
Praise for President Trump's televised speech Tuesday night was
widespread, but so was a sense of shock and even awe.
He surprised us all. The man took over prime-time TV for more than an hour and never complained about the media even once.
Throughout his address to a joint session of Congress, Donald Trump actually came across as conciliatory and inclusive, organized in his thoughts and words, and yes, dare I say, sane.
Various commentators had versions of essentially the same reaction: In his speech last night, Trump finally seemed presidential -- like he was really the president! Well, finally.
While
watching him deliver this speech, it was reasonable to ask yourself: Where did this guy come from? Where has he been all this time?
Then I wondered if this was some sort of weird Trumpian
strategy aimed at keeping everybody else off-balance -- namely, spend the first five weeks or so of his presidency keeping everyone up at night worrying about what idiotic thing he's doing in the wee
hours of the morning, then deliver a prime-time speech in which, suddenly, he seemed like the most rational man on Earth.
Wasn't it just yesterday that a photo of Kellyanne Conway perched like
a teen with her shoes underneath her on one of the Oval Office's fancy couches had everyone groaning about what's happening to our sacred White House?
The office was full of representatives of
historically black colleges and universities (ushering in the use of a new acronym, HBCU) who were gathered there to meet the president, and Conway seemed to be obliviously texting someone.
This is when you know our social media obsessions have really gotten out of hand -- when a presidential aide is so busy working her smartphone that she can't be bothered to acknowledge an Oval
Office-ful of distinguished visitors. And on Sunday night, a veteran accountant was so involved in Tweeting pictures of movie stars from backstage at the Oscars that he handed Warren Beatty the wrong
envelope and ruined the Best Picture award. But that's all grist for another column.
By Tuesday evening, President Trump had made everyone forget about Conway, who had been vilified on social
media all afternoon.
The tone of Trump's speech was so upbeat that he even made his declarations about the “great, great wall” he intends to build on the border with Mexico
sound inspiring. When he said this, you couldn't help wondering whether he was planning to build a replica of China's Great Wall.
This was one of the moments when the Republican side of the
chamber rose to their feet while the Democrats sat. This reaction from the Democrats was understandable, where this wall is concerned.
But at other times, Trump's tone was so hopeful and
optimistic that the Democrats’ insistence on remaining seated often came across as grumpy and petulant.
To give Trump his due, even the Democrats stood and applauded at various times --
which was a big surprise to a viewer at home who never expected to see Democrats applauding Donald Trump. Just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, I went online to see if hell had frozen over. It had
not.
After the speech, some commentators credited Trump with possessing an instinct for appearing on television that helped him deliver a winning speech on prime-time TV. There is something to
this theory.
As always, I was just as fascinated with the aftermath of the speech, as covered on C-Span, in which the president made his way out of the chamber and greeted various legislators
and other dignitaries.
Like a real politician, he seemed genuinely effective in remembering people's names, asking them about their wives and children by name and basically making the
small talk and signing the autographs that are the bread and butter of American politics.
For one evening at least, it was possible to believe that Donald Trump just might make it as President
of the United States. As I write this, though, it's only around 10:30 in the morning on Wednesday, and the day is still young.