We Three Speeches

I'm not gonna go deep here on the three political speeches given tonight, so if you're looking for that glance over to the right side of the page and click one of the political blogs.  They'll be better than me.

Let's start with the headliner - President Obama's State of the Union Address.  Pretty positive, really liked where his head is at.  Despite what the right or the left want you to believe about him, I voted the man into office two years ago because I thought he was a centrist.  And that dude showed up tonight, hitting up both what comes next and why it needs to some next.  The vision is to create a new America based investment in practical innovation leading to growth and structuring infrastructure and government institutions, but at the same time addressing our weaknesses including the debt and spending.  Now can he pull that off?  I don't know - tough to control spending when you don't hold the purse as Maddow is reminding me over my shoulder as I type this.  But it was a really good, really centrist speech that broadly addressed how we need to go forward, and the boy had his game face on.

Before I move on, just one more thing: he had some great liners in this one:  "Be a teacher.  Your country needs you."  Gays in the military right into allowing ROTC/recruiters on college campuses - that was a Paul Pierce drive into a fadeaway jumper right there.  Reforming the tax code.  Reforming the structure of government - DAMN.  He's dreaming big.

The official Republican Response by Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan was, well, sobering.  I don't want to call him a buzzkill, but he did a good job reiterating that the debt is going to be a big monkey to get off our backs, and it's gonna be on there for awhile.  And while I like the new Obama "future," Paul Ryan made sure to hammer home that the debt is a serious issue we're going to have a tough ride getting to that future.  So in context, reasonable rebuttal.  Only trick is, by itself it's got some serious issues.  I still didn't hear any substantive ideas beyond "repeal health care," which isn't enough and was very limited in scope.  And then there was the apocalyptic economic fairy tale Ryan fed to America's children as they were getting tucked in - good to see that the GOP isn't tried of riding that fearmongering pony yet (you would think the poor horse would have seen greener pastures by now).  Seriously, chill out dude.

And then there was the other response.  Apparently CNN was the only network to carry Rep. Michelle Bachmann's Tea Party response (thanks again, Rachel), and I just happened to watch it on there live.  And you know, really all it did was reinforce my belief that the Tea Party isn't really a political party at all - it's a fad.  So we're gonna talk just about the debt and spending, I got that over the past year of your noisemaking.  At least the GOP and Rep. Ryan addressed that both parties in many Congresses and presidencies over many decades have caused out debt via our growing spending problems, but like so many who have jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon in the past year or so (including Bachmann), they have a problem being selective whith their histories.  Bachmann made that case that all of the peachy awsomeness and fiscal responsibility that occured during the G.W. Bush presidency was thrown to the wind when Obama came to office, and thats why we have this huge debt to dig out of now.  Man.  I just hate people with revisionist histories.  Especially if they're crazy.  Like Michelle Bachmann.

So yeah.  Go read up more from the reliable blogs on the right.  Or turn on the TV to the cable news networks and listen to the talking heads because they're always right.  Always.