Possibly the cutest moment came when Obama promised that we must not leave our children too much debt for them to ever repay. The Republicans in the audience roared their approval, after declining to applaud many of his earlier statements. Obama noted wryly that he knew they could reach consensus on something, and also noted wryly that he has inherited quite a pile of debt.
It was funny at times to watch Congressmen Boehner and Cantor asking each other if they should stand and applaud after certain Obama lines. Some of the times, they stood, and some they sat.
The best thing Obama said? When he noted that there has been disagreement, and there will be more in the future, but that he he knows for a fact that every Congress person in the Hall loves his or her country. Yes. That's the Obama difference, perhaps even more than the honest discussion of tough issues, it is the civility of admitting that the difference of viewpoint does not imply malice fighting against goodness. If you want to make comparisons, Obama's charm and humor resemble Reagan's. Keep in mind that charm and humor are real political defensive weapons, a sort of teflon if you wish.
I don't think I am going to comment on Jindal's reply. Jindal can speak for himself, and will, whether or not he may have any political plans for 2012. He set the table with his refusal to accept some of the unemployment funds that had been targeted for his state of Louisiana, so obviously he plans to play hardball and talk about principle. Isn't Jindal a secret Muslim? Never mind, just kidding, Scooter and Mooch and Limbaugh and Keyes.
The specifics? Plenty of room for argument over those 3 main priorites from Obama: energy, Health care, education. Republicans will be quick to say, oil is cheap, renewable energy is a nonsensical boondogle, and we can't afford health care or education.
The road is gong to be rough, regarding the money mess. We were ridiculously overspent before January 20. We are going to overspend ridiculously to attempt to keep the banking system above water and several million families in their homes. Then our children are going to have to spend the next ten or twenty years paying it back. By the way, that's the best case scenario. Yet weirdly enough, I did appreciate the positiveness of Obama's address.
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Comments: 4
Hey, the GOP is making progress. I thought was cute, Chris.
You acknowledge we are going to spend wildly these next years but put forth the caveat that it's for the good (this time of course since Dems are in power) and that our kids will be paying for this for some time. I believe the Bush/Obama years will eclipse any chance we have of ever doing that, the debt is just too large a percentage of the GDP now. Obama's only real chance at getting the government out of the hole its digging with both hands is to inflate their way out of it---that might give us a few more years of pretending the dollar actually has value. The damage that will do to the economy however (and people's personal wealth) will be incalculable.