Thoughts on President Obama's State of the Union Speech

Your favorite Peasant freely admits that I have not
paid much attention to President Obama's State of the
Union speeches, passing them over except for one or
two. I just cannot stand to listen to an odious chief whose
motto could easily be "Have teleprompter will lie" ---
actually he doesn't even need a teleprompter to do
this, but he sounds so much more smooth and polished
when he stands before one when he gives a speech ---
but I did make it a point to listen to his first State of
the Union delivery since starting his second term.
My observations on his address to the country are
as follows:

Obama spelled it all out for how he plans to govern
now that he is in his final term as president, and does
not have to hoodwink the electorate anymore. He was
as clear as Waterford crystal. He advocated more strongly
what he had done in his first term, hang the fact that
none of it worked as far as providing even slightly
palpable relief from the ravages of the deep and dark
recession we are in. Instead of talking about growth
opportunity, he talked of more regulation. Rather than
promoting corporate tax reform, including lowering
business tax rates from 35% to 25% for both large
AND smaller businesses to foster job creation, he
spoke of further government intervention, spending,
raising the minimum wage from its current $7.25 per
hour to $9, and calling for creating more "green energy".
Oh, and another $50 billion for infrastructure. And
to put the cherry on top, more money for the education
unions, where compensation always climbs and grades
always fall. If any, let alone all, of these things had
succeeded in fostering growth in Obama's first term,
our economy would be in the biggest boom time since
the Reagan years; alas, there has been no such success,
and there could never have been with such measures.
It would be like trying to drink beer from a can of soda.

Furthermore, Obama spoke of creating a new Energy
Trust, to be funded by taxing oil and gas companies.
He shilled (again) for climate-change legislation, along
the lines of cap-and-trade (a/k/a "cap-and-tax"). And
the prez declared his undying love for the EPA and
his disdain, if not outright hatred, for the coal industry.
No mention was made about the Keystone Pipeline,
which would help us get oil from Canada's oil fields
and would mean thousands of new jobs for the buil-
ding and maintenance of the pipeline. Nothing forth-
coming on fracking for natural gas or high-tech drilling
either. Government growth, yes; economy and job
growth, no.

President Obama also played fast and loose with the
facts on gun control, playing up the terrible tragedy in
Connecticut where a gunman shot many schoolchildren
and some teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
"Overwhelming majorities of Americans --- Americans
who believe in the Second Amendment --- have come
together around common-sense reform," Obama
crowed, "like background checks that will make it
harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun."
A majority of the American people, in fact, do want
to make it tougher for criminals to get arms and am-
munition --- but not their good, law-abiding selves!
They know, and Obama and his fellow Democrats
should know, that criminals by their very nature do
not obey laws; especially laws that restrict their access
to firearms and bullets! This is the fact that makes gun
control laws one-sided, ineffectual, and unfair. But
restricting access to guns and ammo isn't what Obama
and his chums are really after; it's increasing control over
us and what we do. Your faithful Peasant shall have more
to say on this subject in some postings in the near future.

On foreign policy and defense, Obama mostly bleated on
about Al-Qaeda and allied terrorist groups being on the
run and on the wane (they're not!). He had precious little
to say regarding Israel, our staunchest ally (and by now,
perhaps our only ally) in the middle east, whom he has
rather open contempt for. And he skirted around Benghazi
as if he were whistling past a graveyard (he might as well
have been!).

Since Obama cannot seek a third term because of term
limits on the presidency, he has become more than merely
cocky with his speeches; he has become quite arrogant,
very full of himself. And this is how he is going to govern,
mark my words. What a difference when a president isn't
going to try for another term! Obama can now be Obama,
meaning that he can be his unbound, radical left-wing,
super-statist self.

And on other topics mentioned in his speech, well, I won't
bore you, my grand readers, with any of that. It was all
standard Obama boilerplate hogwash. This was the most
uninspiring, frustrating, self-serving, hollow speeches I
have ever heard a president of our country give, especially
for a State of the Union speech. And as I alluded to before,
this speech is going to be a harbinger of what the next four
years will be like. It won't be a picnic.


MEM