How to view the speech!

Tuesday-January 25, 2011

How to view the Speech!

“He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Article II, section 3 of the U.S. Constitution


Tonight, the president will deliver his second State of the Union Speech to the nation. Every time I have listened to a State of the Union, I want to be inspired. I have heard some great speeches in the past, by both a Republican and Democratic President.

We should not have to view a speech of this kind with the perspective of - is this speech going to remake this Presidency? Some Presidents have remade their presidency with this type of speech. Clinton did it and Carter tried to. Nixon had no choice and George W. Bush gave eight of them and only two needed the talk, because he had to walk the walk.

This President will demonstrate how he has moved to the center. This President has no choice but to do so. This President will invoke the platitudes that we look for and he will do a fine job of it. This President will make political points by introducing two victims of the shooting in Arizona, an aide of Gabrielle Gifford’s and young Christina’s parents.

This president has the capacity to do great things, but he can’t, because he will, in his own way, tell us that we need government. He will, in his own way, make us all victims of greed and victims of a system that is broken. This President will do his level best to blame others for the deficit and the great recession. This president will do his level best to make us feel as if he has delivered and has rescued this country from the failures of the past.

This President has now been in office for two years and five days. With every speech, we are told that it will remake his presidency. We have been told that this president is above the others. Last week, the Vice President said this President is the best we have had since Roosevelt. Shouldn’t we become suspect when this president needs to remake his presidency every time he speaks? This should be the speech that we now start to question!

This President will tell us that we still need to invest, but that we need to be selective in what we invest in. He will tell us that the poor and the aged should not go without food. He will tell us that the poor and the aged will now have health insurance, because of his great capacity to lead. The President will tell us that we need to invest in education and infrastructure. We need to invest in green technology and that we need to bring jobs home. This president will tell us that he will now focus on job creation, because the road to a better America has been paved to do just that.

This President will not talk about failure, he will talk about success and, while he will work with the other side, we should not forget that the damage has been done. This president is responsible. Just last year, this President said, in his State of the Union address, that we need to create jobs and that is the way out of recession. In the year that has since passed, we still have a 9.8% unemployment rate. Companies are still laying off people instead of hiring. We have spent over a trillion dollars in stimulus money and the government cannot account for the permanent jobs that they say have been created.

The questions that we should be asking this president are: are we safer, are we better off, are we more secure and are we freer and are we stronger?

While the job picture is still bleak, he will talk about the challenges abroad. Iran is closer now than ever before to getting the bomb and will fill the vacuum in the Gulf region when we leave Iraq in a few short months. Oil is going up and our energy needs are now being eclipsed by China, who is growing, because they are creating the jobs we have let them have. On these issues this President will speak of the joint cooperation that he created with the Chinese leader last week. This president will challenge oil prices by saying we need wind to power our houses and batteries to run our cars. This President will tell us that a nuclear Iran will not stand.

Tonight, this President will tell us that he has been a success. Tonight, we will hear about how the world is safer because America is now stronger.

Tonight, view the speech with an open mind and then tomorrow question what he said and look for the proof of his success.

Gregory C. Dildilian
Founder and Executive Director
Pinecone Conservatives

A footnote: This year the President will be challenged on many policy matters. He will be tested this year not only on the domestic front but also on the foreign policy front. Words alone do not make a presidency.