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Tuesday, February 28, 2017

President Trump's Speech To Congress

Tonight, President Trump gave his first State of the Union Address.  Technically, it's not called the "State of the Union" because it's the President's first year in office.  Nevertheless, that's what it was.  And it was an amazingly good speech.

Let's start with a few highlights.  There were some electric moments as Trump spoke.  One of the most amazing was when the President condemned the scourge of RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM.  After eight years when president Obama would not even say those words, it was startling and glorious to hear them come from President Trump.  But it was more than that.  President Trump said that the USA would eradicate ISIS from the world, a much stronger statement than we ever heard from Obama.  Trump was no apologist for the USA; he was the confident leader of a great nation.

Another electric moment came when President Trump called for the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.  The cameras did not show the audience when those words were spoken, but it sounded like they all jumped screaming to their feet as if it was finally time that we had a president who understood what a debacle Obamacare has been.

Of course, there was the moment when the recent widow of a navy seal killed in action in Yemen was honored.  It was pure emotion, but that emotion from the President and from the Congress seemed to be a genuine outpouring of love for her and her late husband.

Another great moment was President Trump's treatment of immigration.  All day before the speech we heard from one news report after another that the President would propose a path to legalization for some illegal aliens in the country.  Nothing of the sort was proposed.  Trump did propose a comprehensive immigration reform; he wants immigrants chosen on merit rather than on the basis of family ties.  My guess is that the media was told Trump would propose immigration reform and filled in the blanks that they expected rather than what they were told.

State of the union speeches are usual boring laundry lists of programs interrupted by applause.  By halfway through, I get antsy and turn them off.  Tonight's speech was anything but boring.  Indeed, it was the best speech of this sort I recall seeing.  To be fair, I really don't remember any of the Reagan speeches.  Trump was certainly better though than Obama or Bush or Clinton.  That's surprising since normally I think that Obama and Clinton are better speakers than Trump.  Trump's speech tonight, however, was not great because of the delivery.  No, it was the content.  There was a true viewpoint, a mission to help all Americans, a purpose to finally get the country moving again towards greatness.

I'm sure that as I write this, the Democrat "response" is being televised.  It doesn't matter.  There's really nothing left to say after Trump's speech; it was that good.  Indeed, I wonder if anyone is watching the response.

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