Obama’s “say anything” address

The State of the Union address to Congress is a presidential duty per Article II, Section Three of the Constitution. Obama fulfilled that duty Tuesday night in a literal sense; he delivered an address to Congress. But frankly, his speech was dull, uninspiring and said little about the state of the nation. He sounded more like he was on the campaign trail.

His was a politician’s speech meant for an audience of politicians, long on focus group rhetoric and short on vision and honesty. Obama delivered a vapid concoction of talking points and spin. He said nothing that he meant and meant nothing that he said, save the central theme of his oratory, that government growth and national prosperity are synonymous.

We should’ve expected nothing else. Obama won office via a campaign predicated upon change and immediately doubled-down on his predecessor’s worst decisions. He uttered lofty words about transparent government, an end to cronyism and the need for fiscal discipline. Instead we received a boatload of czars with unspecified powers and no public accountability and a healthcare bill that was debated, passed and signed into law without being read. Obama filled his staff with cogs from the Chicago machine, the Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs. He and the Democrats drove an already unseemly federal budget to levels that make the spendthrift Bush administration seem like the progeny of Ebenezer Scrooge and Jack Benny.

It wasn’t partisan bickering that voters rejected last fall. It was Obama and the Democrat agenda; make no mistake about it. Tuesday’s speech was his feeble attempt at image rehabilitation. But why believe him? Why trust him on any subject, even when his words may have sounded plausible?

Oh, he appeared Reaganesque when he spoke of American resilience, ingenuity and determination. Or did he? Actually, Obama sounded distant and unconvinced when addressing the nation’s attributes. He portrayed research, innovation and advancement as impossible dreams without government’s intervention, as if Americans are too lazy and stupid to achieve on their own.

He insinuated that voluntary exchange represented in the free market is insufficient to address the country’s future needs. Obama made it quite clear that we cannot be trusted to make the proper decisions, with “proper” defined as the choices our rulers in Washington prefer that we make. America’s greatness, therefore, is dependent on having an all-encompassing central government at its core.

The President alluded to his preference for “robust” debate. Yet that call rings as hollow as Nancy Pelosi’s cranium. Debate itself is fine, as long as his opponents eventually agree with him. However, there’s little common ground between Obama and conservatism. Obama considers government the answer to most every problem while conservatives find government the cause of most every problem. The two philosophies are polar opposites.

Tuesday evening was a microcosm of the Beltway culture, an evening long on political theatre, posturing and grandstanding. Obama’s speech attempted to employ Ronald Reagan public rapport to promote Lyndon Johnson policies. Instead he appeared hollow and disingenuous. The worst part was he wasn’t acting alone.

The Republican Party was entrusted with halting the Democrat assault on liberty, not taking them out on dates. Yet there they were, giddy as teenagers in a corner booth at the Norman Rockwell Memorial Malt Shop. The entire charade, if charade it be, was appalling. Frankly, I hope the prom night atmosphere was a false pretense; we've endured enough insipid displays of bipartisanship. Republicans were hired to stop the Democrat’s statist governance, not compromise with their collectivist vision.

The entire evening was a fraud, a detestable hoax presented to the American people as unity. The only believable promise was the central theme. Obama pledged government first, government last and government at all points in between. But more government cannot solve the problems government growth has created. Only liberty, tempered with a higher sense of personal morality and responsibility, can ease the burden this country bears.

Politicians are known to say anything, promise anything, and do anything. Obama is a politician, as are his Democrat colleagues and, I fear, too many Republicans. The only theme that can be trusted from Tuesday’s State of the Union Address is the call for greater federal control over our lives. Let us not be deceived by the disingenuous blather fomenting from Washington’s blind guides and demagogues, regardless of their party or position.

A line from a song of the 1970s sums up the situation pretty well: I’m tired of hypocrite freaks, tongues in their cheeks, turning their heads as they speak. They make me sick and tired.