President Obama's Tucson speech was more moving and inspiring. But his "State of the Union" speech last night was still good.
He co opted a lot of "conservative" issues, ala Clinton at the midpoint in his first term (like when Obama spoke of lowering the corporate tax rate and paying for that by fixing loopholes and getting corporations that haven't been paying taxes to ante up, easier said than done), which was a smart political move.
And he co opted a lot of criticism from the left by saying the tax cuts for the wealthiest should not be made permanent, that servicemen and women could not be discriminated against not only because of their race or religion but also because of "who they love"—which got a big response from many in the chamber.
But I feel he could have said a few things more clearly and simply, ala the way the right has learned to do with their researched linguistics (like "death panels" and "death tax" etc.). He referred to the accomplishments of his administration in an almost indirect way. He should have listed them simply and clearly.
As in: "We saved the American auto industry" etc. By not listing all the terrific things the stimulus package did, the jobs saved and created, the businesses saved and created, the infrastructure saved and created, etc. he left himself open to the Republican's rebuttal from their supposed economics "expert" (whose figures and historical facts have been proven wrong over and over again) Ryan, that the stimulus was a failure, which isn't true, but as we all know, if you tell the same lie often enough a lot of people will come to believe it.
But in the end, it was another display of Obama's terrific intellect and command of the facts as well as of his mostly solid solutions to the surplus of problems still facing us from the damage done by the previous administration. Slowly but surely, he is addressing them and resolving them, beginning with avoiding another Great Depression, restoring the stock market and the jobs market, even if too slowly for many of us, etc.
I give the speech an A- after the Tucson speech's A+++...
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Here are a few facts that nation hopes Obama can wrap his superior intellect around.
1-The National debt was nearing a scary 11 Trillion when he took office.
2- It is now 14 Trillion+ as result of significant expansion of the federal government and a contraction of the private sector.
3- The CBO, today estimated another 2.5 Trillion will be added to the deficit by 2012.
Obama's grand intellect has fashioned a supposed freeze in spending except for his "Sputnit Moment" of increased spending on some pet projects.
In contrast Republicans have passed a rollback in spending in the house to 2008 levels and repeal of Obamacare with its expansion of spending. Tea Party legislators Bachman and Rand Paul have introduced or are about to introduce legislation to immediatly reduce federal spending $500 billion, largely through the elimination or combination of duplicate tasks in the cabinet level departments of Education, Energy and HUD. That seems like a pretty good start for folks that may not have Obama's soaring intellect.
his speeches like every other politician's
are written by a committee whose agenda is to use vague catch-phrases that insure the status quo and
increase said politician's chances to get reelected!
there wasn't one single specific in his speech that would
(attempt to) solve any problem.
this isn't about "Obama" or "them Nasty Republicans"
it's a much deeper systemic problem .... most likely
un-solvebale
next thing to expect will be riots at the grocery stores!
I'm shocked, shocked! that the rightwing didn't agree with Obama's speech, and that the rightwing's patsy ("patsy" because anonymous surrenders any distinction between the parties which is what led to the victories of Nixon, Bush/Cheney et. al. under whom things got much worse for most of us than they would have and did under Dems, no matter how much they too are victims of a system that rewards corporations and their lobbyists etc.) didn't hear one specific, like cutting off all the tax breaks and subsidies etc. for oil companies. Guess people hear what reinforces their prejudices in the first place. My prejudices are for anything that makes life better for all of us, especially those least able to fend for themselves like kids and the elderly etc. and so far the only politicians I've seen do anything that leans more in that direction than just turning our lives over to the rich and the corporations are democratic socialists and most in the Democratic Party.
Again, any more false claims and lies presented as facts I reserve the right to delete. There's enough out there already.
False figures do not an argument make. Had to delete it. I'll take Nobel prize winning economists any day over rightwing sources based always on projecting great benefits from lowering taxes on the rich (woops didn't work, not out fault, must be the "liberals") and great deficits from Obama, even though the last two greatest deficits in the history of this country were produced by Reagan and then by Bush/Cheney!
PS: see Paul Krugman's last two blog entries (here's the link for the second one)
Dick Cheney's famous quote was that "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." Until, of course, a Democrat inherits one, et-endlessly-cetera.
Dick Cheney was wrong but at a much lower level. Obama and Democrats are wrong at Greek and bankruptcy levels for the US.
Jim, keep your word and GO AWAY!
Jim, you're a double standard bearing hypocrite. And as much as you may deny it, you're behaviour paints you as a flat out racist.
Robert,
It had to be coming. A charge of racism, is what passes as the liberal's intellectual argument. To disagree with Obama is to be a racist. You never surprise or disapoint.
You saw it coming - hey it's ok for good ole boy Cheney but not for Obama, hmmm why is that? It's hard to own up to the truth for some, especially when prejudice is involved.
Robert,
It was not ok for a good old boy like Cheney, but his mistake was when the debt was under 3 Trillion. Obama's mistake is occuring when the debt is at 14 Trillion up from 10.7 Trillion at the beginning of his term and headed to 16.5 Trillion in 2012, according to the CBO. Even a crazy liberal like yourself should be able to appreciated the magnitude fo the threat to America.
Global Warming Flash - Record snows confirm Man Caused Global Warming theory for the Faithful.
"New York City and Philadelphia are just two of the communities across the mid-Atlantic that broke daily snowfall records on Wednesday. For a more elite group that includes New York City, this month is now the snowiest January in history."
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