State of the Union

Since there are many topics I want to address regarding Obama's speech Tuesday night, I figure it's best to list them and attach a brief summation of my thoughts on each subject. I've organized them in chronological order as they occurred in the broadcast:

- the opening: I hope I'm not the only person who's irritated by the rehearsed, contrived nature of these events. It dilutes the event of its potential to captivate viewers and ruins the anticipation of the moment. Does BO really have to shake 333 people's hands before he takes the stage? Do the Dems and Reps really have to act cordial towards each other to convey a falsified sense of camaraderie on Capitol Hill? If these people want to convince skeptics it's not all a game of charades they should pretend they don't like each other when the camera's rolling. The only part of this opening that felt genuine was the brief embrace between BO and Gabby Giffords.

- "safer, more respected" comment: BO claimed that the current generation of troops has made the U.S. safer and more respected than it's ever been. While I might agree with the first part, anyone who talks to foreigners knows that's a dubious statement. The majority of my non-American friends have a poor opinion of this country, and that sentiment was mostly shaped by our unnecessary, ill-conceived, and arguably illegal military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. I call B.S.

- high school drop-out policy: Are you kidding me? This has to be the most inane proposal BO has advocated during his tenure. What is the penalty going to be for dropping out before your 18th birthday? Does he plan on giving minors jail time for breaking this law? I think BO overlooked that a law like this hinders the corporatocracy's agenda of cultivating a listless, obedient, uneducated workforce. The powers that be would keep this "no drop-out" bill from seeing the light of day.

- clean energy tax credits: Brilliant idea. The only problem is oil companies will lobby relentlessly to keep this from being passed. Considering the ubiquity of "legal bribes" in Congress, it wouldn't be difficult for oil lobbyists to protect themselves from this threat. Be that as it may, I'm glad BO is talking about weening ourselves off our dependency on oil in front of a large home audience.

- infrastructure, debt: Although it's obvious much of the budget we formerly allotted to the Iraq War should be used to pay off the national debt, I was happy to see BO plans on committing half of that money to making desperately needed upgrades to our infrastructure. This is something I believe has been neglected for too long. Entirely too many highways and rails in this country are outdated and cumbersome. The transportation grid should look like The Jetsons by now, not the Flintstones.

- "spilled milk" joke: I enjoy BO's corny jokes, so I'm glad he when out of his way to amuse himself here. I think Norm Macdonald wrote this for him.

- payroll tax cuts: This is a no brainer to me. A tax increase on half of the country's population

in the current economic environment would be cruel and unsustainable for the average employee. Someone living paycheck to paycheck cannot afford to lose $40 from each payday. Working class people shouldn't bear the burden of an economic crisis caused by white-collar greed, corruption, and irresponsibility and a government that was complicit in exacerbating the problem.

- eliminate "insider trading between Congressmen, stockholding in industries they impact, self-serving campaign donations": Duh! Many things need to be done to prevent corrupting factors and conflicts of interest between Congress, corporate America, and special interest groups. These laws need to be as strict as possible and should carry heavy consequences. I thought BO's mentioning of money's corrosive effects in politics was a poignant variation of one of my favorite maxims: absolute power corrupts absolutely.

- reprimanding Iran, preventing them from getting nuclear weapons: What about North Korea? Why is it that all of our concerns about nuclear capability are focused on the Middle East? Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons and the international community has bombarded them with so many sanctions they probably have trouble getting the necessary materials to build a microwave or bottle rocket, let alone a nuclear missile. I might just be paranoid, but the less I hear about the U.S. sorting through North Korea's dirty laundry the more uneasy I am.

- Seal Team 6 flag anecdote: When BO started talking about the Seals' names embroidered on the flag, I was hoping he would list them as Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey. Or Rudolph, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen.

- "teamwork" ending: Thanks Coach Obama! It's always good to know your President has team spirit.

- lastly, the brash nationalistic tone of the speech: I was halfway expecting Obama to holler, "This is America, if you don't like it, you can git out!" There was a lot of misplaced, excessive patriotism going on in both the speech and the crowd's responses that came off as arrogant and borderline xenophobic. Especially when BO began speaking about China evading trade and manufacturing policies and the camera immediately cut to an anonymous Asian man. Wow.

Overall impression: I see these speeches as nothing more than a ploy to instill enthusiasm and hope in the populace with promises of bills that will probably never make it to the floor of either house. Nonetheless, BO was eloquent and persuasive as always, and made some proposals that could conceivably be passed into law without much deliberation. If BO wants that crucial "elimination of corrupting factors" he's going to have to be persistent and show some moxie to convince members of Congress to essentially audit themselves. Seems like a tough bargain.