The President's State of the Union Address was ordinary
Ana and I made it a point to sit at the Belmont on La Cienega and watch the State of the Union speech. Most everybody else at the Belmont watched the Laker game. Maybe we should have. The speech is not a game changer. It was rhetoric. The Democrats have been in charge for a year and can't even get the exclusions provisions in health insurance changed. Why should anybody take the head of that party seriously? Oh I do. I am a big fan. I mean this. I voted for him. I liked his rhetoric. I also like his direction. I just think he has been betrayed by his party hacks in the Congress and they are making him a joke. Unfortunately. Obama is no wrangler like LBJ who can bend and twist the Senate till it looks like a pretzel but one with an edible bill. No, he's no LBJ, right Doris Kearns Goodwin? But he's a good man. He just trusted the place where his hope went to die.
In fact, when we looked around, we realized that, besides our waiter, the bartender, we were the only ones watching the speech, reading the closed caption.
Later that night when we watched the talking heads on the cable channels it occurred to me that they were so out of touch with the speech even the most astute observers did not see it was a failure. They talked about the politics but nothing had changed. It was a big let down.
I like Barack Obama. He went to Columbia. I went to Columbia. He's a Lion. I just don't see why he doesn't have more of a roar for our economy--a little something that gives people more change in their pockets than hope in their hearts.
He sees that people are hurting. More and more businesses are closing up. The commercial real estate crisis is only beginning to hit. Money is disappearing from circulation, making everyone poor. It is the number one issue on people's minds.
Yet, the president spent barely a few sentences on what government was going to do to address the economic issue affecting people now. He said he would ask Congress to immediately put a jobs bill on his desk to sign--but assuming it gets done it will take another year at least for full effect--and based on this first jobs bill, so much extra long-term spending was added, everybody ended up feeling ripped off for the number of actual jobs created for nearly a trillion dollars.
“Mitt Romney, the anti-christ of the environmental movement, understands that in the short run we should free up business,” I kept telling Ana. "He needs to cut payroll taxes. He needs to put money in people's pockets."
He talked about a jobs bill, tax credit for new hires, getting small community banks to lend. These are all good forms of rhetoric. But, really, sir, get your party to pass something that works. Don’t let them be thick and ordinary.
But what people will really need to hear now is whether job losses have been reversed. This isn't something he can really help. These dominos were set in motion years ago. It is responsibility to pick up the pieces, though. I think he needs to cut spending more. I think he needs to put more money in people's pockets.
The economic issues are larger than the president. They are larger than Congress. A jobs bill will be a good thing, especially as he has a long-range vision for the nation. That long-range vision with plenty of green energy is important. But his road is a hard one. He's a good guide. But he didn't offer much real change now, just a chest full of quick dissipating hope among the people. You hear it everywhere.
