State of the Union – 2010

I have some thoughts of the 2010 SotU address delivered by President Obama last night and the Republican response by Virginia Governor Bob McConnell.  I did not watch either speech with rapt attention as the family was having dinner, but was paying some attention and read the text of both this morning.

• President Obama is a good speaker, but the speech seemed disjointed and clunky. It was longer than I remember GWB’s SotU speeches.
• I don’t care for the (now traditional) frequent applause lines.  It makes the speech hard to follow.
• It was a very typical “something for everyone” speech reminiscent of the Clinton speechs. A “jobs bill”, high speed rail, bank tax, student loan forgiveness, … and so on.
• President Obama talked a lot about jobs.  Why he thinks that bigger government leads to more jobs is beyond me.
• The “spending freeze” is pure fraud. He exempted the bulk of the budget and the areas of biggest growth, and even proposed expansions to programs that are inside the “frozen” area!
• I really don’t like the high speed rail idea.  Government doesn’t do this kind of thing well (see Amtrak), and I it will require huge subsidies forever.
• Lots of hypocrisy in this speech.  Obama leads the most special interest driven administration since Warren Harding, yet complains about the Citizens United SCOTUS decision as enabling special interests.  Obama has led the most partisan and divided political year since the Clinton impeachment, yet calls for ideas and suggestions.  Obama calls for transparency, while refusing to be transparent.
• The SotU is a tough act to follow. Governor McDonnell did a fine job in the response. Nice touch mirroring the setting (legislature, live audience).
• I wonder if the audience for the response was all Republicans or if it was the Virginia legislature.

Update: Sarah Palin wrote a response to the SotU .. on Facebook no less!