SOTU 2013 LIVE: How Will Republicans Respond?

Impact

The State of the Union address happens tonight. President Obama will give his vision for the nation while millions of people watch. Then, Republicans will get their chance to respond. The dualing responses will come from Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. The path they choose to take in their responses will signal Republicans willingness to govern.

Here are a few possible directions they may take the speech.  

We may hear things like: "The president and I agree on ... but, where we disagree is ..."  "We believe we can find compromise on this by .... "   

This would strike a tone that says Republicans want to work together to Govern.  They want to get some of their way and let the party in power get some of it's way.

We could hear things like, "Climate change is false and the President is wasting resources talking about this." That would signal that Republicans have opted to attack the President for taking actions that may hurt the extraction industries. If you research the campaign funding sources of that candidate, you'll probably find a lot of coal and oil companies.  This would be putting old school businesses that damage the planet against science via the Republican mouthpiece. It would also be going against science.

We could hear attack-after-attack-after-attack on the president.  This could signal that the party has no desire to govern. If they take this approach it is safe to assume that they are less concerned with policy, compromise, and solving problems and more concerned with their messaging.  

We could hear Republicans attack the president on immigration policies. This would contribute to statements in the next elections such as, "Well, the demographics were just not in Republicans favor," as they turn off major populations in the country who also deserve representation of their values.  

Or, we could hear statements that speak directly at the next elections. The rebuttals to the president's remarks could be there to boost favor towards leaders who are already running for the next election.

Will they strike a tone of working together and compromise? Will they aim to rip down the President to slow the usage of "political capital," earned by just winning an election?  Will they attack things that go entirely against science and fact? Or, is this the beginning of the next election campaign? 

What tone do you think Republicans will strike as they present dueling rebuttals to the President's speech?  

My take: The Republican party is so used to fighting everyone and everything that they now attack themselves. Now that health care reform is gaining in popularity and there is no chance of repeal. They've turned towards fighting each other.

Please, comment below. Do you think Republicans will signal that they want to govern?  Or, fight? Or, start the next election?