I will be live-blogging President Obama’s State of the Union Address starting at 9:00 and welcome your observations and wisdom in the comments section. Given that Obama’s speech was drafted by his campaign, there should be a lot to talk about….
9:00 – Lest there be any confusion, tonight’s speech by Obama is being delivered in the House chambers in Washington, DC and not in Invesco Stadium in Denver.
9:02 – As the president enters the chamber, I’m wondering if his speech will acknowledge that he didn’t take office yesterday. He has been in office for 3 years, and he had free reign to impose any policies he wanted during his first 2 years with the Republicans powerless to stop him.
9:09 – Big hug for Gabbie Giffords – and she deserves it.
9:11 – Did Obama really just acknowledge that our actions in Iraq made the U.S. safer and more respected around the world?
9:14 – To Obama, “working together” means Republicans acquiescing to his agenda.
9:15 – Obama cites the post-WWII congresses for working together to strengthen America. Well, those congresses did so by making massive spending cuts. Does anyone think Obama understands that?
9:17 – Obama dishonestly blames and demagogues the banks for making “huge bets” with other people’s money. In fact, it was the Democrats who enacted laws requiring banks to give mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them.
9:19 – Obama has shown that he will work with anyone – to enact his agenda. He will never cooperate with Republicans to do anything else.
9:21 – Did Obama really just call for the government to buy private businesses across the country to duplicate the revival of GM?
9:23 – Obama tells businesses to trust him to support them after spending the past 3 years demonizing them. Then he goes into a laundry list of how he’s going to punish businesses who don’t do what he wants them to do.
9:25 – The looks on the faces of Boehner and Cantor are priceless. Boehner looks bored with the same ol’ leftist demagoguery. Cantor just looks incredulous.
9:27 – Did Obama really just announce that he has unilaterally created a new enforcement agency with law enforcement powers that was not authorized by Congress?
9:29 – Why is it the federal government’s business to fund community colleges? Why should the people of Virginia Beach have to pay for a community college in Atlanta? Whatever happened to our constitutional federalist form of government?
9:31 – Obama engages in the same old tired demagoguery of accusing Republicans of attacking teachers when in fact we have been attacking the teachers’ unions that put their members employment benefits ahead of the education of our kids.
9:33 – There he goes again, telling states what their policy should be about how long kids should have to remain in school, as if it’s any of his business.
9:36 – “Comprehensive immigration reform” is defined as any immigration law that results in the creation of as many new Democrat voters as possible.
9:37 – “Equal pay for equal work” – More demagoguery – Women already earn equal pay for equal work when time off for having and raising babies is factored into the equation.
9:40 – Pink elephant in the room: KEYSTONE PIPELINE
9:42 – “Some companies fail” – Let’s see if he says that when discussing the work done by Bain Capital….
9:44 – Pink elephant in the room: SOLYNDRA
9:45 – @JR – You misunderstood me – Women make a little less than men on average, but that’s because women take time off to raise kids. When that fact is factored in, women make the same as men.
9:47 – Is Obama really talking about a peace dividend when he’s running annual deficits of $1.6 trillion?
9:48 – There he goes again, using a crisis deliberately created by Democrats (housing collapse) as an argument for increased government regulation.
9:50 – Obama is going to protect us from mercury spills? He and his Democrats are forcing us to use light bulbs with toxic liquids in them.
9:52 – Pink elephant in the room: RICHARD CORDRAY’S APPOINTMENT WITHOUT SENATE APPROVAL WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
9:54 – Here comes the class demagoguery. Yawn.
9:56 – “Fair share?” The top 2% of Americans pay 52% of all taxes.
10:00 – A bill to end insider trading by Members of Congress – Maybe the only proposal he’s made all night that we should pass.
10:03 – “The government should do only what people cannot do for themselves and no more.” My religion has a word for this – “Chutzpah” – There are no words to describe the level of this man’s hypocrisy.
10:06 – Hillary’s hair-do looks horrible.
10:07 – Obama is so arrogant that he actually believes he can speak for an hour giving a laundry list of government intervention into every aspect of our lives and then say with a straight face that he believes in limited government.
10:09 – “Please American Jews, forget my 3 years of hostility to Israel and stay on the Democrat plantation as I seek another 4 years to undermine Israel.”
10:12 – “America is back” – The marching orders from the White House to their loyal press corps.
10:13 – Does anyone believe that any of those SEALs were Democrats?
10:16 – Here’s the “hope and change” part of the speech
10:17 – End of speech – Hang around for live-blogging of Gov. Mitch Daniels’ Republican response.
Republican Response by Gov. Mitch Daniels
10:29 – Daniels gets real: The state of the union is not great; it is “grave”
10:31 – Daniels acknowledges what Obama tried to distract us from – The debt that Obama has accrued is a huge danger to our country
10:32 – He calls out Obama for disparaging private business and embraces it. I hope this is a preview of the GOP message this year, but Newt Gingrich’s attacks on Romney are not encouraging.
10:34 – I’m a big fan of Mitch Daniels, but I have to say – He looks like Calvin Coolidge, has his competence and wisdom – and his charisma.
10:35 – This is a speech that is not dynamic but is wall-to-wall common sense. Is anyone listening?
10:37 – America needs a man like Mitch Daniels in the White House, and I deeply lament that he didn’t run.
10:39 – “Republicans will speak for those who believe in the dignity of the individual.” This is the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and leftists.
This ends the live-blogging, but feel free to continue commenting. Thank you and good night.
