NPR, one of the biggest news outlets in the nation, asked 4000 listeners to respond to the 2011 State of the Union address. Here's what they got back, in word cloud version:
The discussion:
"Why is "salmon" so big? As The Two-Way explains, NPR's Facebook followers were referring to one of the night's humorous moments — when the president joked about the complicated and convoluted way the government regulates salmon.
"The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they're in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they're in saltwater," Obama said. "I hear it gets even more complicated once they're smoked." That last line drew big laughs from lawmakers in the Capitol."
Note that this prominence cut across all party lines, according to the word cloud diagrams, and played a little better with Republicans and Independents than Democrats.
Why was the joke less popular with Dems? Probably because some Democrats think he's doing Reagan.
Alex Parenne at Salon articulates this point:
Oh god he's doing Reagan. The government is so big and complicated, I have a folksy anecdote about fish that illustrates the absurdity of the entire enterprise of managing a massive, wealthy, post-industrial nation. (Obama is also bad at delivering "jokes," his apparently developed sense of irony nothwithstanding.)
But I disagree. The joke got a huge laugh in the room, and obviously played well out of the room as well. Obama showed he wants the government to make sense, by kidding it a little. Is that so wrong?
And he showed he understands the power of humor. That's important, for an American president. Whether you like Reagan or not.
UPDATE (1/28): Actually the President was "misinformed" — the same Federal agency oversees salmon populations, in fresh or salt water — the National Marine Fisheries Service. That's according to the reporting of Elizabeth Shogren, NPR's top-flight enviro reporter, who makes her point irrefutably.
In other words, Obama is beginning to sound like Reagan…funny and wrong. Alarmingly so.
h/p: Andrew Sullivan
Kit Stolz 