Do you know that Tim Kaine was a missionary? It’s true, and if you stayed awake through the ritual in over-hyped self-importance that is the State of the Union address, you heard Gov. Kaine say so himself. In the first fifteen seconds of his speech. Our illustrious President made his usual overtures to the conservative religious community, but for the first time in a while, a major Democratic address beat a Republican one on values.
What do I mean by ‘beat?’ Well first off, Bush’s faith language was much more muted in this speech than in previous years. The speech was heavy on foreign affairs, which did drip with ideological value-based language, but didn’t speak directly to faith issues. Arguably the most bizarre moment of the night came in the realm of faith and politics, with Bush vowing to outlaw ‘human-animal hybrids.’ Confused, anyone? Well Tony Perkins at the Family Research Council thinks it’s an important stand, but somehow I doubt that the fear of giraffe-men walking down the street is what speaks most directly to American values these days.
This stood in contrast to Kaine’s address. He’s not the most thrilling speaker ever, but he IS any number of things that came off very well: genuine, results oriented, and comfortable linking his faith with his public service. He might not be high wattage enough to ever win a national election, but his approach in the rebuttal might point the way to those bright stars who are (ahem, Sen. Obama, this is where you start reading again).
The minority party rebuttal is in some ways always doomed to futility. We're tired of speechifying by the time it comes on, there's no audience, and the speaker is never as high profile as the President. Kaine's speech Tuesday didn't win the Dem's any elections. But if other candidates can learn from his method, it may well be the only speech from January 31, 2006 that anybody cares about in a few years.
