Opinion Forum

Confesssion: I Did Not Watch the SOTU Last Night

January 25th, 2012

I had three good reasons: there wasn’t enough rum, it was past my bedtime and our dogs, fearing for what little remains of my sanity, wouldn’t let me.

However, I have read much of the commentary and based on that will provide a post-partisan analysis in keeping with the spirit of the occasion. It was an excitingly dull non-political campaign speech passionately proclaiming with little vigor the urgency of rebuilding the consensus American Dream — fair poverty redistribution by taxing rich capitalist leeches and a robust, growing economy without further obstruction by the Republicans who infest the Congress.

It was observed here that

With no record of accomplishment to his credit, other than the unpopular Obamacare and stimulus, Obama put forward a limited agenda of government intervention in the economy and the tax code in a laundry list of initiatives that did little to break new ground on any issue and was bereft of the passion and vision that drove his 2008 campaign for the presidency. All in all, it was 65 minutes that ought to worry Democrats more than it annoyed Republicans.

We can’t wait for more of what President Obama so successfully promised – all of it fair, smart and propelled in post-partisan fashion by clean, efficient energy. We must stoutly reject Republican crony capitalism that distorts the economy as we subsidize to the utmost green initiatives regardless of their economic viability. We must help President Obama to go boldly forth where no Republican has ever gone before, bringing the dawn of the glorious new age we rightly deserve and desperately need. He will cause the sun to shine warmly upon us, global warming to cease, the seas once again to halt their rise (and then to recede) as the winds of change freshen.

Under any fair analysis, as House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) so devotedly put it,

this president has reached out as seriously and sincerely as any president with whom I’ve served over the last 30 years, to work together in a bipartisan fashion.”

“No president with whom I’ve served over those last 30 years has spent as much time working with Republicans and Democrats in the room, exchanging ideas, evidencing a willingness to compromise as President Obama has,” said Hoyer.

Trying to divide the country even further? Impossible Republican nonsense! President Obama must force the obstructionist Republican Congress to hit the reset button and to climb aboard our powerful, vital and growing ship of state. Even with Captain Obama at the helm, we must pull steady, all together, on our oars

as he humbly requests. All aboard! “I intend to fight obstruction with action,” he said. ”With or without this Congress, I will keep taking ~~campaign contributions~~ actions that help the economy ~~groan~~ grow. But I can do a whole lot more ~~campaigning~~ with your help.”

Delivered by our confident and successful president, the most profound intellect ever to attain that office, it was an easy speech to understand because it was written at an eighth grade level and therefore candidly commensurate with his enlightened worldview. The full text is available here. Evasive, irresponsible and full of cliches? That’s absurd. He was speaking for we the people!

Although no Styrofoam Greek columns were visible during the SOTU, scenes of happy and peaceful Greece came immediately to mind. So did the enduring beauty and strength of Styrofoam, upon which he must rebuild the crumbling foundations of our once Great Nation. Has the United States become weak and irresolute under his enlightened leadership? No! Sound as the dollar, she is stronger than ever and her prospects are the best in history. Yes, “America is back.”

Citing “stronger” alliances in Europe and Asia, “deeper” ties in the Western hemisphere, the “closest military cooperation” ever between the U.S. and Israel, and the new focus on the Asia-Pacific, Obama declared that “the renewal of American leadership can be felt across the globe.”

“From the coalitions we’ve built to secure nuclear materials to the missions we’ve led against hunger and disease; from the blows we’ve dealt to our enemies to the enduring power of our moral example, America is back,” he said.

An e-mail sent today by Jim Messina, Campaign Manager, Obama for America, clearly summarized the bipartisan flavor of President Obama’s SOTU.

The President will be busy doing everything he can to demand action from a Congress that cares more about making a political point than governing. And when they refuse to act, he will. Election year or not, that is his job, and he is going to be getting things done these next couple months.

The campaigning is left up to us.

It’s refreshing that President Obama has cast aside crass political ambition for the good of the nation and will therefore leave campaigning to others — so that he can continue, without interruption, his great work as our President.

There may be a few bits and pieces left out in this summary, but they don’t matter. It’s the spirit that counts and besides even more will soon be revealed.

Obama will follow up Tuesday night’s address with a three-day tour of five states key to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he’ll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he’ll discuss energy, and in Michigan on Friday he’ll talk about college affordability, education and training.

Ten excellent reasons to support and vote for President Obama are provided here. Each is more persuasive than any of the others and we must take them all to heart.

(This article was also posted at Dan Miller’s Blog.)

Articles written by Dan Miller
Tags: campaign, dull, economy, election, Obama, partisan, satire, SOTU, taxes
Categories: Humor, News, Politics | Comments (2) | Home

2 Responses to “Confesssion: I Did Not Watch the SOTU Last Night”

Tom Carter | January 25th, 2012 at 6:37 pm

Well done, Dan! Clearly a fair and balanced report. It’s obvious, however, that your dogs were right to counsel you not to watch the speech. The damage that’s been inflicted on you is unfortunate. But maybe a few more tots of rum would have helped….

You got to admit, the man gives a good speech, as long as there are teleprompters available. Without them, we get the long strings of uh, uh, uh with a deer in the headlights stare, followed by a statement about how many corpsemen he’s personally met in the 57 states he’s visited.

In any case, I love the cartoon!

Dan Miller | January 25th, 2012 at 6:46 pm

Thanks, Tom. “We report, you decide.”

You say, without TOTUS

we get the long strings of uh, uh, uh with a deer in the headlights stare, followed by a statement about how many corpsemen he’s personally met in the 57 states he’s visited.

You may be right, but those are some of his most memorable speeches.