Obama's State Of The Union Quite Different Than Republicans

Well I'm sure the tens of people who read this blog saw the President's State of the Union last night. I thought it was a good political speech, a Kennedy-esk national pep-talk, that makes it difficult to criticize. Subsequently, the President took a definite step to the center, in light of Republican gains in the House. However, he did present a number of goals without many specifics on how to tackle them. He instead laid out what he thinks the country needs for prosperity in the future. Things like energy policy, education, infrastructure investment, and a call to the nation to reinvent itself, to do "big things." As State of the Union's go, it was probably the most subdued address to the Congress I have ever seen. It was a good speech about moving forward and setting challenges for our future, but was light on the details of how to achieve them.

Then came the "official" Republican response by Representative Paul Ryan(R-WI) the new Chairman of the House Budget Committee. Unfortunately, he played the fear card right out of the gate. He used phrases like (paraphrasing) "catastrophic levels of debt", "a diminished country",and "we still have time, but not much time." You would think an asteroid was heading for earth, and only the Republicans know how to stop it. Then he characteristically played fast and loose with the facts, to make President Obama a scapegoat for conservative policies that didn't work then, and won't work now. President Bushes 8 years in the White House were like some kind of mirage that never happened. He also tried to compare the economic problems in Greece and Ireland to those of the United States, which is a giant stretch even for Republicans. Add about half a dozen cries for limited government, massive deregulation, and the golden idol of conservative thought, cutting taxes and that about sums it up.

The most intriguing part of the evening was that the Tea Party also had a response to the Presidents speech. Bring on that lovable clown from Minnesota's 6th District Michelle Bachmann, who fights daily with Sarah Palin to see who's the bigger idiot. She tried so hard to make her case for economic restraint, and smaller government, but once again she proved she needs an American history lesson regarding where Amendments originate. Hey she's only a Representative in Congress, details, details. She even tried to use graphs! Deceptive and inaccurate graphs, but graphs none the less. I'm sure she jumped at the opportunity to use the crayons she got for Christmas. Now she didn't mean to undermine the "official" Republican response, but when you have multiple responses from supposedly the same party, how would you interpret that? If Republicans wanted to have one response, Speaker Boehner, Leaders Cantor and McConnell should have squashed them. You know why they didn't? Because the mainstream Republicans in this country have no clue what to do with the Tea Party? All they know is that they need them, but its clear Republican regulars don't know whether to scratch their watch, or wind their ass when it comes to their new lunatic fringe.

It is clear to me now that there is a very fragile and tenuous alliance between the Tea Party and Regular Republicans. In fact I'd say the Tea Party is currently in the drivers seat, and that doesn't bode well for conciliation or compromise on a whole host of issues. President Obama sees the glass half full, Republicans see the glass half empty with a crack leaking water. What kind of legislation will this kind of thinking generate? I think it should prove interesting to watch.