Posted on 01/28/2010 2:40:19 PM PST by TruthHound
While I dont wish to speak too harshly about President Obamas state of the union address, we live in challenging times that call for candor. I call them as I see them, and I hope my frank assessment will be taken as an honest effort to move this conversation forward.
Last night, the president spoke of the credibility gap between the publics expectations of their leaders and what those leaders actually deliver. Credibility gap is a good way to describe the chasm between rhetoric and reality in the presidents address. The contradictions seemed endless.
He called for Democrats and Republicans to work through our differences, but last year he dismissed any notion of bipartisanship when he smugly told Republicans, I won.
He talked like a Washington outsider, but he runs Washington! Hes had everything any president could ask for an overwhelming majority in Congress and a fawning press corps that feels tingles every time he speaks. There was nothing preventing him from pursuing common sense solutions all along. He didnt pursue them because they werent his priorities, and he spent his speech blaming Republicans for the problems caused by his own policies.
He dared us to let him know if we have a better health care plan, but he refused to allow Republicans in on the negotiations or consider any ideas for real free market and patient-centered reforms. Weve been letting him know our ideas for months from the town halls to the tea parties, but he isnt interested in listening. Instead he keeps making the nonsensical claim that his massive trillion-dollar health care bill wont increase the deficit.
Americans are suffering from job losses and lower wages, yet the president practically demanded applause when he mentioned tax cuts, as if allowing people to keep more of their own hard-earned money is an act of noblesse oblige. He claims that he cut taxes, but I must have missed that. I see his policies as paving the way for massive tax increases and inflation, which is the hidden tax that most hurts the poor and the elderly living on fixed incomes.
He condemned lobbyists, but his White House is filled with former lobbyists, and this has been a banner year for K Street with his stimulus bill, aka the Lobbyists Full Employment Act. He talked about a deficit of trust and the need to do our work in the open, but he chased away the C-SPAN cameras and cut deals with insurance industry lobbyists behind closed doors.
He spoke of doing whats best for the next generation and not leaving our children with a mountain of debt, but under his watch this year, government spending is up by 22%, and his budget will triple our national debt.
He spoke of a spending freeze, but doesnt he realize that each new program hes proposing comes with a new price tag? A spending freeze is a nice idea, but it doesnt address the root cause of the problem. We need a comprehensive examination of the role of government spending. The presidents deficit commission is little more than a bipartisan tax hike committee, lending political cover to raise taxes without seriously addressing the problem of spending.
He condemned bailouts, but he voted for them and then expanded and extended them. He praised the Houses financial reform bill, but where was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in that bill? He still hasnt told us when well be getting out of the auto and the mortgage industries. He praised small businesses, but hes spent the past year as a friend to big corporations and their lobbyists, who always find a way to make government regulations work in their favor at the expense of their mom & pop competitors.
He praised the effectiveness of his stimulus bill, but then he called for another one this time cleverly renamed a jobs bill. The first stimulus was sold to us as a jobs bill that would keep unemployment under 8%. We now have double digit unemployment with no end in sight. Why should we trust this new jobs bill?
He talked about making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development, but apparently its still too tough for his Interior Secretary to move ahead with Virginias offshore oil and gas leases. If theyre dragging their feet on leases, how long will it take them to build safe, clean nuclear power plants? Meanwhile, he continued to emphasize green jobs, which require massive government subsidies for inefficient technologies that cant survive on their own in the real world of the free market.
He spoke of supporting young girls in Afghanistan who want to go to school and young women in Iran who courageously protest in the streets, but where were his words of encouragement to the young girls of Afghanistan in his West Point speech? And where was his support for the young women of Iran when they were being gunned down in the streets of Tehran?
Despite speaking for an hour, the president only spent 10% of his speech on foreign policy, and he left us with many unanswered questions. Does he still think trying the 9/11 terrorists in New York is a good idea? Does he still think closing Gitmo is a good idea? Does he still believe in Mirandizing terrorists after the Christmas bomber fiasco? Does he believe were in a war against terrorists, or does he think this is just a global crime spree? Does he understand that the first priority of our government is to keep our country safe?
In his address last night, the president once again revealed that theres a fundamental disconnect between what the American people expect from their government, and what he wants to deliver. Hes still proposing failed top-down big government solutions to our problems. Instead of smaller, smarter government, hes taken a government that was already too big and supersized it.
Real private sector jobs are created when taxes are low, investment is high, and people are free to go about their business without the heavy hand of government. The president thinks innovation comes from government subsidies. Common sense conservatives know innovation comes from unleashing the creative energy of American entrepreneurs.
Everything seems to be unexpected to this administration: unexpected job losses; unexpected housing numbers; unexpected political losses in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New Jersey. True leaders lead best when confronted with the unexpected. But instead of leading us, the president lectured us. He lectured Wall Street; he lectured Main Street; he lectured Congress; he even lectured our Supreme Court Justices.
He criticized politicians who wage a perpetual campaign, but he gave a campaign speech instead of a state of the union address. The campaign is over, and President Obama now has something that candidate Obama never had: an actual track record in office. We now can see the failed policies behind the flowery words. If Americans feel as cynical as the president suggests, perhaps its because the audacity of his recycled rhetoric no longer inspires hope.
Real leadership requires results. Real hope lies in the ingenuity, generosity, and boundless courage of the American people whose voices are still not being heard in Washington.
- Sarah Palin
I wish we could hold a no-confidence vote, and get her started sooner!!!
Oh how I wish she had been the one giving the SOTU last night instead of jerk Obama.
Palin 12.
Me too.
Way to go, Sarah! You’ve got my vote for anything you want to do.
You betcha.
focus on replacing the dems ..volunteer at the local level... make calls replace the dems...all of them
Superb summation without malice. Obama should have such grace and reason.
That’s a keeper.
Wow, tour de force. Well done, Sarah Palin!
Now THAT is what I call a SMACK DOWN!!! She is just AWESOME. The one thing she did not mention that some have not mentioned is how Kim Munley and the other officer who brought down Hassan were in the audience and Obama NEVER even acknowledged them, not once. I found that to be really horrible of him to do. He invites them to hear his speech, and doesn’t even mention their names.
I am SO looking forward to the SRLC..she is gonna rock the house!
She is not wielding a nightstick but a branding iron, and O’bambi now has a big 0 seared all over his back-side.
Palin/Limbaugh 2012
Thanks for posting. Sarah can write a better SOTU speech in a few hours than Barack Obama and all his speech writers can pruduce in several weeks.
Yep, a keeper.
Now that is a speech!
Nice rhetoric ... and all true of course ...
But isn't the "bottom line" that 0bama is a liar?
(((PING)))
Nicely done! I hope she also has it scheduled to appear in the Wash Post or elsewhere as an op ed piece: the more ‘progressives’ she can drive crazy with it—and moderates and independents she can get to thinking—the better.
Bad mistake Barry. Since you forced her out of the governorship she’s got time to listen to your speeches and do the analysis the media should be doing.
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