The State of the Union: Angry

This State of the Union Address was one of the more anticipated speeches in recent politics.  Wednesday night, the President had an opportunity to win back some of the support he has lost over the last year.  The Massachusetts election was just one of the many examples of the public’s growing unrest with the Obama Administration.  President Obama needed to show that he was aware of the voters anger, that he understood the reason for it, and that he was prepared to take action on these concerns.  Unfortunately for him, he missed the mark.  Instead of reassuring the American people, the President managed to insult our intelligence and make us doubt the notion that he is even capable of discerning fact from fiction.

Arrogance Beyond Measure - The President makes the case that he’s smarter than us.

• One thing that I can say with all certainty, is that the Massachusetts voters did not vote for Scott Brown because they were still angry with George W. Bush.  That is possibly the most ridiculous theory I have ever heard and yet, it is one that the President and his staff have tried to convince us true.  Are we supposed to believe that people were so upset with the leadership of “the last decade” that they voted for a republican in protest?  He seems to think the same culprit is responsible for his dismal approval rating.  “Let me be clear,” Mr. President, your falling poll numbers are not in response to some other president.  We may not all be ivy league grads, but I think Americans are perfectly capable of answer the question “Do you approve of President Obama’s job performance so far?”  Trust me, they’re talking about you.

• Next, we come to health care.  The American people have overwhelmingly rejected the President’s push for “health care reform.”  Everyday, less and less people support the plan and many have grown angry over the administration’s attempts to force it through anyways.  So when the President says he will accept responsibility for “failing to explain” the health care proposal to the public, it is a huge slap in the face. We are sick and tired of having it “explained” to us.  We’ve had an entire year of our favorite programs being interrupted for another “explanation” from the White House.  We understand the health care bill just fine.  That’s why we don’t like it!  Is it really so difficult for him to accept that someone may not like his ideas?  Does he believe that implying that we are just too thick to appreciate his legislative brilliance will help his popularity?

• If the attacks on the intelligence of the voters were not insulting enough, the President save some of his sharpest digs for the Supreme Court.  I firmly believe that we have a right to criticize all branches of government, but the manner in which he did it was inexcusable.  Good rule of thumb: Anytime you need to use a disclaimer like “with all due deference to separation of powers,” you are probably preparing to show anything but “due deference.”  Without making any attempts to explain the case or provide context, President Obama chided the Justices for turning elections over to corporations, special interests, and foreign powers.  First of all, the case was primarily about free speech issues.  To say that free speech equals unfair elections is a stretch to say the least (Now whose practicing the politics of fear?).  Secondly, isn’t this the President who was put into office by labor unions, ACORN, and George Soros?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The members of the Court were guests for the President’s speech.  They were seated in the front, in full view of the cameras, and had no opportunity to respond.  After the President insulted them, Democratic leaders sitting directly behind the Justices stood up and clapped in their direction, Chuck Schumer went so far as to lean forward over Alito while he clapped. Alito, who has been a constant target for the left, quietly mouthed the words “not true,” and for this he has been slammed by the press.  I hate to think of what most of us would have mouthed at that point.  President Obama behaved like a school-yard bully. He put his victim on display, had him restrained, and punched him in the stomach.  For a man so sensitive to criticism, he sure knows how to dish it out.

If the condescension and arrogance weren’t enough, the President proceded to dish out one lie after another.

“You Lie!” - Where’s Joe Wilson when you need him?

• “We face a deficit of trust — deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years.  To close that credibility gap, we have to take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — to end the outsized influence of lobbyists.”…”That’s why we’ve excluded lobbyists from policy making jobs or seats on federal boards or commissions.”  Well, except for 12 cabinet appointees including the Attorney General.  And, a few radical czars.  And, labor leader Andy Stern was the most frequent visitor to the White House. In fact, both Stern and the President have admitted to his influence in the healthcare bill as well as other legislation.  Oh, yeah and that time he promised to “paint the nation purple with SEIU,” and help them to build power.  And that other time he boasted about working with community organizing groups like ACORN on policy decisions.  Well, you get the point.
• We promise to “do our work openly.”  Except when they locked Republicans out of the room for negotiations, refused to televise health care procedures (despite 8 promises to put negotiations on C-SPAN), and then refused to post bills online for public viewing.
• “My Administration posts our White House visitors online.”  This one is actually true.  Except the visitor list was only posted online after team Obama refused to release it and journalists filed a Freedom of Information Act complaint.  But with visitor like George Soros and Bertha Lewis, who can blame them for wanting to keep it a secret?
• The President also spoke of continuing to eliminate earmarks.  Continuing?  Isn’t this the man that signed an Omnibus bill with 9,000 earmarks?  The one who’s pushing for a health care bill laden with bribes for certain states and goodies for unions?  The guy who is on track to spend more money than every U.S. president combined.  He is actually trying to make the case that Congress is failing him on the war against reckless spending!!
• The letters!  Oh, the letters!  Ok, I admit I can’t prove that he made these up, but come on!  The glass maker who hired a second crew thanks to the stimulus bill.  Someone connect the dots for me there, please (by the way, the glass industry is in serious decline right now).  The little children who write to him asking “why, oh why” is there so much greed and corruption in the world.  I want someone to find me the 8 year old who spends his days pondering the failings of Wall Street.  The list went on and on.  He wanted to make sure that we knew that there were plenty of people out there (anonymous people) who still think he’s awesome.

The President’s speech was, for the most part, nothing new.  He made the usual vague promises, pleas for bi-partisanship, and shifted the blame to his predecessor.  The only aspect of the Address that I saw a change in was the often aggressive tone of the speech.  There was no doubt of which people are on the President’s enemies list.  The media, the Supreme Court, Republican Senators, political pundits, bank executives, corporations, and the wealthy topped the list (but he only seems somewhat miffed at Iran).  Those of who have carefully watched his policies have known for some time that he is no friend of conservatives, businesses, or free speech, but he has shied away from admitting this bias outright.  Now, he’s pulling out all the stops.  Leading up to the State of the Union Address, many people assumed that President Obama would react to his slipping poll position by moving to the center.  Instead, he has gone in the other direction.  This speech made one thing clear, the President will not be deterred from his super-liberal agenda.  He doesn’t care if the American people support him.  He doesn’t care what the Supreme Court thinks.  He doesn’t care how many of his fellow Democrats lose their jobs.  It’s his way or no way.  Let’s hope it’s “no way.”