At the top of NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, moderator Chuck Todd wondered if a Republican rising star could overcome a major obstacle that has occurred "year after year" for the GOP: "Can Iowa's Joni Ernst avoid becoming the latest victim of the curse of the State of the Union response?"
Todd wrapped up the show with an entire segment promoting the supposed curse: "It sounds like...a ticket to political stardom, until you realize that in recent years giving the response has been more trouble than it's worth." He proclaimed: "In fact, it's been a lot like the infamous Sports Illustrated jinx."
With photoshopped covers of a fictional "SOTU Response Illustrated" magazine appearing on screen, Todd proceeded to list recent State of the Union responses – all but one of which were given by Republicans – and hype some kind of political doom for most of the speakers:
2008, Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, she has since been sunk by the botched health care website rollout. 2009, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana damaged by that Gone With the Wind-like entrance that he made. 2010, Bob McDonnell of Virginia, he now next month will have a new home in a prison cell apparently.
2011 was Congressman Paul Ryan, actually it worked out alright for him, losing VP candidate ain't so bad on the resume. Also in 2011, though, you had Michele Bachmann giving the first Tea Party response, she struggled looking at the wrong camera. 2012 was Mitch Daniels, he's now out of politics. 2013 was Senator – [drinks water] – excuse me, Marco Rubio, who was, of course, hurt by that famous drinking water incident.
Notice that since things turned out okay for Paul Ryan, Todd had to throw in Michele Bachmann's unofficial Tea Party response in order to find something to mock from that year.
He concluded his skit by admitting: "So I should note last year, though, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers gave the response and she's been an exception to this rule so far."
Of course following Rodgers's 2014 response to the President's address, Todd's MSNBC colleague Alex Wagner sent off a nasty tweet claiming the Republican Congresswoman looked like she should be knitting while giving the speech.
Here is a full transcript of the January 18 Meet the Press segment:
10:30 AM ET TEASE:
CHUCK TODD: And we've seen it year after year.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: State of the Union Curse?]
SEN. MARCO RUBIO: Tonight I have the honor of responding to State of the Union address.
TODD: Can Iowa's Joni Ernst avoid becoming the latest victim of the curse of the State of the Union response?
11:26 AM ET SEGMENT:
TODD: Going to have a little fun here. We learned this week that Joni Ernst, the new Republican senator from Iowa, will give the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union message. And it sounds like a political – you know, a ticket to political stardom, until you realize that in recent years giving the response has been more trouble than it's worth.
In fact, it's been a lot like the infamous Sports Illustrated jinx. 2008, Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, she has since been sunk by the botched health care website rollout. 2009, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana damaged by that Gone With the Wind-like entrance that he made. 2010, Bob McDonnell of Virginia, he now next month will have a new home in a prison cell apparently.
2011 was Congressman Paul Ryan, actually it worked out alright for him, losing VP candidate ain't so bad on the resume. Also in 2011, though, you had Michele Bachmann giving the first Tea Party response, she struggled looking at the wrong camera. 2012 was Mitch Daniels, he's now out of politics. 2013 was Senator – [drinks water] – excuse me, Marco Rubio, who was, of course, hurt by that famous drinking water incident.
So I should note last year, though, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers gave the response and she's been an exception to this rule so far.
Kelly, but Joni Ernst, this is, you know, from a state senator in southwest Iowa two years ago to giving-
KELLY O'DONNELL: I would have won the office pool on this because she was my pick because I thought Republicans won't want to put a finger on the scale and pick a 2016er. But with her, you get Iowa, so there is 2016. She's the first female combat veteran in the Senate, so she can speak to some of those foreign policy issues we've been talking about.
TODD: And she gives all of us on Tuesday night the easy transition to go from Iowa senator to presidential politics.
