What’s interesting in the news today?
1. Before we get to the obvious big one I’d like to remind everyone of something. Let’s look at the bright side. If past history is any indication, only 30% of what Obama promised last night stands a chance of actually happening. 🙂
From TheWashingtonTimes “Judging by his recent history, it doesn’t really matter what President Obama says in Tuesday’s State of the Union address — Congress is going to ignore him anyway.
Mr. Obama has the second-worst record of getting his State of the Union policy requests enacted into law of any president in the last five decades, according to an analysis by two scholars that puts him only above the unelected two-year presidency of Gerald Ford.
From 2009 through 2014, Mr. Obama issued 209 different calls for action from Congress in his speeches, but only saw lawmakers follow through on 64 of them — good for just 30 percent. That’s only slightly better than Mr. Ford’s 28 percent success rate, and is well below the likes of President Clinton, the previous Democratic president, who won 44 percent of his policies even though he faced a Congress more Republican than Mr. Obama has.”
And here’s a breakdown on the 112 SOTU promises he didn’t keep going into last night.
From Grabien “The media are already analyzing the new proposals President Obama is set to layout this evening in his sixth annual State of the Union address (seventh if you count his unofficial 2009 address). Here at Grabien, we’re also looking at results. Taking a look back at past SOTU promises, How many actually ever materialized?
The numbers aren’t pretty. From 2009 through 2014, we count 112 promises that to date remain unfulfilled.
We should also note that many of these promises are duplicated from one year to another. For example, every year he has pledged to pass comprehensive immigration reform, overhaul corporate taxes, reduce regulations, and close Guantanamo Bay.”
They have a list of them all, and a nice video montage at the link so you can see and hear them for yourself.
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2. Now unto last nights affair…..
Obama calls for civility, then isn’t.
From TheWashingtonTimes “President Obama spent much of Tuesday’s State of the Union calling for civility in politics — then taunted Republicans over his two election victories, after many of them applauded the looming end of his political career.
Mr. Obama issued a broad call for “a better politics” that began with common principles, and said his agenda isn’t political, pointing out “I have no more campaigns to run.””
“Mr. Obama’s two separate veto threats in his speech this year is tied for the most in any State of the Union going back at least a century. President George W. Bush also issued two veto threats in 2008, and President Clinton issued two in 1996.”
“But Mr. Obama’s threat may have been the broadest, with one of his threats covering everything from immigration to tweaking Obamacare to revamping the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms.”
He wants to work with Republicans, but only on his agenda. Not happening.
If you missed the speech, or just couldn’t take anymore, here’s the prepared transcript of his remarks.
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3. Is it just me, or was the Republican response as bad as I thought? Not so much the content as her delivery. Personally I thought Paul Ryan’s rebuttal on the Brett Baier show was much better than hers. I’ll find the video and post it later.
From APNews “Republicans controlling Congress will focus on people’s concerns about jobs and health care and steer the country away from President Barack Obama’s failed policies, the newly minted senator delivering her party’s official response to the State of Union address said Tuesday.
In remarks that mixed calls for bipartisan cooperation with a flexing of GOP independence, freshman Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, cited Americans’ worries about stagnant wages, lost jobs and canceled health care coverage. She called on Obama to cooperate with Republicans to simplify the tax code by lowering rates and eliminating unspecified loopholes, and to ease trade barriers with Europe and Asia.
“Americans have been hurting, but when we demanded solutions, too often Washington responded with the same stale mindset that led to failed policies like Obamacare,” Ernst, referring to Obama’s health care overhaul, said in excerpts from her speech released before its delivery. “It’s a mindset that gave us political talking points, not serious solutions.””
Here’s the Ryan “rebuttal.”
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4. Here’s more on Obama’s speech.
From TheDailyMail “Obama accused of class warfare: President with ‘no more campaigns to fight’ riles Republicans with State of the Union tax increases for the rich – to pay for laundry list of progressive proposals
- Annual State of the Union address to Congress included a defense of what aides have called a ‘leading from behind’ foreign policy that depends on coalitions and leaves America in a supporting role
- Major emphasis on growing the middle class – code for new taxes on the wealthy and expanded social programs
- House Ways and Means Committee chairman blasts ‘class warfare rhetoric’ of tax increases and says: ‘That’s not presidential’
- The GOP won stunning electoral victories in November but Obama is insistent on a my-way-or-the-highway package of proposals in the face of overwhelming Republican majorities
- Spin started early with claim about diminishing unemployment – as America’s job participation rate touches a 36-year low
- Obama threatened four times to veto legislation Republicans want to pass while insisting he wants ‘to work with this Congress’
- Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin turns on Obama, saying ‘in West Virginia, we just don’t do it that way’
- Tea Party firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz likened the president’s reliance on government programs to Saturday Night Live ‘More Cowbell’ sketch
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5. Uh-oh. Maybe this has something to do with the President not mentioning Al-Qaeda last night.
From Bloomberg “The U.S. government should immediately close and evacuate the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, according to Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
I asked her today whether the embassy, which remains open despite raging violence throughout the Yemeni capital, should be closed. She responded: “Based on what I know so far, yes.”
“I’m very concerned about our embassy there, who is still there, who isn’t still there, and what the plans are,” Feinstein added.
White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett said today on MSNBC that no decisions have been made on whether to close the embassy. A car carrying U.S. diplomatic personnel was fired on in Sana’a in a neighborhood away from the embassy. Houthi rebels, who control the much of the capital, have now reportedly taken over the presidential palace.
CNN reported today that the Pentagon has moved two warships, the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima and the dock landing craft Fort McHenry, into the area pre-emptively in case a request for an evacuation is made. So far, the State Department has not asked the military for assistance.”
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Wandering Views 
One of my godsons spent last year in Yemen working for an NGO food distribution program. He liked the people, hated the job. Because of the danger, they were confined to the feeding station, the unmarked vehicles getting them there and the hotel–where they could not go near the windows.
Dangerous place.
He’s 6’7″ tall and now works for another NGO in London–where he still doesn’t blend in!
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For once, I agree with Dianne Feinstein.
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I don’t have time to watch this right now, but it’s said to be a detox cure to last night’s speech for those in need:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/01/after-last-night-detoxify-here.php
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And there’s this review:
” … Obama declared: ‘The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong.’ In every relevant respect, on matters both foreign and domestic, a deep dishonesty permeated the speech. The crisis of BS hung heavy over every word, including ‘and’ and ‘the’ (to borrow Mary McCarthy’s formulation regarding Lillian Hellman). The crisis persists. …
” … Obama adds pettiness and vanity to his dishonesty. He presents the complete package. One might reflect, however, as war has been said to be the health of the state, Obama is the health of the Republican Party. …”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/01/this-crisis-persists.php
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And there was this from the Fox News page headline (which labeled it essentially a “tax-and-spend” speech):
IF THERE WERE ANY DOUBTS that President Obama, seen above with House Speaker Boehner at last night’s State of the Union address, has moved beyond trying to tackle the $18 trillion national debt, his speech should put them to rest — he’s over it.
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On modern-day State of the union speeches:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/asking-more-from-the-next-state-of-the-union-address/384687/
” … But how does anyone treat the State of the Union as an elevated work of intellectual integrity when it is better thought of as the political analog of a Don Draper pitch?
“This was not Barack Obama constructing a nuanced argument or leveling with us about how he assesses the United States. It was a poll-tested, agenda-driven attempt to sway public opinion, often with language that sacrificed logic to emotion. Maybe that’s politically inescapable. My intention isn’t to condemn Tuesday’s speech for being compromised in the same way as every SOTU I’ve ever seen. But neither should journalists ignore the glaring weaknesses these speeches exhibit, even if that does require pointing out similar flaws year after year. …”
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I have thought about how to describe president Obama, one word… How about “Democrat”. To me, they all pretty much sound alike.
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