If I had any smarts I would have watched Seinfeld reruns… instead of watching the President’s State of the Union address. Maybe I would have caught the episode of the Soup Nazi, who was much less contentious. But there I was, sitting through 65 minutes of lofty platitudes, false proposals and divisive rhetoric. Ok, I’ll admit he has mastered the art of public speaking (especially with a teleprompter) and can be convincing. But we don’t need a ShamWow salesman; we have a country to save.
The man was angry and his tone was combative. It was like he was trying to channel the spirit of Newt Gingrich’s attitude of righteous indignation from last week’s debate. Why not? It propelled the Speaker to win the South Carolina primary in convincing fashion… a comeback the President could use as he campaigns for a second term.
I’m hoping Newt is not the nominee but give him credit for using brilliant political gamesmanship in a flawless putdown of the mainstream media. And let’s not forget to thank CNN’s John King for choosing to kick off the debate and embarrass the man in front of a national television audience with the ex-wife open marriage question. Any potential damage was thwarted by the speaker’s masterful rebuff. It was doubly effective because South Carolina’s voters, a large swath of Evangelical Christians, made it clear that they loathe media bias more than they loathe the sin of adultery and divorce. That they can forgive… Poor Mitt Romney, his frontrunner status dwindling, didn’t stand a chance.
This is the same media described by pundit and author Bernard Goldberg as having “a slobbering love affair” (the actual title of his book) with the President. Obama continues to get a pass on a first term of failed economic policies, vast entitlement strategies and a continuing dialogue of dividing Americans along class lines and calling for wealth redistribution amid flawed tax policy. As Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels who delivered the official GOP response said it best “No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others.”
It’s more evident that, sadly, the concept of two Americas is becoming reality more each day. If you also tuned in to the President’s speech this week and are following the blood sport that is American politics, you have to wonder if the Civil War will be re-enacted. Only this time the roles and players are reversed. In 1860, we had a Republican President (Abraham Lincoln) and a solidly Democratic South. Today we have a President who is a Democrat and a solid base of Republicans in the South, a bastion of conservative thought, Judeo-Christian values and what used to be known as the Protestant work ethic.
Obviously, the “State” of that Union was very fragile. The State of this Union is becoming the same, despite the fact the President believes that America is on the right track and anyone that says the country is in decline doesn’t know what they are talking about. Really? Tell that to the one in five men of prime working age, and nearly half of all persons under 30, who did not go to work today. He blames the fat- cat high wage earners who are not paying their fair share of taxes that has the country in a precarious mess. Obama even tried citing a belief from Lincoln: That Government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more. He certainly doesn’t govern by that premise nor can he really believe it. He espouses BIG government – translating to out-of-control spending, high taxes and massive regulation.
Contrary to the President's constant disparagement of people in business, it's one of the noblest of human pursuits. In bizarre fashion, it seems that he doesn’t like people who work hard to succeed and embrace American capitalism. You can be sure when Obama stated that anyone who makes 1 million a year should have a minimum tax rate of 30%; he had Mitt Romney in his crosshairs. Romney had just released his tax returns that day and “only” paid $3 million on $21 million of income, a tax rate of 15%, the legal amount on investment income known as capital gains. It became a rallying cry for the confused masses, many of whom pay no income tax at all. But it doesn’t begin to tell the real story.
We are surely at a crossroads in America when a guy like Romney, a successful businessman paid 15% on capital gains after being taxed initially at a 35% corporate rate when he first earned the money. He would get hit another 55% on estate taxes should he die tomorrow. He also gives $3 million (over $7 million in two years) to his church and charity. Talk show host Dennis Miller said it best: “Somehow he (Romney) is the problem… while Time magazine’s person of the year was the “protester”, the guy who takes a dump on the squad car down on Wall Street as part of the Occupy movement”.
Maybe it’s time to conduct ourselves in true Howard Beale fashion (from the movie Network)… go to our windows, open them and yell “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” That seems to be the only way to get attention in this mad world we Occupy.
