Obama's Attempt to "Reconnect"

Well, folks. It's the morning after. I don't know about you all, but as I walked downstairs to my office this morning, I almost felt like I was making the walk of shame. I mean, after all, I pretty much got screwed last night by someone who talks smoothly and thought he had me convinced he would care about me the next morning. Think I'm talking about a bad date? No, I am referring to President Obama's State of the Union address.

I will a little embarassingly admit that this was the first State of the Union address I have ever watched. In all honesty, I never really gave a flyin fritter before. I care now. And I also was interested to see what verbal vomit he would come up with this time. So I sat my happy tuckus down with a notebook and pen and settled in for the long haul. My husband laughed at me for taking notes, but I knew it would make good rant material. You can't make this crap up. True life is often much funnier than fiction.

So as the coverage began, the media moguls yammered on about how Obama was going to use this opportunity to try and "reconnect with the people." I had to take a Tums at this point, and we weren't even five minutes in. It's kind of hard to reconnect to something you were never connected with in the first place. I don't believe he's ever cared a lick about what happens to us. But, moving on....they also stated that President Obama would try to portray himself as "in our corner." Well, I don't know about you all, but I don't buy for one second that he thinks he is in the same corner as the middle class people struggling like hell to make ends meet and hoping there will be something left of this world for our children and grandchildren.

The media also noted that Joe Wilson and the Republicans were reminded to be courteous. Ok, let me first say, I do not in any way shape or form condone what Joe Wilson said or did, but seriously? The Republicans need to be warned by the big bad man before the big bad speech about how to conduct themselves? So apparently, closed door private meetings on Christmas Eve conducted by the Democrats was courteous? (I think breakfastpop should have a class on what it means to be courteous as a politician, because apparently I don't get it!) So by now, the obviously Democraticly sided media had already pissed me off and the President hadn't even walked in the room yet. I am pretty sure it was right about here that I shouted at the TV,"Why don't you just state the facts and leave opinions out of it?" But then I had to remind myself I was living in the land of nosuchthingasjournalisticintegrity, so I calmed down. Yes that is a highly technical term, and yes I made it up.

So then the big moment arrived. In walks the Magic Messiah. And he actually opened the speech by stating something that the Constitution states. Really? Seriously? Are you freakin kidding me? The man who wants to fine people who don't purchase health insurance is going to open his State of the Union speech with the Constitution? I personally found that insulting.

As we all knew would happen, it only took about 2 minutes to get to the Blame Game. He made it a point right away to mention that the problems this country faces are problems that "I took on when I entered office." Ok, I will give him that to a point. But I highly doubt any President in the history of this nation has ever taken office and said, "Hm. Look at that. Everything is perfect. Guess I don't have a whole lot to do." Seriously? I don't think George W Bush was perfect. I don't think we have ever had a perfect president. But I also don't think that George and his administration single handedly brought down the economic infrastructure of our nation in 8 years. This has taken a long time. This has been caused by many, many things and many, many people. Ok, you don't want to take responsibility for it since you've only been in charge for a year? I kinda get that. Quit blaming it all on one prior President. Get over yourself.

So then Obama rambled on about struggles that Americans have faced in the past, and about how the one constant in all of that was that throughout history, we have always "chose to move forward as one". Ok, I know I say it a million times but, REALLY? SERIOUSLY? ARE YOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME????? I'm not sure what kind of rose colored contacts he owns, but I want a pair. I have seen this country more divided in the past 12 months than I have seen them in MY LIFE. Get on any blog, internet discussion, or even vocal discussion about politics, economy, etc and you will see how very divided we are. We are not moving forward as one.

Then, after all the doom and gloom recap, Mr. President broke the fabulous news that "the worst of the storm has passed". According to whom? Who gets to decide this? The people on Wall Street? The people in the Media? The people who are paid to paint a pretty picture because they know if they don't, Americans will tighten their wallets even more? I'm sorry, but from where I stand, the worse has not yet come. It seems to me like it's getting worse every day.

Let me butt in at this point and comment that it was really distracting trying to focus on the Magic Messiah with Bobblehead Biden and Pop-Up Pelosi in the background. I wonder how much Biden gets paid every time he nods his head in agreement? I wonder if you gave him a pop quiz afterward, what kind of grade would he get? And every time Pelosi popped out of her seat to encourage a standing ovation, I wanted to smack her botoxed head and say "Sit your ass down, no one cares what you think." But that's probably just me. I swear, Obama could say he had eaten a bagel that morning and she would pop up and start clapping and grinning. Good god, lady, you should probably at least have the decency to remove you head from his ass before you appear on national television. Ok, moving on.

Obama then made the startling comment, "We all hated the bank bailout." As ugly and horrible as it is, he was right in saying that if we had let the banks fail, we would have been plunged into a depression. Does this mean I am happy with the bailout? No, but I do agree with him that sometimes you have to do what is best, not what is popular. Ok, one point for the Magic Messiah.

So here is the part where the Magic Messiah starts making his promises. Some of the things he promised to do were as follows:

• cut tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas
• double exports in 5 years
• Give a $10,000 tax credit to students who complete 4 years of college, and give debt forgiveness if they go into public service
• Here's the big one, in 2011 he is going to put a 3 year freeze on ALL GOVERNMENT SPENDING. You could practically hear people's heads jerk up and awake as the audience got silent and they all kind of went WTF did he just say?
• extend middle class tax cuts

Ok. So as he is telling us all the Magic tricks he has up his sleeve, I will admit, my husband (who is a VEHEMENT Obama hater) and I were both saying, "Well that is actually a good idea." If......and this is a big IF........IF it happens. That is all I am going to say about that at this point because only time will tell. I can only reiterate that a good speaker does not a good leader make. There is no doubt his speech was well written. I highly doubt Obama wrote it. Ya see, they actually pay these people called Speech Writers to do lowly tasks such as this.

A couple other observations I noted, and then I'll shut up. When Obama mentioned the "overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change" there were so many snickers in the room I suddenly got a craving for caramel and peanuts.

Throughout the night, as the camera would pan the audience, you saw two expressions on the faces of the audience.

1. The "Oh my gosh the Magic Messiah is wonderful! Is there any room in there Pelosi?"
2. The "Holy crap when is this going to be over so I can get out of here and watch The Office?"

And when Obama brought up special interest campaign fundraising and the camera panned to the Supreme Court Justices, holy crap. If looks could kill, that group of judges would have been a veritable firing squad. They were pissed.

One more point I want to bring up. Obama mentioned twice that in order to make these promises a reality, he would basically use his executive power to get it done regardless of whether or not Congress agreed. While in principal,for the particular items he was discussing, that sounds like a fine idea, I kind of a have a problem with this. If he is willing to basically pull rank and do whatever the hell he feels like in those matters, who's to say he wouldn't be willing to do that in other matters? Doesn't that scare you all just a bit? This is all just speculation at this point but I know from reading and conversing with other hubbers that I am not the only one who worries about this from this man. I think we all got a glimpse of his anger, his egotism and his dripping sarcasm (like when he glared at the Republican side of the room and said, "That's how budgeting works.")

All in all my final thought is this. I basically came to the same conclusion that I have come to every time I watch Mr. Obama speak. I really hope he can cash the check his mouth just wrote. I have been saying that ever since he came on the scene, and as of yet, he is much better at writing them than cashing them. Only the future will tell. Should be interesting.