national security fit in. But overall, I think he nailed it. Let’s continue the fight.

So, as much as it pains me to say it, tonight’s State of the Union Address has got to be about style. Yes, Obama’s got to reestablish the reasons for health care reform. He’s got to explain his new agenda concerning bank regulation. And then there’s that spending freeze bullshit, which I don’t even want to talk about. But the biggest problem facing Democrats and Obama is the enthusiasm gap between their base and the GOP base.

Teabaggers think their freedom is at stake while they fight Communists, Muslims, and Nazis all at the same time. As deluded and idiotic as they are, they’re enthusiastic and sure to vote. Democratic voters are sitting on the couch wondering who ate all the pretzels.

This is what Obama needs to address. Not directly, but he needs to restore the enthusiasm among Democrats. It’s certainly possible. We all remember 2008.

So, tonight, Obama doesn’t need to hit a homerun. Well, he can, but he doesn’t have to, at least not a walk-off homerun. A walk-off homerun isn’t even possible, since he can’t win the game all in one night. What he needs to do is get on base. He’s got to get a rally going and get everyone else in dugout on their feet, feeling some “hope”, as cheesy as that sounds. It’s going to take a lot base hits, doubles, triples, and a few homers to win this thing. The SOTU just needs to be the first in that long line of hits.

James O’Keefe, the young conservative filmmaker who was behind the undercover operations that led to the ACORN scandal last year, was arrested with three others for allegedly trying to bug the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) yesterday.

Right wing strategists don’t give a shit about evidence or right and wrong. They just want to establish a narrative and taint their opponents’ images before anyone has a chance to get the facts straight.

As Jonathan Bernstein writes:

Republicans are attacking Democrats for taking away people’s guns, even though the Democrats basically surrendered on that issue fifteen years ago. They are attacking Democrats for cutting Medicare and for allowing Medicare to grow so fast that it’ll bankrupt the nation — sometimes in the very same speech (I’ve seen it in the same paragraph). Republicans have, repeatedly, attacked Barack Obama for not using a word he uses all the time. Last I heard, they were still attacking the Democrats for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, something that as far as I know not a single elected Democrat has any interest in doing. No, it didn’t make sense, but if they don’t have attacks ready that make sense, they’ll use ones that don’t.

And don’t forget about death panels.

So, even though they were exonerated by a Congressional Research Service report, and even though portions of O’Keefe’s film were substantially edited, and even though O’Keefe has now shown a pattern of unlawful tactics, ACORN was, is, and will remain a boogeyman.

Well, now that I think about, NASA also staged that fake moon landing back in the 60’s. So maybe they’ve been a part of communist conspiracies this whole time. But then again, the moon landing was part of the Space Race, an effort to prove our dicks were bigger than the Soviets’. Oh fuck! Logical paradox! KABOOM!

Guess you had to be there. But seriously. It’ll be a long time before there’s another chance to pass meaningful health care reform legislation. It’ll be a lot easier to get the things you want if you’re starting from what the Senate bill offers than if you’re starting from what we have now.

HOUSE – PASS THE SENATE BILL!

Without a doubt, the Massachusetts Special Election was a setback. But as big of a blow as losing a 60 vote super-majority may have been, there’s something much bigger at stake. Unless the president does something to rekindle the enthusiasm of 2008, the Democratic party is in danger of having a generation of young voters simply saying, “fuck it”.

There are plenty of reasons for Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts Special Election, including Martha Coakley simply being a shitty, shitty candidate. But the most disheartening of the reasons was that only “15% of Massachusetts citizens between the ages of 18-29 turned out to vote.”

Right now, the base is demoralized, unenthused, complacent and dispassionate. Meanwhile, Republican voters are fueled by hyperbolic conspiracy theories about America’s freedom being destroyed by a Socialist, Fascist, Marxist, Muslim, Nazi regime. They truly believe this shit. But while they’re out there fueled by a fantasy of fighting Communist Nazis, we’re busy rallying around Conan O’Brien. It’s time to rally the base again and bring back that 2008 feeling.

Part of what this campaign needs to accomplish is to begin a new narrative for the President. In part, this narrative needs to lay out his agenda for the next year in terms of policy. Obama needs to show a commitment to passing health care reform and explain his reasons for financial regulation. But more importantly, this narrative needs to tell the story of the obstructionist strategy that Republicans in Congress are taking. Not enough people understand the process around passing legislation. Without getting too nuanced, Obama needs to get this through to young voters, and get them angry over the exploitation of the filibuster rule.

The upcoming State of the Union Address is a perfect opportunity to launch this new campaign. It’s a tall order, especially when you’re going up against windmill fighters. But if anyone has the platform and the ability to motivate and inspire, it’s Barack Obama.