The State of the Union: Undressed.

I'll be writing my opinions on The Prez's big speech tonight as they occur, but first I have a very important philosophical question. Who is crazier: the chimp lady in Connecticut, or Nadya "Octopussy" Suleman in California? I'm torn on this. Also, not all of the facts are out but I'd be willing to bet any amount of money that "Chimp Lady" did NOT vote for John McCain. Let me explain. Both political wings have certain forms of lunacy. Tricking yourself into thinking a wild ape is your son Travis can be pretty easily classified in this regard.Without further ado, I got your stimulus package right here.

-As the Congress files into the room, I'm once again reminded that our country is ruled by the town counsel from "Footloose".

-I'm watching the ABC coverage which should be sufficiently reverent.

-Did you know Obama was named "Gun Salesman of the Year"?

-I hope Antonin Scalia is taking good care of himself.

-Is Biden's son in uniform there the son that is/was being indicted?

-A guy named "Chesley" has to be a bad-ass.

-Now comes the cabinet. Kind of crazy that Hillary passed the vetting process, but not Richardson or P. Dischle (formerly known as Puff Daschle). I won't be surprised if Hillary is his running mate in 2012.

-Can somebody tell me how racking up huge new debts is "change" from W? Debt is debt, regardless of your intentions.

-The president's goal is to go directly to the people funding the stimulus package, but unfortunately it is after 9 pm on the east coast and those people have already been tucked into bed by their parents.

-And the crowd goes wild. Remember that happy looking guy. We'll see how he looks as the years roll on.

-Jackson Jr in the house! Remember, no modern farce is complete without a cameo appearance from Jesse Jackson.

-The president has spent more money so far than any one save Pelosi's plastic surgeon.

-Think that's really water in Biden's glass?

-Is Biden texting?

-For a hope-monger he sure paints a bleak picture.

-Can someone please keep Chris Dodd's face and Barney Franks' voice off of my tv.

-He's laying the blueprint for the rise of disaster socialism.

-5 minutes in and nothing but platitudes.

-The idea that his economic agenda will bring down the deficit is so ridiculous only an intellectual could believe it.

-Everybody in Cuba has a job don't they?
-Cuba is still a Third World Socialist hell-hole isn't it?

-Without using the phrase "George Bush", do you really believe the stimulus will create the number of jobs he's saying? Be honest. With me and with yourself.

-The number of people who pay taxes is less than 95%

-"Wellfare as we know it" is back with a vengeance!

-If you've been going through tough times but have been paying your mortgage any way.... you are officially a sucker.

-The banks have really made a deal with the devil on this bailout. You don't pull a fast one on the Feds, the Feds pull a fast one on you.

-Does any one realize how ridiculous it is to claim that the Bush admin was too capitalistic?

-He doesn't get it. (Remember that line?)

-He gives a classic example of the Broken Windows Fallacy when talking about the need to "invest" in financial institutions.

-Government IS the solution.

-Mo' money, mo' money money!

-Here comes the "green jobs" crap.

-Listening to him talk about energy makes it clear that the moonbats really are in charge. There should be a law that you can't use the words "efficiency" and "government" in the same sentence.

-The automobile would never be invented today. Too many regulations.

-An American goes bankrupt from health care bills every thirty seconds. This is unacceptable. We're all going to go bankrupt paying health care bills. Keep in mind a government that goes broke under it's own debt can provide health care to zero children.

-Apparently you have the "right" to have your doctor bills paid for by someone else.

-We're going to spend a lot more on churning out kids with diplomas they can barely read.

-This just in. Our educational system is run by morons. Hate to be the one to have to point this out. From the Right trying to destroy science education to the Left trying to destroy the way History is taught, we've pretty well got our bases covered.

-Can you imagine if the government ran the only fast-food restaurant in your town? What do you suppose the food would taste like? How would the service be?

-Dropping out of high school is "no longer an option". "We need the skills of every American"? That sent a chill through my fucking blood.

-We're going to give kids more money. The colleges will say "Well, I guess these kids can afford more!"

-Brain tumor or not, Ted Kennedy can pound sand.

-Honestly, He KILLED someone. Am I supposed to be cool with that? Is Manson an okay guy now because he hasn't killed lately?

-Education might be the most over-priced commodity there is in this nation.

-We can't pass on debt? Let's at least wait for it to become history before revising it.

-Mentions "inheriting debt". Stay classy, moonbats. Remember "Change" means more of the same with regard to debt.

-I'd place a wager that he will not end farm subsidies.

-If he hadn't just signed a trillion dollar monstrosity, I might believe him. Apparently the Salt Water Marsh Mice will spend a lot of that money they got.

-Higher corporate taxes equal more jobs?

-We live in a Victimocracy at this point in our development so his "hose the rich" plan might be popular.

-Remember how Democrats cared when Iraq was costing so much money? They were right. (for more on the topic of debt, please read American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips) Once again, our children will not care why we put them into crushing debt, simply that we did it at all.

-Terrorists will not plot against us from safe havens half-way around the world- They'll do it from right here God-damn it! Not that Bush was any better about border security.

-Did he screw up the Git'mo thing or what? You've been campaigning on this since '04 and you're just now going think of an alternative?

-Nancy Pelosi's smirk is torture.

-There's a dead body in the room!!!! Oh, never mind it's just John Kerry.

-Did you know: The "Kool-Aid" at Jonestown was actually Flavorade?

-True story.

-Him trying to expand the power of government to unheard of levels and my opposition to it is neither petty nor trivial. The last guy did that too, and do you remember how bad that turned out? Remember Lord Acton's Axiom?

-Would you rather be water-boarded or have sex with Dianne Feinstein?

-How bad could it be?

-The water-boarding I mean. I think I'd have to say get the towel.

-Christopher Hitchens got water-boarded. He says it's torture.

-Have you noticed that I haven't personally insulted the president? Every one else, yes. President Obama, no.

-So there you have it. Huge spending and an incredibly vague claim about cutting "unnecessary spending" You may either keep reading for my views on this Jindal kid who I've had my eye on.
Or, you can go right to the comments section and call me a racist for opposing the president. (But keep in mind I'll do the same thing if he ever catches static from the left.) Line of the night: "I do not believe in bigger government". Does any one believe that?

-I agree with him about the war-budgeting thing. I also think some of the banking regulations will be a good thing. For good or ill, this is the beginning of a new era for this country. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I hope this stuff works because it's going to happen either way. I don't want to be like the people on the Left who were so invested in failure they couldn't believe that Iraq was turning around no matter what actually happened on the ground. Would I bet on that outcome? Hell no.

-As he walks out I notice some school-girls. It is good to have a president you can trust around the young ladies.

-I liked the whole "death penalty for child-rape" thing they had going in Louisiana. Do it In My Name, I'll sign for it if necessary.
-Jindal pays tribute to Obama's blackness.

-Then he has to point out that he has minority creds too.

-Sounds like his dad should have gone to a socialist utopia.

-I like that Jindal is not lining up at the teat.

-Not sure bringing up Katrina is a great idea.

-I like that he's pointing out the bad side of government inefficiency.

-Is there anything sadder than seeing what's become of (formerly)Great Britain.

-Did you know that if you spent a million dollars a day every day from the birth of Christ until now, you still wouldn't exceed the amount of the "stimulus package".

-He needs to keep hammering them on the stupid stuff in this bill.

-We still need to drill for oil.

-Ten years from now, they'll be telling us that it will take ten years to get to the oil we still haven't drilled for. And make no mistake about it, we will still be enriching our enemies because we don't want to risk the lives of caribou.

-School choice is antithetical to everything Obama stands for. He mentioned it, but don't be surprised when it never quite materializes.

-Talk about the border please.

-The Federal Government has never led us astray before has it?

-He's talking about people being responsible for themselves. What a hate-monger! Doesn't he know some people are victims?

-I like Jindal. This will fall on deaf ears, but may help his standing in the party. Now please, tell me how bad Bush was some more.

The Speech.

Here are my random thoughts about Obama's speech Thursday night. First a few notes about the warm-up acts and the overall atmosphere.

-I tuned in an hour early to see Algore warming up the crowd. I expected him to put everyone to sleep, but in the last 8 years he's become a more passionate, dynamic speaker. He compared Obama to Lincoln more than once, the validity of which remains to be seen. Like a lot of the Obamamessiah stuff I thought it was a little unfair to the Senator to put that kind of expectation on him. I'd settle for a Taft at this point.

-The set looked a lot less gaudy than I expected from the descriptions I'd heard. All day on talk radio they'd been describing it as some kind of pagan temple. It looked very subdued when I actually saw it.

-The larger stadium crowd wasn't quite the visual I thought it would be. This may be because I'm used to seeing crowds that size at sporting events, or it may be that on tv a crowd of 20,000 or 80,000 are more similar than they would be in person.

-There were about 30 minutes of "ordinary people" speeches. The ordinary people were a little too ordinary. The one that stuck out most to me was an auto worker from Detroit who said: "Working class families were doing fine in Detroit until the Bush administration took over". Bullshit. I laughed out loud at that line. (Because Detroit was heaven-on-earth when I lived there in the mid-nineties) Detroit has been in a free-fall for about 40 years now. In that time the state and federal governments have been controlled by each party and the nation has had its ups and downs, but Detroit has only been run by one party and there haven't been too many "ups" to speak of.

-as to the speech itself, I thought it was very good, not quite as good as the one he gave in '04, but it served a different purpose. The '04 speech was soaring and inspirational, while this one had to be more workman-like.

-I thought the most effective part was where he directly addressed the "celebrity" stuff. This was important to show that he identifies with "hard-working Americans" (which may be my least favorite political buzz-word these days).

-For a lot of the speech I got the impression he was running against Bush. Not a bad idea, but they've been trying to tie McCain to Bush for about 6 months now, and I've seen no signs that it's working with the electorate so far. McCain's maverick reputation (rightly or wrongly) may very well be too entrenched in the minds of the public to be reversed.

-He's definitely a "big picture" guy rather than a policy wonk.

-Make no mistake about it. We are a nation of whiners. Remember how much whining ensued when Senator Gramm said that? They kind of proved his point.

-Both candidates are promising to end our dependence on foreign oil... and both will fail to deliver if elected.

-I thought he left McCain some openings to counter-attack by claiming McCain doesn't know what "ordinary" people go through, etc. Also this makes it a little easier for McCain to attack Obama without looking too mean-spirited.

-Overall, I thought it was a very good night for Senator Obama. I'd give the final night an A, and the rest of the convention a B-. It was kind of unfocused as Democratic Conventions usually are when compared to the absolute "message-discipline" that permeates Republican conventions. The high points for me were the speeches of Biden and Obama, as expected.

The Speech: Media Reactions.

Tonight is Barack Obama's long-awaited acceptance speech, which I'm sure will be very good. I will be posting my thoughts on the speech tomorrow, but I'd like to look at the media response first. Now, of course the media response hasn't really happened yet but it isn't all that hard to predict. So here are some words and phrases you're almost sure to hear in the next few days.

-"He hit it out of the park tonight!"
-"The greatest political speech of my lifetime!"
-"Moving"
-"Inspirational!"
-"Transformational!"
-"Visionary"
-"Electrifying!"
-"How is McCain going to comeback from this?"
-" A knockout punch"
-" His poll numbers will go through the roof!"
- "This speech got him X-million votes!" (This will, of course, be impossible to verify until November.)
- "Substantive"
-"I was spasming uncontrollably the whole time!"
-" I want him to hope all over me!"
-"Wow!"
-"Historic"
-" I cried during his speech."
-"Eloquent"
-"Articulate"
-"He wrote most of it himself"
-"Answered the doubters." ( this will make me laugh the hardest. As one of his "doubters", his abililty to read a teleprompter was never something I doubted.)
-"Dr. King"
-" I am speechless!"
-"Inclusive or inclusionary"
-"Meteoric rise"
-"Changed the face of politics for a generation" (a bit soon for that, but I have a feeling I'll read those words.)

There will be a lot more fawning I'm sure, but this list is just the phrases I expect to read tomorrow. There will also be the usual gushing about how smart, compassionate, etc. he is. If the past several months are any indication, news articles from the left will sound mostly like they were written by teenagers describing someone they have a crush on, with some containing so much metaphysical New Age language that they read almost like an astrology reading. It should be fun. I'll be interested to see how much the speech and the convention do to boost his sagging poll numbers.

The Power of Imagery

I've been too busy to blog much lately, but I've been following all the latest political developments. I think the best move made by either candidate so far is Obama's decision to move his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention from the Pepsi Center to Invesco Field. This will allow the speech to be delivered to a crowd of 70-80,000 people rather than the 19,000 or so who could fit in to the Pepsi Center. The image of a huge crowd going wild during the entire speech (which I'm sure will be as eloquent and inspirational as it is vague and platitude-laden), will help to further the image of Obama as a political phenomenon. It should stand in stark contrast to the more typical, boring McCain acceptance. This could have a greater impact on the electorate than the boring political positions of the candidates or their governing philosophies, things I like to call "substance". This kind of thing could go a long way toward making up for his inexperience, doctrinaire leftism, and utter lack of legislative accomplishment.

A More Perfect Union?

Barack Obama's speech this week on race was honest, thoughtful, moving, and I fear, an unmitigated political disaster. I think he knew all along that it would become necessary at some point during the campaign to give a speech like this with regard to some racial incident arising during the campaign. I believe, however, that he expected it to be necessary at a later date in the campaign in response to some kind of race-baiting carried out by the Republicans. (I hope an incident like that doesn't occur, but sadly I am fully expecting it from some 527 group) I don't think he expected it to become necessary in response to an uproar over the outrageous statements of his own pastor.

The speech itself was one of the best I've heard from any politician on the subject of race. He dealt with causes of resentments on both sides and spoke from the heart in my opinion. The results of the speech are where I see some problems arising that may come back to haunt him in the fall. The idea that we need a national dialogue of some sort on issues of race relations is something I think is absolutely true. But here's the rub. (Read the next sentence two or three times because if I had to some up my view of politics in one sentence, by which I mean elections not actual governing, this would be it.) Politics is not about saying what is true; politics is about saying what people want to believe is true. I don't have numbers to back this up, but I don't think most blue-collar white voters (who will decide the election in the key rust-belt states) want to have a dialogue on race. For one, it sounds like the kind of conversation that could lead to someone getting their ass kicked. Secondly, as a nation our preferred way of dealing with major issues is to ignore them and hope they go away. For example, I had a conversation with a blue-collar white man the other night who said: "I just don't see racism as a problem. I think it's a waste of time to talk about". This was amusing to me on one level because racism wasn't a problem for us white men in 1960 or 1860 for that matter. But I think this is indicative of many people who saw Senator Obama as kind of a Tiger Woods of politics up until now, but now view him as "the black candidate". The white people who do realize need for such a dialogue are more likely to be educated, up-scale, and politically liberal. This also happens to be the heart of Obama's constituency. As Obama noted in his speech, less wealthy whites are largely immune to the "white guilt" phenomenon and are less likely to support Obama in the fall. These are the voters who have been the ones staying with Hillary in large numbers, even prior to the Wright stuff. This group not only is less likely to suffer from white guilt but are the most likely to experience the opposite phenomenon, a (hopefully small) portion of this group are the people I believe are fuelling the surging nativism in this country, blaming their economic woes on minorities. This is a voting bloc that would otherwise be tailor-made for a Democrat running for the White House in the current economy. I had a conversation with a co-worker the other day who was going on about how the economy is bad because of Iraq and how Bush just wanted the oil,etc. (which I wish was true, that would be less frightening to me than the reality that he believes he's on a mission from God.) So this guy should be someone the dems could bank on in November. But he ended the conversation by saying: "but we're gonna have a race war if that LaBamba gets elected!" There's no way of knowing how many people like this are out there and I hope it's a small number but I have a nagging suspicion otherwise. Fortunately for the Obama campaign all this happened in March and not October. The sooner he can get back on message and have us talking about hope and change rather than black and white, the better. I don't want to see him lose the election because of the race issue, I want to see him lose the election because his solution to this issue laid out at the end of his speech is the same as his solution to every issue: throwing more money into failed government programs. In a forthcoming post, I'll lay out what I would do to rejuvenate America's poor inner-city communities (and at the same time the large black and Latino populations therein) and how McCain can make up some ground in these areas.