A blunt take on the SOTU address and the response

I watch the State of the Union address every year out of a sense of duty, not because I enjoy it. This goes for any presidency. The fact of the matter is that no sitting president is going to say that the Union is in disarray. The best that can be hoped for is that you get some commentary on ideas for the future of the nation...and pray that Congress will act on the good ones since they are the ones that make the laws in the place. Every response to the SOTU address will criticize the sitting president and the responding party will toot how the sitting president's administration is sending the country to hell. Wash, rinse, repeat.

And the news networks are even worse. In fact, I really should stop watching the commentary because MSNBC will either criticize or praise the president based on how the speech sounds with little else. Fox News will just be upset that he still has a pulse. CNN will be too preoccupied with showing off new ways to play with a green screen to focus on the subject from any perspective. You could set a watch (or create a drinking game) based on the predictability of it.

As expected, President Obama gave his speech in his typical poised and sometimes dramatic fashion. If there was anything that I hoped would come to fruition, it is this idea that the Executive Branch will look for a way to deal with the crumbling infrastructure without waiting on Congress. Other than that, except for the amusing lighting that made a stream of light hit the president like baby Simba in The Lion King ($10 says that will be the front page of the Washington Post tomorrow), nothing unexpected was said.

I have been waiting for a response that gave hope for a bipartisan effort to run this country and again I was disappointed. What really shocked me was how Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels referred to President Obama's "failed trickle down experiment." The entire notion of trickle down economics was born in the Reagan Administration. I was under the impression that Ronald Reagan was the political equivalent to Chuck Norris for Republicans, so this terminology caught me by surprise. But overall, this speech was more partisan than expected.

State of the Union Address

GOP response

Gingrich surprise comeback

I am desperately trying to understand something here.

The Republican Party has always made it clear that its primary platform is family values. And yet Newt Gingrich is winning primaries? Newt Gingrich is a viable candidate? Really? Are the voters that desperate for someone who can debate President Obama? Do any of you voters realize that this isn't Political Idol and that it takes much more than a smooth debater to win the White House? George W. Bush could barely string a sentence together...he won. Did you forget?

Gingrich abandoned the "til death do us part' vow and added a caveat for deathly illnesses that he applied to not just one but two of his wives. He's slept with so many staffers that his children should demand a maternity test. Never mind this king of hypocrites did this while going after Bill Clinton for getting a little ooh la la à la Lewinsky. Is selective memory at play here?

There is this big to-do about Romney showing his tax forms, which is just as ridiculous and banal as the entire Birther movement, not to mention invasive. But you are just fine with Gingrich? In this great wave of Republican idealism that involves an anti-establishment, beam-me-up-Reagan mentality, South Carolina voters respond by voting for a bloated whore of a person who has no problem leaving deathly ill spouses and is so entrenched that he has a root system which competes with oak trees? Really?

Oh, and on a side note, I grew up during the Reagan years and this romanticism that has suddenly sprung up is incredibly unwarranted.

Perry's Impressive Wake-Up Call

I was starting to wonder if he was going to keep the blinders on, given his unfettered enthusiasm regarding his chances at a nomination. But that happy bubble of his apparently has been busted, and Gov. Perry has given up his dreams of becoming the Ghost of President Bush Past from Hell. The only reason I can think why Perry has chosen to endorse Gingrich is that he is backing the anti-Mormon fringe.

Romney takes New Hampshire

I'm afraid I'm finding it difficult to be shocked. He's the governor of Massachusetts. That's his region, despite his attempts to prove that he is compatible with the fringe of the Republican party. I would have been more shocked if he lost.

Hopefully this will give Santorum incentive to quit. His increasingly questionable rhetoric is screwy even by SNL standards.

How to be a happy voter in 5 steps

1. Realize that you are not voting for the savior of the world. If you think you are going to find the second arrival of Christ, Buddha, Yoda, a romanticized version of a deceased president or a character from a John Wayne or Will Smith movie in a politician then you need to go back to your mother and start over.

2. Accept that Washington has no incentive to change, and if you really, really knew why things happen the way they do, you wouldn't complain so much about it.

3. Locate a grade-school level social studies book and learn what your politician can actually do.

4. Stop comparing the economy to your personal home budget. It's a country...not a person. Your attempt to understand a national economy by comparing it to your checkbook is like comparing apples and alligators.

5. Vote for the candidate that you think will do the LEAST amount of damage.

Remember: This country isn't perfect, but we've still got a pretty sweet deal here.