State of the Union: Reactions

Hitler was a great speaker and fought hard to become chancellor of Germany. Great speeches do not make a man.

I'm kind of stumped of people saying that Obama doesn't do enough. Isn't the real of president supposed to be limited by the two other branches? Other than control of the military, there is very little he can do as quickly as it seems some think he can, and though I feel we should be out of all countries as soon as possible, leaving immediately would lead to consequences much worse than attempting a systematic departure.

At the same time, I agree he has been allowing the Democratic party to continue being a pack of wusses that fold and needlessly play victim, but then it's his fault for believing in the motivation and proper interests of politicians to do what is best for the American people. The president isn't supposed to be a philosopher king. He may not be flawless, but he is trying and it's clear he does have the best interest of the people of the U.S. at heart, though his best interest may be arguably far off the mark. I think many are failing to put in context the outright lies and deceptions of past presidents. Does Obama's track record really compare, at all? I'm as for some stateless system over this decrepit psuedo-democracy we have as the next guy, but for how the lesser of evils goes, this doesn't merit so much unilateral outrage. I thought that Obama not having the supreme power to do crap effortlessly was supposed to be a good thing.

...and I know this has already been addressed by Delia and others...but what IS this deal with the teleprompter? A teleprompter doesn't write speeches...it just allows the speaker to look more directly at his or her audience while still being able to see the text of their speech. I use a teleprompter from time-to-time -- and they're great -- but I still write all my own speeches.

However, I am not aware of any modern president who did not use several speech writers. Several of Bush's speech writers famously loathed one another. I assume that Obama's chief speech writer is still that twenty-something who was so impressive during his campaign. There are numerous articles in which the guy (I forget his name) talks about how Obama's editing process works and how it took a long period of time before the guy learned how to anticipate Obama's views on the literally hundreds of issues that come up during a presidential campaign.

I was amused by one of the earlier comments regarding comparisons between Obama and the junior Bush because in that commenter's opinion CARTER topped the list of worst presidents. I had to laugh because now that a year has passed, I too have reassessed my views as to whether Bush was the worst president ever...having returned to my view that no president in American history was as bad as REAGAN. Bush was admittedly the second worst, followed by Nixon and then a slew of nineteenth century guys. While Bush and Reagan were neck-and-neck when it came to breathtaking incompetence as evil as Bush was, Reagan was far worse...Carter was admittedly ineffective...but he was a genius compared to those two hacks...

I'll post this again, because imho this analysis is closer to nailing it than any I've seen so far;
Seven things stood out.

First, at no point did Barack Obama acknowledge that the promises that he made in campaigning for the so-called stimulus bill have gone unredeemed and that unemployment has continued to grow in a fashion that, he told us, it would not.

Second, much of the speech consisted in self-praise that, in the grim circumstances that we now face, seemed out of place.

Third, despite what the Climategate scandal has revealed concerning the dishonesty of those who have shilled for bills like the cap-and-trade measure passed by the House of Representatives, the President insists on our basing American public policy on discredited science.

Fourth, our President is still telling the same old lies concerning the healthcare reform measures passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives; and, despite everything that has happened, he intends to push for their reconciliation and passage into law by one means or another.

Fifth, he intends to raise taxes on the investing class — both by means of imposing a tax on the large banks and investment operations which will be passed on to those who make use of the services they provide, and by allowing the tax cuts introduced by President Bush to lapse for those making over $250,000 a year — and he has no appreciation for the role which the investing class, if not denied the rewards for which it has incurred considerable risks, can play in creating new jobs and fostering prosperity.

Sixth, Barack Obama has a vast array of programs that he wants to put in place, and he provided no information as to how these would be paid for.

Seventh, he is not in any way serious in the arguments that he makes for fiscal prudence.

I doubt that President Obama helped himself or his party with his State of the Union Address. A year ago, such a speech might have done him some good and would have done him no harm. By now, however, too many people are aware that they are being had. If anything, his decision to continue pushing his signature measures — cap and trade and healthcare reform — is likely to wreak havoc on his party in November.

http://biggovernment.com/2010/01/28/what-did-obama-say-in-his-state-of-the-union...

Easy way to stimulate small banks without help from the government. Step 1. Pull your money from the large bank that holds your accounts. Step 2. Close those accounts permantently. Step3. open an account with a small bank or credit union, and desposit money.
Done enough times, it will create competition, and shrink larger banks.
Problem solved.
Now apply like methods to your shopping, and you've help small businesses grown, and created competition.
It's easy.

I think that Obama's speech was awesome. He pumped me up, so to speak.

another thing, i feel we should view this past year as Obama getting a feel for what it is like being president and seeing what he needs to do

he did not do a lot, but i think he has been comprehending all that's going on in the world around him and he is officially ready to make the changes we desperately need.

people, this country is majorly fucked up, he told us that it would take time.
i believe the time has come when we'll be realizing the change he wanted, and can, bring!

That explains why fox has been against green energy and conservation.
Right wing radio turns out works for the enemy I should think that this will wake a lot of Americans to the fact they have been duped.

i will not give up.

Cut the military budget, close the bases, end the wars, open humanitarian aid that gets to the populace what they need to rebuild their life and become sustainable again, don't freeze education make a huge investment in that, make a huge investment in both alternative energy(he's open to dirty energy for lame reasons) and public transportation, break up the banks, fire giether, summers, oust berneke, and bring warren, former ny governor, volcher, stigitilz, krugman, and this guy from missouri all good people to be on the close inside. end corporate personhood, fix campaign finance law, shorten elections, get rid of the patriot act, break up the media, break up monopolized industries(we have many, hard to notice with fake choices) stop the revolving door of public to private sector. create a buy into government health care and affordable prices at any income, should 28 million people control 30 some percent of the nations wealth? again there is aways more.

i have to let go of being disappointed and expect that this will only be a decent presidency(could be bad for the people though) only the people wanting to get active and organize and have the desire to change how we rule our government and rule our businesses the elite or the oligrahics are going to win.

Glad you all took it, hook line and sinker. the only thing missing was the shout of "your lying" from the crowd. but then they would have to say it for the entire speech. My question is, what is the State of The Union?????? He never told us. He actually looked and felt angry. Maybe he has relized his number is up and only the truly intoxicated Kool-aide drinkers are still with him

i dont think americans get it. everone blames the other party for
the countrys problems.that is exactly what they want it keeps them in
power.when will everone get it both partys have been putting it to us for
the last 20 years.the system no longer works corperations and coruption
has taken over.and unless we band together and throw all of them out
all will be lost!!!

You don't pick brain surgeons by the color of their skin. You pick them by competence only. Same thing with airplane pilots. But we have allowed the profoundly irrational liberal media to persuade the American public that we are supposed to pick a U.S. president by affirmative action. Obama was elected to universal Hosannas because he is black. It wasn't a secret. That's why the Left around the world went into ecstasies when Obama ran and got elected.

We've been using affirmative action to hire and promote teachers and cops and to popularize movie stars and media heroes. We've had a generation of affirmative action agitprop, 24/7/365. Hillary Clinton was going to dictate racial and gender preferences for medical school admissions under HillaryCare. You can bet that reverse-racism is all over the 2,200 pages of ObamaCare. It's reverse-racism forever!
From a temporary policy to give black people a better chance in life, we have now arrived at a Marxist goal of universal equality for everyone -- except for white, male, heterosexual, and excessively normal people. We have reversed racism, but guess what? Reverse-racism is still racism. As a direct result, corruption now pervades the big cities and Washington, D.C. That's because race, gender, and victim status have taken over as the criteria for all the benefits society has to offer.

Obama's election to the nation's most powerful office is the direct outcome of racial reasoning. It was race that put him over the top against Hillary, in a thousand media endorsements, and finally, against John McCain, who was old, male and white. Three strikes against McCain, who for all his faults is vastly more experienced and knowledgeable than the Obamessiah.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/the_lesson_of_an_affirmative_a.html

My view in behalf of president Obama:

I don't know what is wrong with Americans; the deficit is George Bush's mess! Obviously republicans are taking controll by turning tables and delivering all the blame toward president Obama. Americans' need to remember; it was the 'republians' who started the US deficit and instilled all the hate towards LGBT people. . . I wish Americans' would think back and get wise! I fear; todays Americans' are so easliy swayed. . .

Therefor:

I'm living in fear of hate and our budget,

Richard

I am not a racist, and I don't care who wrote the speech. I don't care what color the man is, I just don't want the same song and dance. He also knew what he would be stepping into before he ran for office, you said you could do a better job so stop complaining about what was handed to you and fix it. The little guys are the ones that keep this country running and we don't even have a voice. Mr president you are set for life, we still have to get up and go to work this 4 years, the next 4, the next four etc... I am just say show me don't tell
and guess what I am not Joe the plummer.

This is awkward:

The Real State of the Union
By Ken Silverstein

From The Hill:

A day after bashing lobbyists, President Barack Obama’s administration has invited K Street insiders to join private briefings on a range of topics addressed in Wednesday’s State of the Union. The Treasury Department on Thursday morning invited selected individuals to “a series of conference calls with senior Obama administration officials to discuss key aspects of the State of the Union address.”

The invitation, which went to a variety of stakeholders, was sent by Fred Baldassaro, a senior adviser at the Treasury Department’s Office of Business Affairs and Public Liaison. The invitation stated, “The White House is encouraging you to participate in these calls and will have a question and answer session at the end of each call. As a reminder, these calls are not intended for press purposes.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/78509-after-obama-rips-k-street-admin...

i liked it all!
these were all real prospects that we never heard from the white guy for 8 years.

he's really comprehending the realities of the poor and minorities as well as creating these good economic and educational strategies that he clearly wants to see put into effect.

and the freeze idea is great simply because we've all been budgeting, dealing with a limited amount of money...the government should try it too!

lastly, i like that he wants to get EVERYone in Washington involved. that's presidency! putting everyone in their place demanding that they all be a part of the progress for the country as a whole

:)

The problem with the SOTU Address was that it's a lot of promises and no one knows if it's ever going to come to fruition. Also, he did not mention what he's going to do to force banks to do loan modifications- there was a little talk about refinancing, but if you have bad credit or high debt, you cannot get approved for a refinance. I hope he was referring to forcing the loan servicers into making more loan modifications, because there aren't strict enough rules for the servicers and they can flat out deny you for no reason at all without providing the proof of how they came to the decision of denying you.

I think he brought up a good point talking about returning to bipartisan talks, but put too much of the blame on just the Republicans. The Dems having closed door meetings on healthcare is pretty partisan as well. It goes both ways.

I also don't think loans to small businesses will help. They want to REDUCE debt, not take more on in this economy. You can't rob Peter to pay Paul and make up all this imaginary money for other programs when we have a budget deficit. It will just contribute to our problems. Tax cuts to small businesses that HIRE and give RAISES will help businesses stop using the economy as an excuse to screw the little guy.

Admittidly I'm an independent who'd rather drink beer than kool-aid, but only consider:

The guy has had a year with an unheard of super majority in both houses, needing NO Republican support, and his signature issues: Cap & Trade; Climate; and Health Care have resulted in....zero. Hence, his step-down to insignificant issues he feels he MIGHT be able to carry, ie the gay/military thingey, demonizing investment banks that didn't write mortgages (which is THE reason for the melt down), etc. We all know he sure as hell isn't going to license any nuke plants nor allow anyone to spud a hole to suck out any oil.

The rebuke of the signature issues and the political setbacks in NY, Va & Mass can only be a result of the masses sumarily rejecting his "vision" of each issue, it's bullshit to suggest otherwise, however you may personally embrace them. 'Tis time for a personal reality check if you think otherwise.

If you wish to aplaud his speech, it is your due. He is after all though, only a talker. Realistically, he hasn't accomplished much in life, aside from his education. In his present incarnation every room he walks into he finds himself the least experienced one present, aside from a recording secretary or an aide. This inexperience was his appeal.
His whole life has been a talker, not a doer, and he talks well, but he can no longer harp on the way things are done in "Washington". After a year, with all his minions in place, he IS "Washington", like it or not.
Revel in the speech if you will, but I'm becomming ever convinced he's an empty suit leading a party that has become unrecognizable with it's past, and he's heading that party over a cliff, and maybe....just maybe....that's a good thing.

Deficit hawks don't care about unemployment. Rampant wage devaluation is good for business for the Top 1%. We are being systematically de-skilled and disinflated to bring us back in line with the rest of the world. Destroying the USD will also destablize China to keep that Tiger down a little longer. Top 1% are already well diversified owning plant and equipment and cashflows in every currency all over this planet. 15K of them allegedly even have accounts at Union Bank of Switzerland. Which is just one bank, in just one tax- money laundering haven.

The only way investment $$$ are going to come back here is when wages and social costs are on par with other markets. Obama needs his hands tied by this "freeze" bill because otherwise like the Dems and their Super Majority, he has to get too close to redistributing "property" to 99% of US citizens who live off earning wages. That was a close call, so PHEW Coakley a weak candidate finally lost and now we don't have to be under so much pressure between real voters, and Top 1% campaign donors who buys us and own us.

The Two party system is really a One party system. And it is controlled by the same Top 1% of people who own and control 50% of the NYSE listed shares.

Fed Reserve data may even say Top 1% own like 70%-90% of all property in the US. That would be only a 30% come down, since the Founders and their small circle owned fully 100% of the 13 colonies at the Founding.

They created a Constitutional checks and balances that would protect this Top 1% minority from the "tyranny of the majority" the remaining 99% of US citizens. The Senate itself was created to give inordinate minority rule power to southern slave owners in states with few other white men who could vote in a popular election, the Filibuster which reinforce minority rules, and the Electoral College as the final stop gap check on the mass popular voters should they ever take an unexpected turn.

They do occasionally allow a Democratic President. We've had 8 out of the last 28 years, and the Supreme Court appointments and their votes against us now reflect that.

In our own lifetimes, the Supreme Court stepped in in 2000 to become that stop gap since even with the electoral college, they didn't get their desired result.

With Congress, the composition doesn't really matter since with campaign finance they own those who get in, and with Buckley vs Valeo,and now Citizens United, their TV ads will entice and mesmerize even more the "created equal" voters into voting who they want anyway.

Congress is more of a game where the illusion is created and therefore has to be allowed some sway that the public can believe is their "influence". Like Coakley. In any case, now without Super Majority, Dems and the hidden Donors are off the hook to have to give any redistribution of Top 1% "property" to us. That was close last summer. Blue Dog Dems were a nice stop gap invention. They were biting their nails, like they were in the 1930s. But now Citizens United will make sure we don't get that close to a "socialist" precipice again.

Now I understand why to this day they refer to FDR as "that dictator". In order to do the re-distribution of their "property" and clipping of wings that he did to his own Top 1% social class, he had to pull dictatorial powers because the checks and balances as he knew them would never have saved this country from a Russian Revolution at that time. Or French Revolution.

Ours differ from theirs on one important factor. They both threw off ruling elites from among their own people who used techniques like pitting one group against the other, uprooting family units and terrorizing wage earners to keep wages down and workers compliant, big threats from outside enemies, war debts, and devastated economies, etc etc. anything to keep the spotlight off the Royal Family and the Clergy.

Ours only threw off a foreign occupier who taxed the Top 1%'s "property" too much for said war games. But, exchanged it

I liked that jab at the supreme court that was priceless.

I like the guy so far but actions speak louder than words. I will wait to see if any of his promises come to be.

Strong speech! OH! & It didn't have all the slurs weird faces & boos from the crowd that happened while Bush was in office! Speaking of Bush, did anyone happen to catch the whole thing where Obama was explaining what happened to US budget under Bush??? He basically proved Bush created more problems then he ever solved!!! Obama has some great Ideas for how to fix America & I am positive he will! Just as I'm positive most people in the world hate the fact that we are at war in Iraq!!! I think Obama has a lot of goals for America! That's what we NEED in leadership! We NEED someone with goals!!! Someone who's not afraid to stand up & say "There are many problems with the world right now & I am not about to stand around & let things get worse!" I like that Obama seems to want to build new jobs in clean energy & quit giving oil companies major tax breaks! Under Bush, those guys were basically allowed to create their own wages! Obama's Health care plan might seem like a bad idea to some,but just stop & think about it for a while! This is something that pretty much every wealthy nation in the world has & is why we are NOT at #1 when it comes to health care issues! That honor goes to France! People of course find many things to complain about with EVERYTHING in life & Obama is just another topic people love to complain about! Some hate him because of his skin color(Racist Bastards!!!) some hate him because he seems to set a lot of goals & then there are those who hate him because he's not a Republican! But Obama is a great leader! If people wake up maybe they'll see that!!! Maybe someone could do a little research to find when the last time Republicans did anything good actually was! We've had more wars under Republican leadership then under Democratic! More Budget problems! More security threats! OH! Yeah! Many might have forgot that terrorist bombed a trade center under the first Bush as well as the second!!! Anyway...There are many problems with the world & things will be worse before they get better,but once some of Obama's plans play out, don't be too shocked if they actually do some good in the world!!!

He was so good "I forgot he was black for an hour"

If you get beyond the lies and all the "Me, Myself and I" comments I guess you are left with the standing ovations.

What an amazing teleprompter!!!!

As a citizen of this nation I have been alive for over half a century. Since I can remember I have watched men and women of this nation be sacrificed on the alter of special intrest, weather it be financial or by war. Obama is right to say that the high court is going to allow special intrest to rule our nation by proxie. May as well have a king because profit for the few now rules our nation. Men and women will still be sacrificed on the alter of those that sit back here in the States and make the decision that they don't have the right to a decent living. They will still send the jobs to a slave state in preferance to the people that protected their right to do so in the first place.

It was hopeful and that's something everyone likes about Obama. I like the fact that the war is ending soon. I've always been against this war...never understood it and will be glad when it's behind us.

You know when a man beats his wife, and she is thinking about leaving him. Except he keeps telling her that he loves her and it wont ever happen again.

Thats basically you liberals every time you hear one of his speeches.

I think a collection of President Obama’s speeches translated into Arabic and Urdu would be an effective means of breaking the most recalcitrant Islamist if played to them in a perpetual loop for a week.
“Nooooooooooooooo, anything but that! I’ll talk. I’ll talk. What do you want to know?” — generic terrorist

I am tired of the talk, lets see some action. So far, all I see is a motivation speaker.

Looks like will have to read the full text transcript. Thank-you to the link finder :)

again: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/us/politics/28obama.text.html?src=twt&twt=...

Are news sites not allowed to show the recording or video of the speech? All i can find is articles written by people who work for news papers (not usually to be believed as objective)... In this day and age that is useless

It wouldn't matter who was President; whoever took office had a very BIG plate to deal with. Obama didn't put us in this situation and we as a country has never seen the problems that we are face'n. It has always been "Tell the people what they want to hear, and let do our thing" gov't. Now we have someone who wants to change that. We as a people fear CHANGE; cuz it's unknown and we don't know what the outcome is goning to be. We as a people have to stop the name call'n, backbitting, and other crap that has been go'n on. If something happens to this country, it's gonna effect everyone. We need to take our government back, we put those people in office and they should work for US. That is what I got from the speech, a man who wants our country to be BETTER!!!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT???!!!

More war (and billions more for it despite the rhetoric) the same environmental policy, and a few crumbs thrown out with pretty words to "inspire" the people who his pollsters say are "angry" at him. No other president would have done anything different in this circumstance. It's called damage control. It's like a batterer bringing roses home to his wife and hugging her and saying he is sorry, but it doesn't change the fact he has beaten her and probably will again if it suits him... and she forgives him even knowing that. And because it is an election year, Democrats need some momentum. It is all about politics.

And what magic that he could actually spin taking 700 billion dollars of our money and handing it over to banks and make us think they all "hated" doing it... so now he talks about some fee that they will only absorb through charging their customers more for their services while still getting away with huge payouts and bonuses and that is supposed to make it all better. I also hope these jobs he hopes to create are more than just minimum wage or temporary dead end jobs.

And don't get me started on environmental policy. He gets a D from me on that. It is all well and good to say people will be making solar panels, but how long will that job last if we keep kissing the a88 of coal and oil companies while allowing them to drill offshore and pillage our environment, blow up our mountains, and toxify our food system.

And please, building nuclear plants? Is he for real? Just how far does he have to stoop to kiss the a88es of Republicans? Does he remember that under them and the same enabling Democrats who sat there applauding him in their usual tit for tat clapping and standing competition that our constitution was rendered void? What about the Patriot Act and all of the other civil liberties abuses he has also been party to? Like I said, pretty words mean nothing... except only when you use them to save your own face.

Different people have very different reactions to President Barack Obama. Those who listen to his rhetoric are often inspired, while those who follow what he actually does are often appalled.

30k to afgan anyone? Barack Obama policy smells as bad as his initials infer.

That is the first time I ever saw the President attack the Supreme Court in 50 years.

The speech was excellent. I was beginning to lose faith in Obama after all that had happened. His speech reassured me that he is still fighting for what I elected him for and he reminded me what made me vote for him again...

He addressed so many issues that it is hard for me to pick out my favorite part of the speech.

I hope 2010 is the year we get all of what we want done.

I have complete and total faith in this administration. No changes are going to happen in a year and with the deficit, I think a 20 year goal is incredible. What he walked into was a bad marriage between the Republican's and the People. The "bad spouse" that leads you on until they have the means to take it all. Bush is a horrible ex and Obama is stuck picking up the piece's, we all are. Without our support and understanding we will do no better than the abused that "loves" the abuser. Amen to President Obama.

As always, President Obama is a wonderful speaker. He delivered. His message was for his base, to Independants and to Republicans. He covered a lot of territory and he did so with assurance and decisiveness. I can only hope the Republicans can take notes, I for one, am fed up with their brand of politics (as I usually am). I want them to get on board with the administration and get some work done. For one time, you would think the dire situation that this country has been in the last few years would be all the Republicans would need to put politics aside an focus on this country and work with who they have to work with. I know wishful thinking.
JMHO

Lord! Any kool aid left in this bowl?

Now if things he wants to happen would actually... happen.
Wouldn't that be nice?

F@*%CK! Politicians, stop Tweeting!

The speech was inspiring and covered a little bit of something about everything we wanted to hear. While he came across as cool, collected and confident that we're right on track, the partisan line that was visibly shown in the hall tonight only translates to more strung out battles and little if any progress.

This is the second time around for him talking the talk, but will he surprise us and walk the walk?

I havent watched the speech yet, but i expect more of the same rhetoric. I shall report back on my take.

After listening to his speech, I feel there is hope for our country and feel more optimistic for the future of America. It sounded great in his speech but can he deliver? He has three more years under his belt and I personally think Obama and his administration can do it. We will see though....

I really like the IMAGE of Obama being president.

Sounds like I missed a good speech. I voted for Obama - we're all going to watch what happens.
I have the new focus that many of us have - that our political infrastructure has been swallowed by corporate intrusion into government. That our very grievous problems, as a country, stem entirely from that.
This makes up the present landscape of politics - and I believe our political process needs corrective surgery.
How are we to see change, real change, when all players are playing from within the present system?

Probama!!!!!!

In the words of wimpy; "I will gladly pay you next Tuesday for a hamburger today."

I'm sure my great grandchildren are looking forward to pay the taxes for all these "incentives."
Still though, we can only move up from here.