Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address

I think Obama made a powerful speech - he was a great leader tonight. However, he needs to walk the walk as well as he talks the talk. He needs to realize that Nancy Pelosi is much more of a threat to his presidency than John Boehner. Hopefully he now understands what happens to his initiatives if his own party walks all over the opposition - he gets "bills we can't believe in."

If he can deliver on his promise of bipartisanship, if he can make that happen as a leader, then he will go down in history as a great president – the first great president since Ronald Reagan.

The Republican response was tepid, but better tepid than rabid. There seemed to be some effort to recognize the numerous areas President Obama mentioned where bipartisan cooperation is feasible. Republicans should immediately try to bring to the floor bills on each and every issue where Obama's vision coincides with limited government, civil rights (including those of homosexuals), individual liberty (including that of pregnant women) and national security, which includes energy independence, reductions in our military presence around the world, border control, immigration enforcement, environmental protection, and fiscal conservatism.

Let's see a Republican introduce a funding bill to start building modern, nuclear power plants. Let's see immediate action to enable offshore drilling to get us through until those nuclear power plants, solar plants, and wind farms come online. Let's see a national energy grid renewal project, of the scope and scale of the interstate highway program, to get ready for distributing that new power.

Let's see bills with the incentives Obama mentioned for small business and community banking. Let's see regulation to break up or eliminate any business institution which is "too big to fail." Any such entity is a clear threat to the American people and to democracy itself.

In short, Republicans have been handed a list of items which the President has told the American people he is willing to move forward on. They should jump at the opportunity to either 1) get some real work done for the American people or 2) prove to everyone that “Obama is a sweet-talking liar.” Either way, the Republicans will win big in 2012, potentially taking back both the House and the Senate, and, in the later case, likely taking back the presidency.

These Republican initiatives must be clear, immediate, and resolute. Americans are tired of dissent – they want leadership. Republicans should stop wasting their time trying to knock down Obama. They should get on with the work we sent them to Washington to do. And if the Republicans don’t put forth an effort to take Obama at his word and meet him halfway, then I for one will say, “Yes, he may be a liar, but you are a do-nothing leech on the body of America.”

David

Deflation or Inflation

Some say the bubble will deflate,
Some predict inflation.
From what I've heard on debt of late
I hold with those who say "deflate."
But to steal the soul of our nation,
And bring about her sure defeat
To destroy the middle class inflation
Can be discreet
With no salvation.

David W. Rogers
(with apologies to Robert Frost)