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SOTU speech

The New Neo Posted on by

I’m not at all sure I’m up for watching Obama’s SOTU speech tonight.

But here’s a thread to talk about the speech, if you’re so inclined.

[ADDENDUM: I got home from dinner at 9:50 PM, turned it on, turned it off immediately as unwatchable. Not just Obama, either; the whole fake spectacle. Then I read some comments here and at other blogs and got the idea: last year was the worst in the history of the country, he’ll do this and he’ll do that, the nasty banks, Bush’s fault.]

[ADDENDUM II: Here’s a good summary of the problem:

There were too many Barack Obamas tonight, making too many promises to too many interests.

The same president who said he wasn’t interested in relitigating the past . . . did exactly that for over an hour.

The same president who yearned for less partisanship also resorted to it without hesitation, often just a few sentences afterwards, blaming his problems on his predecessor one long year into his own administration.

The same president who yearned to reduce deficits also called for hundreds of billions of dollars in expanded government.

The same president who said “we can’t wage a perpetual campaign” just brought in his campaign manager to do exactly that.

And the same president who said he understood that families have to live on a budget said his government would start doing that . . . next year.

Napoleon said, “He who defends everything defends nothing.”

This president defended everything tonight.

I’m not sure America knows who he is.

I agree with everything except that last sentence. I think America knows very well who this president is: a liar.

And you don’t need to know anything of Obama’s past to know he’s a liar, because the lies and contradictions are embedded in the speech itself!]

Comments

SOTU speech — 77 Comments

  1. I’ll join you in not watching it. I think there will be lots of people not watching it with us.

  5. I closed gitmo, I stopped torture, let it be perfectly clear, I inherited a mess, people around the world now respect the US, I I I I I I I

    There, now you have the crux of the SOTU speech and you do not have to watch it.

    Does anyone know when the SyFy channel will bring back Primeval, I loved that show.

  7. I plan to finish up an editing assignment, do a load of laundry, and spend some quality time with the cats. I predict they will promptly head for the litter box around 9 p.m.

  10. I will watch if the family cat does. Since she usually naps from 9 til 10 to rest up for bed time, I doubt that she will.

    Seriously, I cannot bring myself to watch. My wife used to scold me, but she too has reached her saturation point.

    Why listen to someone tell you something you don’t want to hear and that you don’t believe anyway? Especially, when he looks down his nose at you the whole time.

    (I will say that if he actually cancels the next humanoid to the moon project, it will be the first of his actions that I support whole heartedly. But, I will believe when it happens.)

  11. Waivered….don’t really want to watch, but guess I will since it’s on most channels (then again, maybe I’ll rewatch “24” which I TIVO’d.)

    Anyone want to hazard a guess as to how many times Obama will say the following words (We could have a “virtual pool” Losers can make contribution to neo; so can winner, for that matter): “inherited,” “previous administration,” “last eight years,” (of course, “Bush” and/or “Cheney” count, too)

  12. NRO (Corner and Campaign Spot) is reporting buzzes about Barry asking Dems to rescind Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. If that’s true he still thinks he can survive without priorities by throwning bones to different packs of dogs.

  13. Oh, forgot to put in my guess! Hmmm…maybe 5. Those words are big applause-getters from the left, and what’s a SOTU w/out half the time going to the chief exec’s party standing and cheering for him?

  15. Philip Terzian at the Weekly Standard makes a case for abolishing the SOTU altogether:

    “Simply stated, it is an almost totally meaningless piece of political theatre which most presidents use to consume broadcast airtime and check all the boxes in their bag of tricks; and in recent years it has grown especially estranged from political reality. Almost as much time is spent on the president’s entrance and exit from the House chamber, slapping backs, shaking hands, and exchanging bipartisan banalities with members.”

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/down-state-union-address

  19. Nah…. I can’t watch it. I don’t feel like going to Walmart to buy another TV so the family can watch TV later.

    Full Elvis, baby…. That’s all I’m saying.

  21. i turned it away after the tale of many successful companies, a stable economy, etc..

    i went to meteor men.

    i have a dvr.
    do you think that they recorded that? :b

  22. He just said something about building nuclear power plants and drilling offshore.

    Important stuff, but I’ll have to check the quote.

  24. Heard the stuff about building nuclear power plants and “facing the difficult decisions” about drilling offshore (a bone he tossed to the other side). BUT he followed that with all the “green jobs” bull and the need (still) to pass his energy act. Which, in my book, negates the “bone.”

    As for the rest, his ego must have overtaken his brain! The American people have three times (last 3 elections) hit him and the Dems over the head with a virtual club, and they’re oblivious.

    Actually, maybe that’s a good thing. It’s their funeral, and it can’t come soon enough!

  26. Cannot bear even the thought of other people having to watch him!

    He lost all credibility with me ages ago. I know he will be lying tonight, so why even bother?

  27. Far out. Nuclear power plants. Off-shore drilling. And so on, and so forth.

    With Michelle in royal purple, up there in the Peanut Gallery.

    Don’t believe anything he says.

    And remember this caveat: Even when he’s telling the truth, he’s lying. Right through his big, brilliant, white (is that racist?) teeth.

  28. I’m no longer allowed near the TV. Reading Vodka Pundit. Want to throw up. And I haven’t even been drinking.

  29. President Obama: “The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.”
    That’s almost right; it should be: “The more that elected representatives, appointed commissars, and their media lackeys reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, the more thinking citizens rightly ascertain that they’ve been willfully and mischievously deceived and, accordingly, turn away.”

  30. I’m no sports fan, but I have the TV on an all-sports station where there are winter sports going on. Every so often I switch over to another station and say, “It’s still going on?” Blech. I think Bob from Virginia called it in terms of what to expect.

  31. From csimon, I hear he talked about”facing difficult decisions” about drilling offshore. What in tarnation is the difficult decision? An oil company drills where it thinks it will find oil. What is the reasoning behind stopping that, providing that appropriate environmental regulations are followed- which they are? Why is it a difficult decision to let them bid for the properties and drill?

    It is a difficult decision only when you realize what the ignorant pretentious fool said about drilling for oil during the campaign:

    But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You’d actually save just as much!

    It is a difficult decision only if you believe nonsense like the above quote.

    Like many, I did not have the stomach to watch NObama. I saw a quick headline in Yahoo where he said that jobs were the number one priority. He proposed a jobs bill. My quick response was WPA, government jobs.

    He doesn’t get it. Business are not hiring, business are not expanding because of the uncertainty regarding government policy. His best jobs bill would be to loosen up on the regulations and taxes.

  33. OMG! Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is the closing of his SOTU?!

    OK. I’ve been in the active Army and National Guard for 19 years. Let me tell you who will suffer the worst if gays are allowed to serve openly:

    Females in Transportation Units.

    The hetero females will be hunted to extinction. Their lives will be hell: chased mercilessly by lesbian soldiers and superiors.

    It will be like one of those Elephant Seal rookeries with fighting and harems, bellowing and bullying, but with big lesbians instead of Elephant Seals.

    I don’t see how that really contributes to a stronger National Defense.

    (On a personal note, it is just gnarly beyond words to walk into the shower room before breakfast and find two Korean soldiers in a cloud of steam banging away like very horny, very gay bunnies. Gnarly….)

  34. B-ball was on ESPN; Villanova/Notre Dame, then Duke/FSU. Dick Vitale beats BS Baraq.

    I came across a 30-minute video of Great Chicago Cubs Fielding Errors on YouTube. Much better for the blood pressure than watching Chicago’s All-Time Error Machine make an even worse fool of himself than he already is.

  35. Hmmmmmm….

    I caught the first 40 minutes of pretentious drivel… blaming Bush again . . . a lot of sentences beginning with “I”: I think this, I think that… a tone and demeanor that appears arrogant.

    Anyway, I cut it short and took what I thought was a long shower… he was still speaking when I finished. Heard some of the GOP response… its the Virginia governor direct from Richmond… good emphasis on bringing everything back to the state level. Shame they couldnt get soon-to-be Senator Brown to have given the response.

    Anyway: I say let the Dems delude themselves and keep digging their hole. I expect quite a reversal for them in November.

  36. Tried to watch. Fell asleep. I noticed he started with his chin higher in the air than ever before. Smacks of old pictures of il Duce. Lot of gray showing up on those temples.

  37. Watched most of it. Obama sounded like a petulant child.

    all that spending and he had nothing to do with it!

  38. I watched it all – I haven’t read one comment yet.

    Nuclear Power Plants and Off Shore drilling drew bill applause from Republicans…

    And then Obama referred to the House Energy Bill.

    Does this bill have anything concerning Off Shore drilling and Nuclear power?

    I want research on that.

  39. I watched almost all…but wife had to wake me up when she heard me snoring…and did you notice that Harry Reid was just like me….stifling yawns and trying to stay awake?

    Anyway, finally gave up and took out my dog…who was appreciative of not having to listen anymore and for the fresh air.

  41. “B-ball was on ESPN; Villanova/Notre Dame, then Duke/FSU. ”

    Damn! Forgot about the game! Much more entertaining…and gratifying. Just caught the end. Proud of my fellow Blue Devils!!!

  42. It was all about him, trying to woo people back to the love, campaigning is such hard work, and you just don’t see how I do it all for you, I love you…. almost Evita like

    They are illusions
    They are not the solutions they promised to be
    The answer was here all the time
    I love you and hope you love me

  43. Yes he reminded me il Duce too.

    I watch most of the address but stepped away after an hour or so to check a few blogs and returned to hear Pres. Obama discuss his legislative failures and disappointments during the last year. Fox showed one of Obama’s supporters at what appeared to be the verge of tears. Obama’s narcissism seem on display and I got the impression that he seemed to think it was all about him. That whole segment seemed almost disturbingly off or in some profound way odd.

  44. According to Karl Rove, he said “I” 96 times!!!

    Wasn’t it supposed to be about The Union??!!!

  45. He was on the radio in my car when I fired up to drive home from work. I promptly changed to the rock station. Poor Rose above: no children should be ordered to watch this!

  46. Regarding the Citizens United case which struck down “campaign finance” restrictions, there is an interesting rebuke to Obama over at the National Review The Corner blog.
    Bradley A. Smith, a Professor of Law at Capital University Law School, writes as follows :

    Tonight the president engaged in demogoguery of the worst kind, when he claimed that last week’s Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, “open[ed] the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.”

    The president’s statement is false.

    The Court held that 2 U.S.C. Section 441a, which prohibits all corporate political spending, is unconstitutional. Foreign nationals, specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibiting from making “a contribution or donation of money or ather thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election” under 2 U.S.C. Section 441e, which was not at issue in the case. Foreign corporations are also prohibited, under 2 U.S.C. 441e, from making any contribution or donation to any committee of any political party, and they prohibited from making any “expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication… .”

    This is either blithering ignorance of the law, or demogoguery of the worst kind.

  49. MIke O’Malley Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 11:17 pm

    Obama’s narcissism seem on display and I got the impression that he seemed to think it was all about him. That whole segment seemed almost disturbingly off or in some profound way odd.

    “L’é‰tat, c’est moi”

  50. I watched enough to know this – it will energize his base for a short while. This was the Obama they voted for and liked. There will be some people who *want* to not have made such a blunder badly enough that they will convince themselves he has listened too.

    Sadly that is true in the fullest sense of the story. This was Obama on the campaign telling us what he was going to do as President, tomorrow he goes back to Obama the President.

    It’s the same campaign he ran before given in the same fiery HopenChange style. It has the same amount of substance and will be implemented the same. Indeed, It will go MUCH worse this time popularity wise.

    It’s his second chance to do what he has the potential to do given his rhetoric, yet as one of his former advisers said in an interview a few weeks ago – he doesn’t have it in him to make the kind of shift Clinton did and will just push harder with what was failing. In fact, if one assumes that he isn’t lying (and I do not think he is – I think he truly means something different and is happy to let us think otherwise) then that is effectively what he said. That his campaign promises were fulfilled to the best of his ability, the parts that were not were obstructed by non believers, and he is going to double or triple push now for it.

    I expect he told us the unvarnished truth if we use his definitions.

  52. It looks to me like commenter #15 from Roger Simon’s PJ blog says it pretty clearly. Here is it is:

    I was so excited I actually watched a few seconds… the rest of the time I watched shopnbc… much more excitement shopping for watches…

    Then Karl Rove gave me the disappointing stats… over 90 references to “I” and more than 20 “me”s…

    I thought [I] was watching Joe Cocker sing “I am so beautiful to me”

  53. Strcpy said:

    Sadly that is true in the fullest sense of the story. This was Obama on the campaign telling us what he was going to do as President,

    Woman in a Frank Luntz focus group tonite said it with style: (direct quote)

    ” He is a gifted speaker, and the greatest Conservationist in America because he keeps recycling his campaign promises and his campaign rhetoric!”

    Actually tonite was quite interesting — out of the whole focus group only 4 people had anything positive to say about Obama. All others were very direct and all spoke of rhetoric vs. his actions, being “tired of his promises…,”

    It is quite clear that the credibility gap has grown into quite a chasm. Neo got it exactly right:

    “…the fact that Obama’s words no longer matter.”

  54. Well, I certainly feel understood, inspired and informed by my President after this speech. We now know that one of our most difficult years ever was this year just past. How, you may ask, could 2009 be considered as trying as the war years, the depression years, the years of civil unrest over women’s votes and racial equality?

    Because Obama, sadly misunderstood prophet of Hope and Change, didn’t get what he wanted! Duh, his poll numbers are even down, if you can believe it. How can you be thinking of your own trifling irritations when THE ONE can’t even get people to sacrifice for his plans? When the Republicans hate us and just say no to everything?

    Obama also made special mention of “equal pay for equal work”, along with “don’t ask, don’t tell.” These have been HUGE topics everywhere I go, far eclipsing the silly economy, sleazy politics and those paranoid little worries about national security.

    And his delivery, wow. Hypnotic head swivels from one telepromter to the other and steady thumping of hands on the podium every 5-8 words. Mesmerizing! It almost distracted me from noticing Michelle’s regal purple dress and Jackie O bob!

    It’s good to know that we can easily double our exports in five years. I hear the Chinese will pay almost any price for unicorn farts and rainbows are in huge demand in Tehran. Obama might even fix our trade imbalances by having foreign money pour into our political campaigns, if those old meanies on the Supreme Court will just get out of the way. Or something.

    Just dreamy.

  55. I thought it was the best speech Obama has given in months. He had some of the old zip and confidence.

    I was glad; I don’t want my President to look a public fool to the world in this major address.

    But … he’s still Lame Duck President Walking.

  56. Just watched a few minutes of a rerun, could not take any more but I got the impression he is running against everything he did for the last year, with some cliches thrown in.
    Geez, is he an idiot, amoral, vain, overconfident, low level but aspiring bullshit artist? Is anyone with an IQ in the double digits and a memory buying into this? Now he is talking about his support for openness and distaste for lobbyists. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why isn’t he selling used cars?
    BTW, homosexual activity is illegal in the military and the President cannot do a thing about it, as far as I know. A reversal of don’t ask don’t tell will mean more time, money and effort spent on court martials, and lower morale as units become divided against themselves.
    If this speech does not finish him nothing will.

  57. Clearly, Obama has decided that putting out the fires in his leftist base is his highest immediate priority.

    His 2010 strategy is also now clear, it’s all the obstructionist republicans fault…he’s clearly counting on it to deflect criticism.

    He doubled down tonight just as so many predicted. He’s betting on the MSM covering for him and the public having a limited attention span while simultaneously gambling that the economy will get better on its own.

    His call for another stimulus bill, which he has to know can’t pass, is an attempt to lay the groundwork on blaming the obstructionist republicans for the state of the economy.

    And, if we were in the very beginning of a recession it would work but he’s a year late with that strategy. So he’s going down and he’s going to take the whole party down with him.

    Moderate democrats are looking shell shocked and its only just begun. They aren’t misjudging the public mood but are handcuffed to the leftists who control their party.

    The left isn’t listening nor will they, yet the moderates are not going to vote to politically slice their own throats. Which will provide the perfect cover as republican response to the democrat strategy of blaming obstructionist republicans.

    Leftist democrats, like lemmings charging toward the cliff edge, are going to drag the moderates right over the edge with them, to the rocks below.

  58. Wretchard’s summary, with Obummer’s paragraph interpolated:

    [Wretchard] And since the current administration is doing all these good things, it will stay the course. It won’t let the aforementioned saboteurs and wreckers stand in the way.

    [Obummer:] “So no, I will not give up on changing the tone of our politics. I know it’s an election year. And after last week, it is clear that campaign fever has come even earlier than usual. But we still need to govern.

    To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.

    Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.

    … A new decade stretches before us. We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment — to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.”

    [Wretchard] So in summary, though we are still in bad shape, remember George Bush caused that problem. We are fixing things now in little[!!] ways, but we’ll soon get to the big ways. We’ll bring the banks to heel, create jobs, give you health care, keep you safe.

    Don’t you believe those who say differently, because they’re just getting in the way. We have the largest majority in decades. We won. And we are going to stay the course.” ###

    And did anyone notice the open sarcasm of his line, “With all due respect to the separation of powers,” right before he slapped the Supreme Court and lied about their ruling?

    That was not only infuriating, it was scary.

  59. For anyone interested, I did a word count for the the States of the Union addresses of the last six presidents (Carter thru Obama) in the year after they were elected. I specifically counted the words:

    I, me, my, we, us, and ours

    and did some comparisons and ratios. I hope the chart is pretty clear and readable (within the space limitations).

    Reagan said “I” the least (per 100 words of speech) and Obama said it the most, although Clinton and Bush I weren’t that far behind. Frankly, I expected Obama might stand out a little more, but perhaps his speechwriters have tried to dial it back a bit.

    Clinton’s speech was the longest, followed closely by Obama. Bush I’s was the shortest (about half as long).

  60. President Obama framed the moment in his first two opening paragraphs of the SoTU as follows:

    Our Constitution declares that from time to time, the president shall give to Congress information about the state of our union. For 220 years, our leaders have fulfilled this duty. They’ve done so during periods of prosperity and tranquility. And they’ve done so in the midst of war and depression, at moments of great strife and great struggle.

    It’s tempting to look back on these moments and assume that our progress was inevitable – that America was always destined to succeed. But when the Union was turned back at Bull Run, and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach, victory was very much in doubt…

    This SoTU turned out to be an odd and defiant speech about Pres. Obama’s domestic agenda. Notice the first specific instances from American history cited by Pres. Obama, Battle of Bull Run where Federal troops who had been deployed in Virginia by a President from Illinois were unexpectedly defeated. This example was of course carefully selected and vetted by the President’s speech writers and by Pres. Obama himself. Recall that Pres. Obama’s first major electoral defeat took place in Virginia and by the very same Virginia governor who was to follow the SoTU with a conservative GOP response. How could this be an accidental coincidence? Then the second specific historical example was the American landing at Obama Beach. Here too ‘righteous’ Americans battled a racist and arguably reactionary opponent. Am I alone in sensing that these two examples reflect how Pres. Obama and his Whitehouse speech writers view his political opposition and the emerging Tea Party movement? Wasn’t it among Team Axelrod’s first response to the Tea Party rallies last Summer to characterize the protesters as racists right wingers?

    With this in mind consider Pres. Obama’s defiant refusal to heed the message of the Tea Party rallies and his three recent electoral defeats.

  61. Yes, he is a liar. As for this SOTU speech (or STFU speech, as Chris Muir so aptly put it), his public castigation of the Supreme Court members sitting right in front of him was the most disturbing thing I can ever remember seeing in that venue. It was disgraceful.

  62. This is a link to Reagan’s first SOTU, via instapundit.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFLsxeEl5I&feature=channel
    I watched about ten minutes of it — will watch the rest later — what a contrast with Obama on so many levels. Without counting, it seemed that for each Obama “I” and “my”, there was a Reagan “we” and “our”. Reagan used “I” twice in that first segment; the first time in a self-deprecating joke — something Obama is incapable of doing, and, I beleive, can never convincingly acquire the ability to do.

  63. According to my numbers mentioned above, for every 100 words Reagan spoke, the word “I” occurred 0.87 times. For every 100 words Obama spoke, “I” occurred 1.58 times, or roughly a little less than 2 times as often.

    No other president in my group (the last six) had a number less than 1.0 (per 100 words). Most were closer to Obama.

    Word counts from States of the Union addresses

  64. I felt it was my duty as an American citizen to watch the speech no matter how unpalatable it may be.

    I must admit that I did fall asleep about midway and hit the rewind button after my nap to catch the last part of his speech and the rebuttal.

    I felt oddly happy that he wants to keep pursuing his agenda…because we the people are more than willing to continue our agenda of whupping his ass. 🙂

  66. Did you notice Pelosi and Biden laugh out loud when Obama spoke of offshore drilling and using coal?

  68. A further point about bringing up Bull Run is that the Civil War began nearly 150 years ago. He will derive no political benefit from bringing it up. While it may stir some on his side to implicitly label those in the opposition as racists and reactionaries, it will anger those on the other side. It will also anger some of those on his side who voted for him but are from the South.

    Most Northerners today do not realize the great amount of bitterness there was in the South regarding the Civil War. My Southern mother told me that her relatives were still fighting it in the 1930s. She also informed me that she decided she was not going to fight that war again. There is no need to wave the bloody shirt again.

    That Obama talked of Bull Run in his speech in that way shows how tone deaf he is, how far removed he is from the American experience. It is also tone deaf to talk about a Civil War when he should be reaching across the aisle. It is almost as if he is saying, “Civil War? Bring it on!”

    Disclaimer: my family tree includes a Confederate Colonel and a follower of John Brown who was killed at Harper’s Ferry.

  71. Then the second specific historical example was the American landing at Obama Beach.

    MIke O’Malley: Yes! The Americans have landed at Obama Beach.

    That’s what’s bothering him. We don’t quit.

    (No offense intended. Thanks for the laugh.)

  72. Most Northerners today do not realize the great amount of bitterness there was in the South regarding the Civil War.

    Nor do Westerners. Most of the country is clueless and casually bigoted about the South.

  73. After last night’s performance, if some entrepreneur out there doesn’t market a Biden bobblehead and a Pelosi Jack in the Box, and, perhaps, a painting on velvet of Obama as Il Duce as well, we will know that American innovation is dead.

  75. Obama: “L’é‰tat, c’est moi”

    the people: Non! mon ami, “Nous sommes en l’état!!! ”

    power does not come from the end of a gun
    usurpt power comes from the end of a gun
    otherwise the people are the power, and no guns are necessary other than to protect the state from outsiders.

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