SOTU Speech - My Thoughts

The speech last night was long, almost 70 minutes, which isn’t terribly unusual as SOTU speeches go. He was speaking more like the “orator of old” instead of the wooden talking head he’s been so often recently, but he still wasn’t soaring to the same rhetorical heights he used to. Last night’s speech was more of a “regular guy” speaking to you.

Obama didn’t seem to have a coherent message in his speech, unless it was “I’m in trouble, maybe this section will help.” He rambled all over the political map.

Although health care reform was his signature issue in 2009, Obama didn’t mention it until 30 minutes into the speech. Even then, he only spent seven paragraphs on the subject… that’s about five minutes of a 69-minute speech. He asked Democrats not to “run for the hills” on health care, and to “get it done.” He neglected, however, to provide any guidance on HOW they can get it done. He also re-iterated, yet again, his assertion that the only thing wrong with the plan is that he didn’t speak clearly enough about its benefits… in other words, we’re too stupid to understand his plan, so he’s going to speak slower and use smaller words.

“Still, this is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became. I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people.”

He then issued a fake call for different ideas that would work.

“But if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors and stop insurance company abuses, let me know.”

The problem is that many such suggestions have already been made and rejected because they don’t fit his ideological bent… they rely on market-based reforms instead of government-run reforms. And so they are rejected. He doesn’t want new ideas, he wants his plan passed, as is.

Obama claimed to have inherited a $1 trillion deficit, though the actual number was less than $500 billion… he grew that figure over the course of a year to $1.4 trillion. He then talked about his new, populist, “re-connect with the voters” plans. His so-called “spending freeze” that would affect 1 out of every 8 dollars actually spent… just $15 billion out of a $4 trillion budget in 2010, $250 billion out of approximately $40 trillion over the next decade. And with the rest of the budget free to (and likely to) grow, overall spending is still projected to rise.

His newly-found focus on the deficit and fiscal sanity is very perfunctory, and clearly is a response to the Massachusetts victory of Republican candidate Scott Brown. It’s far too little to do any good, and he doesn’t really mean it, anyway. How can he talk about deficit reduction and still keep pushing programs and plans that will increase the deficit?

He also re-iterated support for his new “jobs bill” and pledged to create new jobs. He did this, even though economists don’t think his plan will create any jobs or help the economy.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/32126.html

President Barack Obama’s job-creation program could produce a short-term political boost, but it’s unlikely to significantly stem job losses and reduce the unemployment rate anytime soon, according to economists.

Obama contradicted himself repeatedly throughout the speech. He pushed deficit reduction and increased spending at the same time, he said we had to end partisan infighting and then chided Republicans to stop obstructing his legislation, he said the House and Senate had to work together better and then blasted the Senate for not getting things done, and he said he didn’t want to punish banks right after pushing his punitive “bank tax.”

Oh, and while endorsing increased spending and spending to "create jobs," he had the nerve to say:

“families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same.”

It was primarily a domestic-oriented speech, though he did talk a bit about Iraq and Afghanistan.

Overall, I wasn’t impressed. On health care reform and cap & trade, he basically told Americans that he is not listening to us and will push his agenda as hard as he can. He was unapologetic about his ambitious, ultra-liberal agenda, and vowed to keep moving forward.

In other words, the President doesn't get it, and shows no signs that this will change in the near future.

Bad move, PresBo.