State of the Union

Obama once again tried his smoke and mirrors speaking act. Every time he rolls out his alleged gift for speaking he makes a more poor showing. When he was talking about nothing and had nothing of substance to talk about during the campaign it was an asset. Now that he has a track record (nearly all bad) his speeches cannot return to those days of airy and meaningless words and phrases.

He did propose one thing to try and divide Republican antipathy twoards him, a discretionary spending freeze that could save $25 billion per year. Unfortunately for Congress this puts the onus on them to decide to stop sending more and more money back home to their own districts. Their inability to follow through will give Republicans even more ammunition next November. Also, $25 billion per year is a drop in the bucket compared to the dramatic debt raising proposals of health care deform. He is trying to confuse the electorate by saying he wants to freeze spending. In reality his proposals before Congress will cost us trillions. Next to that, $25 billion per year is like most of us deciding to put $5 per week into savings, but also deciding to take out a loan on a Rolls Royce. Then we try to tell ourselves that we have cut our debt in some significant way.

In 2008, Republcians grudgingly admired Obama's ability to captivate the crowds and the media. Tuesday night they described with glee, and perhaps a sign of relief, his rambling, incohernet, overly aggressive tone. Before the speech, they laughed about drinking games where you had to take a drink every time Obama said "I." If anyone persisted in this, they would have gotten alcohol poisoning. The blame Bush mantra was out in full force. Obama is responsible for nothing at any time or any place, including the bank bailouts that he supports, but hates and was never around to vote upon when he was in the Senate.

Obama damaged himself with his cheap shot against the Supreme Court. Samuel Alito had a Joe Wilson moment when cameras caught him mouthing the words "that's not true." He might as well have shouted "you lie" because it once again focuses attention on Obama's increasing inability to speak on any issue coherently or truthfully.

The president is in full panic mode and he did nothing to reassure his opponents or friends this week.

Here is a link to the Yahoo News/ Associated Press fact check of the State of the Union speech. Predictably, what Obama says does not always match the truth 100% of the time. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_fact_check