SOTU: Watch for the buts

By Rick Sincere | Monday, January 23rd, 2012 | Politics

Tomorrow night President Barack Obama will deliver his third State of the Union address.

I have a suggestion for those looking for a drinking game. Listen for the “buts.”

At this stage in Bill Clinton’s presidency, on January 23, 1996 — the beginning of his re-election year and third State of the Union — he made his famous statement that “the era of big government is over.” But (that word again!) he qualified it considerably.

As I wrote at the time:

Unfortunately, Clinton does not mean what he says. When he appears to embrace conservative — even libertarian — principles, he always has a fallback to traditional, failed liberal policies. In his State of the Union message, Clinton used the word “but” 27 times in 65 minutes. Each time he made a grand statement that conservatives and libertarians could readily and happily agree with — such as “the era of big government is over” — he qualified it with a “but.” Each “but” meant that “we liberals recognize that conservatives have won over public opinion, so we’re telling you we agree with them, even though we’re sticking to the same policies we’ve advocated for thirty years.”

So, when President Obama speaks tomorrow night, listen for his policy ideas, consider them carefully, and count the buts and, for good measure, the howevers and yets, as well.

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