I did not watch the State of the Union Address. I have now read some of the commentary, however, and I am struck by just how crazy much of it is. Ezra Klein at Vox says that the most important sentence in the speech came when Obama told us that it is time to turn the page. I am not kidding. Klein really wrote this. Klein's analysis is that this was the first "non-crisis" State of the Union speech from Obama; he has turned the page on the crisis. It is a comment that could only survive in a fantasy world.
Look at this excerpt from Klein's piece:
Even on foreign policy, Obama seemed freed from the shackles of past emergencies. While America still has some troops overseas, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are largely over. Russia's currency has collapsed, allowing Obama to declare a kind of victory against Vladimir Putin's various provocations in 2014.
Think about that. Since last year's speech, Iraq has been nearly overrun by ISIS, and thousands of American troops have RETURNED to that country. We are now bombing both in Iraq and Syria. The ISIS threat continues to grow not shrink, but Klein says that the war in Iraq is largely over. He's wrong; it's back and growing and both Obama and he know that. Then there is Russia and Obama's supposed victory over Putin. At the time of the last State of the Union speech, Crimea and its millions of people were part of Ukraine, so were the regions around Donetsk in the eastern part of Ukraine. Today, Crimea has been officially annexed by Russia after it invaded that region. The eastern Ukraine is controlled by Russian forces and fierce fighting continues there as Russia tries to expand its territory. There is not any area where Russian forces have withdrawn or been pushed out. That's some hell of a victory for Obama over Putin. A few more victories like that and the entire old Soviet Union will be back together as the Russian empire.
Klein also says that in the past Obama's State of the Union speeches were filled with emergency economic proposals to jump start the economy. Remember last year's speech? Obama wanted to grow the economy by authorizing universal pre-K education and having some unspecified public works programs. Of course, Obama never bothered to submit any such proposals to Congress. It was just some loose talk for the speech. Nevertheless, to call pre-K education a proposal to jump start the economy is like calling mowing the lawn a move to fight drug addiction. There's no relationship between the two.
It really is time to turn the page. Unfortunately, the page that needs to be turned won't be flipped until two years from now. That's when Obama finally leaves office. Let's hope that the country survives until then.
Look at this excerpt from Klein's piece:
Even on foreign policy, Obama seemed freed from the shackles of past emergencies. While America still has some troops overseas, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are largely over. Russia's currency has collapsed, allowing Obama to declare a kind of victory against Vladimir Putin's various provocations in 2014.
Think about that. Since last year's speech, Iraq has been nearly overrun by ISIS, and thousands of American troops have RETURNED to that country. We are now bombing both in Iraq and Syria. The ISIS threat continues to grow not shrink, but Klein says that the war in Iraq is largely over. He's wrong; it's back and growing and both Obama and he know that. Then there is Russia and Obama's supposed victory over Putin. At the time of the last State of the Union speech, Crimea and its millions of people were part of Ukraine, so were the regions around Donetsk in the eastern part of Ukraine. Today, Crimea has been officially annexed by Russia after it invaded that region. The eastern Ukraine is controlled by Russian forces and fierce fighting continues there as Russia tries to expand its territory. There is not any area where Russian forces have withdrawn or been pushed out. That's some hell of a victory for Obama over Putin. A few more victories like that and the entire old Soviet Union will be back together as the Russian empire.
Klein also says that in the past Obama's State of the Union speeches were filled with emergency economic proposals to jump start the economy. Remember last year's speech? Obama wanted to grow the economy by authorizing universal pre-K education and having some unspecified public works programs. Of course, Obama never bothered to submit any such proposals to Congress. It was just some loose talk for the speech. Nevertheless, to call pre-K education a proposal to jump start the economy is like calling mowing the lawn a move to fight drug addiction. There's no relationship between the two.
It really is time to turn the page. Unfortunately, the page that needs to be turned won't be flipped until two years from now. That's when Obama finally leaves office. Let's hope that the country survives until then.
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