Listening to the State of the Union

I’m listening to the State of the Union on the Internet. I heard about the first five minutes when it came on but I had some things to do and missed most of it live. Lucky me I finished up and got to listen to the Republican response live. And while the new Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, did a much better job than Bobby Jindal, he had nothing new and very little that was truthful to say. He misrepresented the President’s stand on just about every issue and has this delusion that the Republican party has any interest in working with the current administration. Unless the Democrats want to roll over 100 percent and give Obama a bill that would make George W Bush happy, no Republican will vote for it. Their only agenda so far is to block and obstruct every bill or appointment that they can. And unfortunately some calling themselves Democrats aid and abet this obstruction.

So far the State of the Union is what you would expect. The president says a lot of things that Democrats will like and Republicans will hate. Limbaugh, Beck and their slavering minions will find plenty to feed their ranting and conspiracies.

I’m not objective in this. I find it much easier to listen to President Obama. I like what he has to say and how he says it. I found it difficult to listen to the previous occupant of the White House. The main problem I can see with the speech is that Obama relies heavily upon facts and reality. These coins have little value in teabag America.

I guess my take away from all of this (the net-net) is that I feel that calls for bipartisanship need to be abandoned when dealing with the far right (and sometimes even the right wing of the Democrats own party). To quote Obama’s own speech, “Let’s get it done.”

I did like the part where Obama created a commission that had been blocked by Republicans in the Senate. And I really hope he can get “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” repealed; it’s just ridiculous.

Overall I really liked the speech. I continue to have high hopes that something better than sausage can come out of the meat grinder of our government.