State of the Union 2012- Live Commentary and Heckling.

"Greetings from the home of Super Bowl XLVI..."

well, if that isn't a plug.
 
Are the pundits saying anything insightful, or are they just pretending like they are important?

Not much that we haven't already talked about.

Gotta say, this is the first time I've heard Mitch Daniels speak at length, and I am not impressed.
 
Eh. He is doing better than Bobby Jindal did.

Flat delivery, I was told he was a moderate and saw little to show for it, fundamentally misunderstood the arguments made on the other side, flimsy attempt to blame gridlock on opposition, etc.

BJ delivered a comical speech, though. Why would the governor of Louisiana ever invest in such foolish things as studying natural disasters?
 
They're being pundits. Does that answer your question? :mischief:
I wanted to make sure. After all, this is the same year where we nearly had religious nutjobs become presidential candidates and an aging adulterer still is a presidential candidate. Anything can happen.

Eh. He is doing better than Bobby Jindal did.
I could do better than Bobby Jindal.
 
All you guys who were underwhelmed and gave Obama's speech mediocre marks, I wonder whose speech you're measuring against that would have been 10/10. It seemed to me to be well crafted and well executed, and a strategically clever start-of-campaign speech taking the ground of middle America out from under Republicans' feet.

YMMV but hey I'm an immigrant, what could I possibly know? It'll be a couple of years before I can vote.
 
I didn't think Mitch Daniels was that bad, considering the possible alternatives. I don't expect to agree with the GOP response, or for it to make much sense, but he wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Not too much teeth gnashing. This might be because he was dour and plain (so not a raving lunatic), though.
 
All you guys who were underwhelmed and gave Obama's speech mediocre marks, I wonder whose speech you're measuring against that would have been 10/10. It seemed to me to be well crafted and well executed, and a strategically clever start-of-campaign speech taking the ground of middle America out from under Republicans' feet.

I am comparing against his previous speeches, and I wasn't blown away. Tactically, it was a decent start-of-campaign speech. It defended his policies, and it emphasized his foreign policy (where he polls better).

Ultimately, I would give it 6-7/10. Not his best, but nowhere near the bottom.

I didn't think Mitch Daniels was that bad, considering the possible alternatives. I don't expect to agree with the GOP response, or for it to make much sense, but he wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Not too much teeth gnashing. This might be because he was dour and plain (so not a raving lunatic), though.

But it was just boring! The teeth gnashing was all in the verbiage. People are saying that Obama made a good campaign speech, took the middle class ground. A good rebuttal would have sweeped that away, and I don't think his talk was good enough.
 
Now, as is traditional here in OT, once the State of the Union program starts, every time you see your own Congress person, you have to take a drink.
You know, if I lived just a few miles to the east, I'd be in Boehner's district. That'd be a blast.
It was cheesy.

It was all right. I think it was focused on getting Joe Biden to smile and bring out the fear-based vote.

Speech was pretty good over all. I really dug the optimistic tone and the USA #1 stuff, and he almost managed to convince me that he'd be re-electable on his own merits. He lost me at the end when he criticized the same stupid trickle-down tax cuts he extended, but it still seemed pretty good, especially in contrast to Daniels's doom and gloom soothsaying.

For fun, here's the Facebook rant of a Ron Paul supporting friend:
1. Let's create a new federal agency to enforce trade "fairness" with $14 trillion dollars we don't have instead of cutting corporate taxes.
2. Why are you talking about being tough on illegal immigration when you sue states who try to enforce the immigration laws that you won't enforce?
3. Why are you talking about alternative energy sources when you won't allow oil drilling in the gulf?
4. Americans can now be detained without a trial and "The state of the union is getting strong"???
5. Remind me how many times you have used the words "fair," "fairness" or "paying their fair share."
6. The deficit was caused by tax cuts?
7. A billionaire pays less taxes than a secretary?
8. Training American workers is unnecessary. They are already skilled. You need to cut taxes so their employers can afford to hire them!
9. "In the 6 months before I took office we lost 4 million jobs. And we lost 4 million before my policies went into effect." Egotistical much???
10. "Iron clad commitment to Israel," meaning leaving the Israeli president alone in a room while you go eat dinner with your family.
 
6 and 7 are rather obvious, I would say. :p
 
I just got a Google Alert mentioning the State of the Union. Was there anything of, um, special interest to me? I couldnt tell if the blog thing was quoting the speech or making their own analogies.
 
Hooray!!!!
 
Way too much protectionism for my tastes.

I'm all for cutting tax loopholes and subsidies that encourage "shipping jobs over seas" or "dirty energy," but not if that means implemented at least as many complications to support things more politically popular.

We really should be reining in our IP laws, not pressuring other nations to grant the same privileges to American corporations in the name of fighting "piracy." For most of its history America benefited by ignoring all foreign copyrights and patents, and has no right to pressure developing nations to do otherwise now. True free trade does not require negotiating any trade agreements. So called free trade agreements are all about preserving specific protectionist measures on both sides. Most of the recent trade agreements have terms that are very unfavorable to the US, as our side's protectionism is mostly unenforceable IP restrictions while they continue to charge tariffs and do tax audits on those who buy American goods.


I think the main reason why there has been less illegal immigration has nothing to do with Obama securing the border, but rather due to an economy bad enough that more are trying to leave the country then enter it anyway. We really need to reduce the hurdles that prevent legal immigration to the point that there is no point in immigrating illegally. I stand my my position that we should have no quotas, no visas, no work permits, and no residency permits, but should only restrict the immigration those who fail criminal background checks or health screenings for communicable diseases.


The notion that there is not equal pay for equal work between genders was debunked long ago. Bringing it up now is nothing but empty pandering. The difference in pay is not gender, but seniority and the amount of time off requested. Obama himself has a record of paying females barely 60% of what he pays men, but that it mostly because the women in his campaign tended to be at lower positions.


Isolating and threatening Iran is only giving them a scapegoat for their own failings and making it easier for hardliners to repress their opposition an stay in power.


He is playing up the assassination of Bin Laden too much. We should not be proud of the fact that we killed him without any attempt to capture him alive to make him stand trial, or that it took so long.
 
Top Bottom