A Sputnik Moment in a Suborbital Presidency Compared with Reagan
Pres. Obama’s SOTU speech was more of his best oratory, following on the Tucson shooting memorial speech. Following his “shellacking” in Nov., he seems to be verbally rising to the challenge, and perhaps firing the first shots (oops! -- censor that!) of the 2012 campaign.
There were plenty of lofty goals & American cheerleading (for a change) we can all agree on, as evidenced by some bipartisan applause. They hearken back to the “hope & change” mantra (which has produced only the worst of the latter). But the devil is in the details, and while he gave lip service to free enterprise and the deficit crisis, his policies boiled down to continuing significant government “investment” & meddling, and no significant cuts in the deficit. And there the “bipartisanship” ended.
And his record of delivering any positive results for all his “change” in the 1st 2 years is abysmal, as even many of his formerly ardent supporters are lamenting. The gap between his words, actions and results is the 500 pound gorilla in the room that cheapens his flowery oratory. The contrast with Ronald Reagan (whom he apparently now claims to admire) is stark, when considering the KGB’s Cold War dossier on him, that “there is no difference between his words and his deeds.”
More of the same appeals to bipartisanship – with a bit more sincerity after having lost the House, when his agenda is now threatened. And a crafty ploy to dilute the visual and audible solidarity and strength of the majority GOP at the televised SOTU address by their invitation to intersperse them amongst Democrats.
Paul Ryan’s response to the SOTU was truly great (some say he’s Lincoln-esque) in content and delivery, re-emphasizing the urgency of fixing the deficit problem. He rightly said that it is no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low just when the size of government is at an all-time high. Obama’s own example of government agencies tripping over salmon makes the point that government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem, as Reagan said.
And speaking of Reagan, this week marks his 100th birthday. Seems like we just observed Lincoln's 200th (see my Feb. 16, 2009 post).
Good riddance to Keith Olberman at MSNBC – more vile and hateful in speech by far than any conservative talk show host. Bill Mahr next?
There were plenty of lofty goals & American cheerleading (for a change) we can all agree on, as evidenced by some bipartisan applause. They hearken back to the “hope & change” mantra (which has produced only the worst of the latter). But the devil is in the details, and while he gave lip service to free enterprise and the deficit crisis, his policies boiled down to continuing significant government “investment” & meddling, and no significant cuts in the deficit. And there the “bipartisanship” ended.
And his record of delivering any positive results for all his “change” in the 1st 2 years is abysmal, as even many of his formerly ardent supporters are lamenting. The gap between his words, actions and results is the 500 pound gorilla in the room that cheapens his flowery oratory. The contrast with Ronald Reagan (whom he apparently now claims to admire) is stark, when considering the KGB’s Cold War dossier on him, that “there is no difference between his words and his deeds.”
More of the same appeals to bipartisanship – with a bit more sincerity after having lost the House, when his agenda is now threatened. And a crafty ploy to dilute the visual and audible solidarity and strength of the majority GOP at the televised SOTU address by their invitation to intersperse them amongst Democrats.
Paul Ryan’s response to the SOTU was truly great (some say he’s Lincoln-esque) in content and delivery, re-emphasizing the urgency of fixing the deficit problem. He rightly said that it is no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low just when the size of government is at an all-time high. Obama’s own example of government agencies tripping over salmon makes the point that government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem, as Reagan said.
And speaking of Reagan, this week marks his 100th birthday. Seems like we just observed Lincoln's 200th (see my Feb. 16, 2009 post).
Good riddance to Keith Olberman at MSNBC – more vile and hateful in speech by far than any conservative talk show host. Bill Mahr next?
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