State of the Union

I did not watch the President deliver the State of the Union address last night, other than a couple of minutes late in the speech¹. But I did read the released version, before delivered, and tweeted some commentary before he started.

"Faster than flying, without the pat-down" - Why? Are bombs on crowded trains less dangerous than bombs on crowded planes?

"When we find ... unecessary burden ...we will fix them" would be more convincing from someone who hadn't championed Obamacare...

"new rules to prevent another financial crisis" like the last one, and promote the next one, which will be different...

"new health care law - let me be the first to say that anything can be improved" - to be first, you'd have had to say it long, long ago

"our government spends more than it takes in." - Duh. "That is not sustainable." Double Duh. There's that brilliance people talk about...

My initial overall impression of the speech? "We're gonna spend, spend, spend your money! Spend on inefficient green jobs! Spend on edjimacation! Spend, spend, spend! Punish the oil companies! Take more money from the rich! Spend, spend, spend! Oh yeah, we're going to cut the deficit, too, while we SPEND, SPEND, SPEND!"

It's safe to say that I wasn't impressed with the speech as written. There was some conservative-sounding rhetoric, some pretense to being concerned about doing the right thing, but someone who really got it, someone who was really ready to face what needs to be done wouldn't have spent so much time trying to spend so much more money on so many new things. Oh, I know he talked about "investment" but it's all just spending.



¹My impression of those minutes was, "what a dreary affair. What a mechanical speaker." Whatever it is about Obama the speechmaker that has people raving continues to escape me.