Northern Colorado Gazette

by Michael McCune –

Did you watch the State of the Union address? I didn’t. Instead I removed all the emotion of the moment and got a printed transcript of the speech the next day.

I do not think anyone would be surprised to learn that President Obama delivered nothing new in his speech about the actual “State of the Union” but the emotional appeal of the moment cannot be denied. The speech was interrupted 103 times by applause and once by laughter.

I’m sorry for those in attendance and those who hung on every utterance from a clearly delusional man. There was no reason to applaud any of it.

Look at how he opened, the reference to JFK’s “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power, but partners for progress.” Progress is not what the Framers wanted but they wanted the three branches to be rivals. We’ve turned that upside down over the past half century and our country has flailed ineffectively ever since.

He then said, “It is my task to report the state of the union.” Please note not the “Union” but the “union” as if it were a marital contract and nothing more. Marriage ends in divorce more often than not.

Then it got really sticky as he said, “Our businesses have created over 6 million new jobs. We buy more American cars than we have in five years and less foreign oil than we have in 20.”

Created six million jobs? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics we are still more than 10 million short of the high mark and the jobs being created are not equal to the jobs we lost! That is a phony number if not a straight out lie.

How can the non-drilling president take any credit for less dependence on foreign oil? If the economy was back to where it was when he took office we would still be importing a higher level than we are now but the demand is so much less, percentage-wise we are still importing more, he conveniently disregarded the fact we are now a net exporter of energy and are OPEC eligible.

But the most curious statement came from his tenth paragraph and after the seventh round of applause.

“The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem. They don’t expect those of us in this chamber to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the nation’s interests before party.”

The people don’t expect government to solve every problem but the government has certainly never met a problem it hasn’t figured it could solve. His very actions in issuing Executive Orders willy-nilly certainly renders moot the point whether or not “those in the chamber” can agree, he simply squashes them like ants underfoot. Finally, when was the last time you actually thought Congress put the nation’s interests first? Some of the same policies he is for now he opposed when George Bush sat in the Oval Office.

There were more gaffs but you get the point.

If you watched the circus, I applaud the strength of your stomach because even reading through the insipid diatribe made me queasy. This wasn’t about the state of the union but about how to make certain the union is run according to Washington’s Executive’s whims.

Why, pray tell, did our elected leadership applaud? Respect the office certainly but I’ve walked out on better shows than this one and never applauded once.

“I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”–Thomas Jefferson

Share on Facebook

Tags: American, Congress, credit, Executive Orders, form, God, government, man, moment, nation, note, Obama, oil, Oval Office, problem, speech, state, State of the Union, Thomas Jefferson, union