The last word on SOTU

I have now read the commentary about the State of the Union from the panoply of pundits that make up the American commentariat. My favorite column came from Ed Kilgore at the New Republic who opined that the speech was a carefully set trap for the GOP. According to Kilgore, Obama simply repeated almost all of the mundane semi-centrist ideas for growing the economy by government action that have been put forth over the last twenty years. He also discussed bipartisanship at length. So, says Kilgore, when the GOP resorts to its "manaical" additiction to cost cutting, it will look like Obama is the moderate who wants to grow the economy and the GOP are the crazies who favor nothing but reducing the size of government no matter what the cost to the people. Kilgore also thinks it was brilliant for Obama to be silent about the need to reform entitlements, thereby putting the burden for this subject on the GOP.

I like Kilgore's comments since they reveal both the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the progressive movement. Kilgore looks at Obama's speech as a political tactic, not an exposition of what would be a good course for the country. The only goal for obama and the left is maintaining their power, not doing right by the country. Indeed, it is not that often that on sees an admission of this fact so clearly in print coming from a certified liberal source like the New Republic.