Much has been said the last few days about the president’s State-of-the-Union-and-socialism-is-alive-and-well-on-Capitol-Hill address of this past Tuesday evening. Nevertheless, since I would regularly endure extremely painful kinks in my neck from the president’s left-right-left-right teleprompter induced head movements, I actually gave up watching Obama give speeches on television several years ago. Moreover, during the past twelve months, even reading the transcripts of the president’s speeches has proven to be a tremendously painstaking process. Therefore, to give myself some leeway, I thought I’d start to read last year’s State of the Union address, knowing full well what’s happened to our country over the course of the last twelve months.
Thus, from the 2013 address, I read how under Obama’s watch there have been over 6 million new jobs created. Yet, the president didn’t mention the corresponding increase in food stamp usage, which raised my eyebrow. He proclaimed proudly and of course to standing applause (it said) how we “buy more cars than we have in five years.” Consequently, my other eyebrow went up since we produce cars, proceed to channel stuff, leave the automobiles on the lot, and then count the cars as being sold. Just imagine the subprime mortgage debacle moving to the new car lot as NINJA (no income, no job, and no assets) is certainly alive and well in the auto world.
I also learned that “after a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are starting to come home.” Of course in the Middle East our military presence will still be felt since people are simply being replaced with drones. Carry on the killing, Mr. President.
All of the above was quite interesting. But perhaps what grabbed my attention the most was the president’s opening lines which were first declared by President John F. Kennedy years ago in a previous State of the Union Address, “The Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress,” Kennedy said. Ah, there it was — the olive branch — the working together of two branches of government, namely legislative and executive. Maybe I’ve been wrong about Obama these past five years as my fascist, socialist, and totalitarian president has seemingly turned a new leaf. But alas it wasn’t to be. As shortly thereafter, the president launched into a diatribe regarding global warming (I’m quite sure the folks in the Northeast received the memo that heat was on the way.) “We can make meaningful progress…I urged the Congress to get together…but if Congress won’t act soon…I will, I will…with executive action.” Well, there it was. In less than a few pages, President Kennedy’s thoughts were completely tossed out the window. Indeed, unity and bipartisanship were also no longer an option since Barack soulfully stated that it was his way or the highway.
After scrutinizing less than 25% of last year’s speech, I decided to give it a rest and read the rest of it later. At which point I’ll also be forced to analyze this year’s State of the Union address.
Perhaps I’ll have an opportunity to continue perusing both speeches if there’s a dull moment during the Super Bowl, but I certainly hope not.
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