SOTU for you!

(Two in one week? There must be something in the water....)


Did you folks catch any State of the Union-ness (SOTU) last night? Like Justice Alito mouthing "not true" when Obama butchered a recent ruling while also lambasting it? That's fun stuff.

I only caught portions of it and the transcript of the GOP rebuttal. The latter was downright gooey for a Republican response, as Gov. McDonnell of VA (who won back in Nov., despite Obama carrying the state by 18 points or some ridiculous number) had a lot of open-arm comments and mentioned at least once "I agree with the President on...." A good speech that touched on a number of salient points and wasn't folksy or "country-slo" as Gov. Bobby Jindal's 2009 speech rebuttal was (the horror!).

Not as much of that in the SOTU, which had a slight crackling quality, like a brushfire about to explode in conflagration. Obama has faced a few weeks (months? Since inauguration?) of setback in his policies, despite the supermajorities, and the populist rhetoric is starting to take over. It's amazing how quickly we've forgotten health care (health what? Of that thing. I didn't like that anyway) or that there are still hundreds of billions left in the first stimulus unspent (as we gear up for another major stimulus package + jobs bill).

By the by, if anyone can tell me what a jobs bill is, they get a shiny quarter. I didn't think you could write legislation that created employment from nothing in the private sector, as the vast vast vast vast majority of stimulus dollar jobs have been state/gov't-paid positions (and not just all for Michelle O's personal staff!). Historically, legislation aimed at creating jobs in periods of economic hardship tend to be for gov't projects, like bridges, ditches and murals. A "jobs bill" would then be just more targeted spending aimed at weak Democratic districts, intended to shore up the crumbling dykes until November.

Or am I reading that wrong? I might be, my glasses are a little dirty.

A few other things that jumped out:

* He repeated that he hated the bank bailout (that Bush signed) despite his ardent support at the time. A small thing, more of that "populist rhetoric" the pundits talk about. Still a little hollow, considering his opinion back in the fall of 2008.

*Following on that, all but one (if I remember correctly) of the big banks that received money have paid back those funds - with interest. Why are we now seeking a fee on those banks again? It's not just because they're easy targets...is it? I'd hazard a guess he needs money for special projects in the pipe or for health care. In fact, that's genius! He can punish the banks while telling the people he's fining them to pay for their sound bodies! The stoopid plebes will buy that, right Barry?

*Speaking of special projects, the freeze on "discretionary spending" begins in 2011. So that's really awesome and great. I'm glad McCain playbook is being used (didn't know who you elected, did you America?). What I'm not so keen on is the year until this goes live, giving Dems and their majorities plenty of time to pass pork and pet projects without recourse.

*He mentioned small-business tax cuts and stopping capital gains taxation on "small-business investment." Could...we end the cap gains tax for all investment for a year or two? Or just cut it in half? More than just small businesses could use that break, especially since he's looking to nearly double cap gains, according to campaign promises, during his term.

*Why does Tampa get a freakin' high speed rail line? What the hell's in Tampa that deserves that, save some middle-of-the-road voters electing a Senator this year (oh yeah...)? Why not put a high speed rail line where it'll do some good, like in the east coast corridor, across the Great Plains with his hometown, Chicago, as a hub between Denver and Pennsylvania, or from anywhere to not-Tampa? Tampa?! C'mon!

*I liked how he didn't want economic expansion like we had in the previous "lost decade," built on housing speculation and whatnot. So, does that mean you want it based on the 90s' econ-expansion - the internet bubble, whose popping created a massive backslide in the markets?

*I want a SOTU address that doesn't use the word "fight" at all. Combative language plays great to town halls, but is just silly in adult debate like this. "I will fight for you! We must win this fight!" RAH RAH RAH! Silly.

*All the education talk: go back to Bush's last two or three SOTUs. Same stuff. SAME ****ING STUFF. It's frustrating that the ideas you support are only lauded when there's a (D) next to the speaker's name.

*I loved how he said that Congress acts like every day is Election Day, and that we can't afford to run a "perpetual campaign." Wait, isn't "Organizing for America," what his campaign machine became, exactly that? Hm....

*Big fan of how he reminded Democrats of their huge majorities, the unsaid being "Why the hell haven't you passed by stuff yet?!"

SOTU addresses are notable for their magnificent proposals that get forgotten in the next news cycle. Very little Obama spoke about will become law or even get out of sub-sub-sub-committee wrangling. Bush had a good four years of sold majority support in Congress and look at the nothing that was done regarding his wildly ambitious domestic agenda (remember his domestic agenda? What he ran on in 2000? Yeah, in print it's actually pretty sharp, and I rack my brain to figure out what derailed it).

So don't expect to suddenly see unemployment cut in half by a miracle bill, or pride parades on military bases. I don't envision a health care bill will pass that looks anything like what went through the House. And such stringent rules for lobbyists? That war begins at home; clean up your own house, Barack.

In the end, then, this was a pretty standard SOTU: so much through against the wall, with little sticking.

And for Obama, it was just another campaign speech in the election that never seems to end.

Until the primaries,


-Erik