Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Obama Speaks: Country Yawns

    The much hyped State of the Union address by Pres. Obama was light on plans and light on results.  The President's staff had given excerpts of the speech to the press days in advance.  This served many purposes: it watered down surprise; it gave the GOP opportunity to ready a response; it clipped the media reaction; it put USA watchers abroad at ease over concerns of a possible departure from current paths of Foreign Policy.
      The operative watchword was Middleclass.  The President wanted to assure the much-vaunted middleclass  that they have not been forgotten.  He praised the Affordable Health care Act for its addition of 10 million newly insured Americans.  He asked for tax increases on the wealthy to fund tax breaks for middleclass wage earners and homeowners.  He hardly touched on foreign policy except to say we will continue to assist our friends and allies who are confronting aggressive terrorists in the Middle East and Western Europe.
    So, essentially, it was a feel good moment for the Pres.  He has one more SOUS event in January, 2016.

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