The State of the Union Is…?

The state of the economy is bad and was worse than we expected when we took office.  The state of the war on terrorism is non-existent because we threw out that terminology and reverted back to a Pre-911 philosophy.  The state of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility is OPEN and past our one year deadline.  The state of job creation is moving in the wrong direction and WAY past that 8% promise we gave you when the stimulus plan was being rammed down your throat.  The state of our nation’s health care system is still in flux and our only vision of “success” is still framed in the context of a government takeover.  The state of our place in the global community is in disrepair due to a world-wide PR tour that succeeded only in bashing the Bush administration and making vulnerable our interests and distorting our national image.  The state of Iran is far worse than it was twelve months ago – before we began negotiating with hostile rogue nations.  The state of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is, reluctantly and by sheer Grace of God, sound yet wavering despite the Left’s concerted effort to unfund, defund, hinder, and make ineffective two wars begun under the previous administration.

So… what you’re saying is The State of the Union is GOOD??  Strong?? FANTASTIC???

Tonight President Barack Obama delivered his first State of the Union Address and the nation looked on with great anticipation as the Leader of the Free World reflected upon his first year in office.  Many tuned in to hear the President’s synopsis of the last year, but many more gathered around television sets from New York to California to hear what this President was going to do in the next twelve months to make 2010 a better year for Americans than 2009.  Did they find what they were looking for?  I know I didn’t.

In fairness to this President, and the many that have come before him, he is but one man.  At times this Chief Executive likes to believe he is of a greater caste, but in general terms, there is only so much that any president can do in a calendar year to legitimately bring about change or progress.  That being said, this President thinks he is anything but every other President that came before him.  He campaigned on a platform of change and his ability to make it happen.  He captivated audiences by telling them that he had answers – that he had the cure for the sickness brought about by eight years of the Bush administration and its policies.  He proudly stumped from state to state framing himself as the man that would reshape the image of this nation in the global community, revamp the economy, and put unemployed Americans back to work.  In doing so and in making said promises – HE alone created a higher standard for his Presidency than is usually bestowed upon “lesser men” – not us, so it is only fair that he is measured by that higher standard he set for his own brilliant time in office.

In assessing his first year in the White House, I think it is safe to say that the change he promised so many in so many ways is glaring if not blinding in its absence.  If anything, he has personified the antithesis of change.  He hasn’t brought us answers; he hasn’t formulated solutions; and he hasn’t found a cure to that which ails our nation.  He has created more problems to be solved, more questions to be answered, and he has served as the infection that made the wounds of the recession all the more deadly.  He is the epitome of everything that is fundamentally wrong with politics in Washington and this speech was the manifestation of his broken ideology and the manifesto for those who believe the American people are blissfully – if not willfully – ignorant.

For an hour and ten minutes I sat here listening to this President slowly make his way through the events of the past year, reforms he proposed, proposals he intends to lead to reform, frustrations with the politics of Washington, and plans for effectuating bipartisan action.  I listened to him tell the nation that he is open to all ideas for health care reform and I heard him reiterate that jobs were the first priority of his administration in 2010 – a year after saying that job creation was his first priority in 2009.  I listened to 70 minutes of his rhetoric and I walked away with nothing.

In the days to come, many will examine the specifics of this speech and I will most certainly do the same.  We will try to filter through what was said and what was not said for the true message that the President was trying to send this evening.  I have always assumed that if this President is as brilliant as he would like us to believe he is, he makes no mistakes in delivering speeches of this magnitude.  If he leaves out an issue – it wasn’t important.  If he spends half the speech on one issue it is the MOST important issue.  Day one of law school taught me many things – one being I chose the wrong profession – but it also taught me that there is as much to be learned from that which isn’t said that that which is stated plainly.  Since President Obama is cut from the finest academic cloth and his vast intellect far exceeds that of his predecessor, call me consistent, but I hold him to that brilliance.  Was his omission of GITMO and the 911 trials from the speech a sign that he plans a new course of action on both fronts or was he merely taking the politically beneficial high ground  for the night- in a speech where he praised himself for not avoiding the difficult political battles?  Was he dismissing the threat of global terrorism by spending so little time addressing it?  Was he assuming the American people were so politically tuned out that they wouldn’t notice the absence of these key issues or were they simply not among those issues which he deemed to be “important?”

The only conclusion that I can infer from this speech is that this President was doing that which he has done on so many occasions before tonight.  He delivers a speech full of bipartisan “I Love America” rhetoric and hopes that the American people overlook the general lack of substance.  He speaks of “proposals” in general terms so that when “proposals” become legislation he can claim the glory of their successes or find cover in their failures.  He tells Americans that he will reform the banking system and bring forth a new “jobs bill” to put Americans back to work.   He frames the debate in simple terms – that NO American could oppose if blessed even with only an ounce of conscience.  Then as his “proposals” move to the Houses of Congress and get packaged, bartered for, and negotiated over he can blame the opposition rather than the man that proposed them in the first place.

He spoke tonight about banking reform and this “jobs bill” (stimulus part two)  in the same light that he spoke of health reform repeatedly over the last twelve months.  The model is simple – we need health reform – “all Americans” are in agreement with that – so if the Republicans don’t give us everything – even that which the American people do not want  - in one sweeping and overreaching piece of legislation – then they are the obstructionists and the Party of NO.  He acts as if he wants “change” in Washington even as he is the walking talking continuation of business as usual.  I don’t know if its ignorance or arrogance any longer.  Does he not realize that the American people can see through this act or is he really arrogant enough to believe that he can pull the wool over the eyes of his fellow citizens for the next three years?  Has he learned nothing from his first year in office?  The American people are tired of 2000 page bills.  They are tired of all or nothing “proposals.”   They know that there are methods of “reform” that don’t require entire industries to fall under the control of the federal government and they are ready for that change not this nonsense.

I was deeply troubled by tonight’s address to say the least – not because I expected a homerun, but because I would like to believe that at the heart of even the worst of politicians is a man that knows he is the servant of the people.  I know it is overly optimistic bordering on foolishness, but I believe in our Democratic Republic and I believe in representative government.  I believe that we elect people to go to Washington to serve our best interest.  I understand that at times we will not always agree over the proper course of action, but I believe that our system of government is the greatest in the history of the world, and the one most capable of truly representing the wants and desires of its people.  Tonight’s address went a long way to making me question my optimism.  I am saddened that we now live in a nation where our leader believes he can spend 70 minutes telling us what he can do, what he will do, what wasn’t his fault, and what won’t be his fault and think he won’t be held accountable to the People.  That speech was nothing more than a demonstration of his political cowardice and his absolute arrogance in assuming that the American people are none the wiser.

The State of the Union is….. not good my fellow Americans

Linked at…

That’s Right: “There was a Lie Once…”

Strident Conservative:  ”The State of the Union Goes Green“

Tags: 2010, address, economy, Health-care, jobs, President Obama, state of the union, terrorism

This entry was posted on January 27, 2010 at 11:50 pm and is filed under LIBERAL-DEMS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.