Wednesday a.m. soap box

President Obama addressed the country in what is the equivalent to the State of the Union Address last night (Presidents do not give State of the Union Addresses in their first year in office).

Since taking office, the President has been less than optimistic in his addresses and press conferences, and in response, the stock market has plunged. The only relief that the market has received in the last 2 weeks was yesterday, when Fed Chair Ben Bernanke gave hope, saying that the economy could begin turning around as early as the end of this year. Even President Clinton took note of the current President's gloomy tone, and advised him to be a little more positive in his remarks to Congress last night.

I'll be honest, I did not watch President Obama's speech last night. I studied instead. President Obama is a great orator, as everyone knows, and I figured that I could extract more of the speech's substance by reading it. Plus, I did not think I could handle watching Nancy Pelosi in the background. I'm sure she was more pleasant this year than last year when she blinked her eyes uncontrollably throughout President Bush's speech, likely trying to fight back the mounting rage with each word he spoke. On that note, I have to say that State of the Union Addresses are completely ridiculous from the standpoint of the joint Congress. The President's political party gives standing ovations every time they hear something they like, while the opposing party attempts to look like they would rather sit through a 7-hour lecture on the topic of dirt than listen to the President. A couple years ago, cameras even caught Hillary sleeping. It's partisanship at its finest.

Just a few comments on the speech:

• The speech was almost entirely about the economy -- and rightly so. Obviously, that is the topic at the forefront of our nation's problems right now. He briefly focused on health care, energy & education. However, he barely mentioned the two wars that we are fighting, which is worth noting.
• The President uttered the word crisis 11 times -- I actually thought the count would be higher, but then again, he has received plenty of advice lately to lay off the negative talk.
• "That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort – because nobody messes with Joe." Yes, he asked Vice-president Joe to be in charge of administering the stimulus bill passed 2 weeks ago. In a news interview this morning, Joe was "embarrassed" because he couldn't remember the web-site of the project he's overseeing: http://www.recovery.gov/. Yeah, that is a tough one...
• I like that he calls for education reform that includes performance incentives for teachers, and that parents need to do a better job of teaching their children at home.
• "I’m proud that we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks, and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar we spend reflects only our most important national priorities." This is completely laughable. So the $30 million for harvest mice in San Francisco courtesy of Pelosi, and the $8 billion for light rail from LA to Vegas for Reid...if not earmarks, what are those?
• "But let me perfectly clear, because I know you’ll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime." Mr. President, you're not on the campaign trail anymore, so stop the campaign promises. If you're not going to raise taxes for those of us making <$250,000, how are you going to pay for the trillions of dollars of national debt? Tax the rich until they are poor?

Overall, the public is apparently pleased with what they heard last night. (Or are they just pleased with the way he said it?) I am glad that he kept a more positive tone; however, the stock market is back down again today.

Following the President's speech, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal gave the GOP response. Many are calling on Jindal to run for President in 2012. If he did, and won the GOP nomination, we would have an African-American vs. and Indian-American. Wouldn't that be something?

Edit: I almost forgot this one: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it." Last I checked, the automobile was invented in Germany.