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Last night's State of the Union address by President Barack Obama was the most informal I've ever seen, which for all its usual stuffiness and formality was really saying something. But then, I suppose it had to be that way. The President had a tough crowd to work with, in and out of the House chamber.In the year since he took office, the President's approval ratings have dropped from their inevitable highs to something around 50 per cent. Why is this? First, everybody who voted for Obama thought he'd wave a magic wand, and all the sins of the Bush/Cheney era--two wars and a bad economy--would just disappear. Didn't happen. Then he pumped billions of dollars into a stimulus package that has yet to flower. And he spent the bulk of his legislative efforts on health care reform, which is currently in critical condition in Congress.
The other problem was that Obama was facing a Congress with Nervous Nellie Democrats too timid to take advantage of the majority they had, and with Republicans who still worship Reagan. Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, that is. The one who coined the phrase "just say no", though in a much different context.
This time, instead of lofty goals more worthy of Don Quixote than the federal budget, the President opted for more modest proposals. He made a jobs bill his top priority this session, announced a spending freeze on all federal programs except for the military and homeland security (whose own budgets are sky high, but too much is never enough for these guys), and asked for the rescinding of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy among gays and lesbians serving in the armed forces. He didn't, however, spend much time on foreign policy.
Obama also took the time to chastize the Supreme Court for its ruling allowing corporations to spend tons of money on political ads, while challenging Congress to pass new laws to address this. On TV, it looked like the justices were sitting like statues, save for Samuel Alito, who shook his head when the President made his comment. So what were they doing there if they knew they were going to be insulted like that?
Throughout the speech, we were witness to another SOTU tradition: the endless standing ovations the party in power (in this case the Democrats) gives its President each time he says something they agree with, while the opposition (that would be the GOP) sits on their hands. That's visual evidence of what Obama was talking about when he said that Washington is a place "where every day is Election Day". And it needs to stop.
The plea for bipartisanship by the President is likely to go unheeded by Republicans, who just sent Democrats cowering in fear for their political lives after former male model Scott Brown won the Senate seat in Massachusetts previously held for decades by Ted Kennedy. But they don't seem to have any ideas of their own besides "no new taxes" and parroting whatever Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity says.
As for the chances of Obama's proposals getting past Congress, no one really knows in an election year. On the one hand, they could push everything back to 2011. But then their opponents could snap back with :do-nothing Congress" as their campaign mantra. Anything they do pass, however, might come back to haunt them if it's seen as pandering to anyone but the folks back home.
Perhaps Obama's main accomplishment with his first State of the Union address is that he realizes he needs to come down to Earth. Health care reform and climate change initiatives are important, but people need jobs so they could afford insurance and fuel-efficient cars. What they don't need is, in the words of William Faulkner, more sound and fury signifying nothing.
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