State of the Union

So now we have seen the State of the Union speech by president Obama. Quick, tell me which are the items for which Obama wants to cut spending. My guess is that if you ask 1000 Americans who watched the speech, over half would not know and a quarter would suggest that he was cutting spending for Sputnik. To say Obama was short on specifics is like calling the Antarctica short on warmth.

We did hear Obama repeat his call for a freeze on discretionery spending at the same time that he called for doubling down on things liek high speeed rail and wind energy. He never explained how one freezes spending at its current excessive levels while adding spending to his favored projects while moving towards a balanced budget.

The truth is that we have now seen proof that Obama's move towards the center was just public relations put out there to use in his re-election campaign. There are going to be big fights in the coming year over the level of spending. If the House GOP holds firm, there will be nothing that Obama and the Obamacrats can do to get keep the level of spending up at current levels. For the sake of the future of this country, let's hope that the Republicans can hold on.

On another front, I thought that Obama's detailed explanation of the paradigms that guide his foreign policy was thoughtful and informative. Actually, I just wrote that sentence to see if you all were paying attention. Once again, Obama wasted a chance to explain his overall view of where US foreign policy is going. We seem to be drifting aimlessly, carrying out pieces of an uncoordinated policy designed on an ad hoc basis.

One last note: Because of the nature of Obama's speech, even the AP ran a column in which they did a fact check and found the speech wanting. If Obama's has lost the AP, he is really in deep trouble.