January 26, 2011
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The Importance of the State of the Union
I wrote something on Facebook last night about watching the State of the Union. One of my good college friends, who is a fervent Republican (but I love him anyway), commented, “How can you stand to watch that terrible man?” I replied something along the lines of “I want to see what’s going to happen.” I definitely haven’t been happy with politics as of late but I do believe that it’s still important to watch the State of the Union, whether I agree or disagree with the person speaking. As the Architect can tell you, I have a tendency to yell at the tv whenever I don’t like what’s being said and I did do a lot of yelling, but I still watched. Besides, how else am I going to get to make fun of all the goofy Congressmen???
To me, the State of the Union acts as what the President sees as the ideal path forward. As many of us are aware, hardly anything is ideal in the political realm so chances are, we may not see a lot of the ideas in the SotU come to fruition. However, I do believe that it’s important for every single American to know the path that we’re about to go down (we do, in fact, have voices to use if we don’t like what’s happening). I just wonder why one wouldn’t want to know what’s going on.
My Impression of the Speech:
The President spoke about a lot of big ideas but not a whole lot of specifics. It sounds great to say that we need another “Sputnik moment” and innovation (gosh, how many times did he mention innovation) but it doesn’t get you all that far. I would have liked to see more concrete ideas.
The POTUS also mentioned two things that I will believe ‘em when I see ‘em:
1. A domestic spending freeze for 5 years (how is he going to ensure that???)
2. He will veto any bill that comes to him with earmarks.
Nice thoughts but do they have teeth?
I know that I’ll be watching to see what happens.
Here’s a great article from Foreign Policy on last night’s speech.
What did you think about the speech?
Comments (13)
I like our president and believe he believes what he’s saying. That earnestness means a lot to me. Of course, it’s not enough. I think that his ideas were not radical enough (I admit that I’m largely left-leaning, but I’m also a bit of an anarchist). My boyfriend liked the speech. It was great fodder for discussion. I appreciated Boehner’s facial expressions. He had no problem showing a lack of enthusiasm where he disagreed with Obama (but he stayed respectful about it), and he was not afraid to applaud some of what he agreed with. I hope that this civility can set the tone for this next session and next year. Political ideology does matter, but prejudice by party is wasteful and counterproductive.
Didn’t watch it. Didn’t care to. The pundits are already sending it under the microscopes and I enjoy thoughtful analysis better than the vapid prose that comes across. I’ve seen enough of Obama’s speeches that I’ve concluded they are mostly emotionally driven rhetoric that he’ll usually not act upon afterward.
Granted, I’m somewhat biased (ok radically biased when it comes to Obama) but I usually skip out on political speeches from BOTH sides. I’ll read the analyses and actual proposals (bills, reports). The fluffy speeches just irritate me- because they say nothing. Give me actions not empty promises.
Watched, as I have for the last…don’t know how many years. Thought it was interesting with the ‘mixed’ crowd – Dems. or Reps. were looking around to see if they ‘should’ be applauding. Man, I feel stupid not recognizing so many… I even stayed up for the responses. I often find the SotU a pep rally, but this time the POTUS actually had the other guys standing while his own party didn’t…if only he can actually do what he hopes to do. Now if we could just get rid of the pundits!!!
I watched it too just to see what he had to say and I heard lots of good things but have no belief that these things will get done. I believe if I don’t vote then I have no right to complain but I feel I need to see what they all have to say.
I am not positive about the future of our economy future and am relived to live in an apt I can afford to live in and heat:)
We have the biggest military, and the biggest private military, then the rest of the world combined. We are always in conflict, and you want to stop building bang, and cut operators. GET.FUCKED.
@BoureeMusique - Bohner looked like he was eating peanut butter through the entire thing!
@Ro_ad808 - I’m the exact opposite. Pundits annoy me to no end. I like dealing with raw material, in this case speeches and dissecting it myself. I think a lot of that comes out of studying politics in college. To me, too many of the pundits seem to have their own agendas, which personally drives me nuts!
@travelerblue - I did think that the mixed seating made it a lot more fun to watch. I also feel pretty ignorant at how many elected officials I was not able to pick out and I do pay a lot of attention to politics. And I totally agree, let’s get rid of the pundits!!!
@tymedancer - Haha, one of the big reasons that I voted in the mid-term election was so I could retain my right to complain
@Uek - You’re telling me to get fucked? And why?
@TheCheshireGrins - Sorry I wrote “you” as though I were talking to Obama. I wouldn’t say that to you. You’re never offensive, in the least. Again, I’m sorry.
@Uek - No worries
I was totally confused and wondering what I had said to offend!
First, I have to give out a big shout of SHAME to CNN for airing the “Tea Party Response” live, to make it equal to the Republican opposition speech. There are plenty of official alternate parties that would like to be heard as well. If they aren’t willing to showcase all of them, then they shouldn’t cherry pick and elevate one alternate group over the others.
I though the speech was okay, and as you said – a bit light in specifics. One big problem was his failure to mention our economies biggest problem – outsourcing of jobs. Better education and training means nothing if we have to compete against countries that have no worker wage laws or protections and get paid a fraction of what we earn here.
Developing “green jobs” here will only result in these same jobs eventually being exported overseas to cheap labor.
The fact that he neglected this issue is pretty ominous for the future of America as far as the middle class is concerned.
I thought it was a good speech. It wasn’t the soaring rhetoric that he has done in the past. I wish it had a bit more specifics on the deficit but I guess he doesn’t want to play his hand just yet.
Oh, I completely agree that we need to watch the SOTU regardless of who is President. Americans say they want a strong President who is a leader. Well, this is the chance (as you point out) to hear the President’s vision of where he wants the country to go. I listened to W’s speeches as well as Clinton’s, because I’m an American and I want to understand where the President thinks we should head.
As for the speech itself, it was fine but lacking in specifics. I’m waiting for a President with the guts to lay it all on the line: this is the vision and this is what it is going to cost.
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