Somehow, in our very confused tiny little heads, the phrase "Don't Quit!" morphed into "I Won't Quit"! Which was it again? Was that a very subliminal jab at a certain politico? We don't know if anybody else caught it yet. Rachel, what about you? You're pretty savvy and pithy. Yes, we admit we saw the coverage on MSNBC with their crew of Keith-O, Chris & Rach. We admit we're biased. We basically like them. But we like Joe Scarborough, too. (Note: Joe contacted us briefly on Twitter, yesterday - so did Joan Walsh...).
Or should be called the "Get It Done!" speech? We don't know. Shades of Larry the Cable Guy, God help us...
No comments - that we know of - on this historic speech and some of the things that were apparently said the first time at an SOTU. Like, "Madame Speaker, the President of the United States"... first time, wasn't it? No comments? We thought it was pretty special. We thought some of the things said by Our Main Man were pretty special too.
We did expect special things to come out...as well as platitudes. We weren't disappointed...oh well. But, mostly, they were lofty. Some hit the ground with a thud. Don't get us wrong, we love Our Main Man. We would follow him to hell and back. Which could have happened even in his first year. He pointed out (we thought correctly) how hellish things could have been if not for the hated bailout. Hellish, we say. But, again, we find he is preaching to our choir. Sorry.
Yes, he said that. He hated the bailout, we all hated the bailout (except the banks). Sometimes, hate can be refreshing. It wasn't easy. Popular as a root canal, he said. But, do what is necessary and not popular (in that job). That's where he proposed The Fee. The Fee on the biggest banks to pay back the taxpayers who bailed them out in their time of need. Now that was popular and it got a thunderous applause. If not for the bailout, 2 million working Americans would have become unemployed. Hellish.
Jobs are our #1 PRIORITY. (No, not Steve...although Steve does make products that give people jobs...credit where credit is due and all that...). Calling for New Jobs Bill that night. Thunderous Applause. True engine of job creation will always be American business. Short loud applause. Starting with small businesses, entrepreneurs, where most jobs start. Main Man said 30 bn in repayments to go to Community Banks to keep these businesses afloat. So that they can hire new workers or raise wages. And to eliminate the Cap Gain Tax on all small businesses. To applause.
Which seemed to let him segue seamlessly into the next topic and the next and the next... The next of which he stated putting Americans to work today on the future infrastructure. And he related more of the same to thunderous applause, mostly.
We kept taking notes. We had our heads buried in our notebooks and barely saw the speech. 11 pages of notes...we felt like were in lecture hall...Geez, this is like homework. But, our love saw us through.
Then a bold statement on how we have lost 7 million jobs and therefore long-term growth has to be addressed. We're inclined to agree. "How long should we wait?! (clapping) Washington told us to wait 2 decades. China, Germany and India are not waiting... I do not accept second place for the USA!" To cheers and thunderous applause. Oh, he's preaching to the choir, again. Keep it up.
Financial reform talk then led into section on encouraging American innovation and investment. How energy is the right thing. Need to create more for more production. Yeah, that was making sense... Need safe clean nuclear plants...Huh, What?...clean coal...Huh, what? Excuse us, but wasn't "No Nukes" the rallying cry of the liberal movement some years ago? Was he talking fission or fusion? Big difference. Clean coal? Have you ever seen what a broken coal ash pond can do? Biofuels and offshore development? A Dem wants offshore development...and no tax breaks for Big Oil? Hmmmm...
Got to develop that National Export and Initiative and Control. Won't that usurp NAFTA and Fast Track? You know, products of the Clinton Administration? Hmmmm.... But, he did say that we could lose our chance to create jobs. One Administration Zigs, the other Zags. Just like the economy.... Hmmmm....
That moves us further into Education Reform - the finance reform part of which sounded really good. Increase people's value of their homes. Yes. Relieve the Middle Class Econonmic Burden. Yes. Which is why we still need Health Care Reform. Ha! Gotcha! Whew! He managed to swing back to Health Care Reform - our linchpin for the whole economy and recession and jobs and everything. Hmmmm....
Mario Cuomo-like line: "I won't walk away from the American people and neither should these people in this chamber!".
Swipe at the Dubya Administration: "In 2000 we had a $ 2bn Surplus - now we have a (huge) deficit, 2 wars, a hole in the budget, a recession and more before I walked in the door!". And today (updated Friday, Jan 29, 2009) it was announced that the GDP grew 6% and Obama announced a $ 33Bn taxcredit/jobs growth bill. Equals GOP = SOL and 7 more years of economic growth and President Obama! Hooray!
We've run out of time...except for Mitch McConnell. They say he was giggling like a walleyed country school girl at her first barn dance all the time. The politics of division. The politics of destruction. Keep it up Mitch, you want to divide the nation? Remember that thing called the Civil War?
Since the SOTU, several political pundits have weighed in on some of the boorish behavior observed by all during the speech. Most notably: Sour Justice on Countdown, Jon Alter on Countdown on GOP FAIL to support Main St and RachelBrilliant: Obama SOTU Shows GOP United Against Mainstreet. Since Rach, Jon Alter and Keith-O have been kind enough to point out this boorish and possibly destructive behavior. Its raised one or two more points with us about all this GOPpish "behavior".
To the GOPs; you didn't look unified by the way, the DEMS looked unified. You didn't look passionate about your "cause", look like freshly made up cadavers stolen from a local funeral home. The DEMS looked joyous, you looked like you had all just croaked. Except that one official mouthing words about Obama's comments on the judiciary. Well, when you enter into the political arena with your 'judgements' you should expect to be politicized. We're sorry Ms. Ginsburg had to be subjected to this, she is one of our favorites. Just remember, if Hugo Chavez gets his candidate elected to US office(s) after you ditched that law in question, you may not be doing any judicial work...at least in the US...
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