State of the Union Address

I've always respected President Obama for his speaking and his leadership. That's part of a lesson my parents have taught me over and over again: You don't have to respect the person, but you must respect the position. And while I normally don't agree with everything Mr. Obama says, in some ways I felt that he was more neutral when it came to picking sides on some issues.

He started and ended strong. That is the sign of a very good speech writer; starting with speaking for our troops and ending with the same with a little of Bin Laden thrown in at the end to get us all feeling patriotic. It seemed that there was a lot of times where he seemed to be talking to the service people of our nation such as the military, police force, firefighters, and things of the sort. Which I feel like is a great thing, they deserve the credit, but it felt like he was going down a checklist all night.

This is a re-election year. And for him to bring up things that will get everybody to agree was part of the idea. Such as bringing troops home. This is an idea that is supported by all military families that have troops overseas, no matter political party. The entire night it felt like his speech went down a checklist of what to make sure he needs to cover in order for the people to know what he is thinking on the subjects that the GOP candidates have been talking for what seems like forever now.

One thing that I think really stuck out for me is the college tuition idea. I know it stuck out because I know that's my next stage in life. I have worked my butt of doing everything I can to get into the school of my dreams with a reasonable scholarship and he implies that higher education is a right? No. You have to choose to want to go the extra mile now if you want to succeed in life. Things like this is what will put in peoples mind that when something is too hard, here comes the government to save the day. But that's enough ranting on that.

One interesting comment I think he made made me think of how our language changes. He used the actually term “gay verses straight”. Now I don't have a problem with that but I can't help but feel that a few years ago, a president would not have dared use that type of slang that is now so widely accepted.

One of the things I really agreed on him with was the idea to essentially redesign the legislative branch. Something were doing is obvously now working, and fixing all the crazy hoops anything has to jump through to make a difference is a good idea. While on thing I disagree with was his comment that our nation is not declining. We looked up the debt clock in history last week, that was not a sign of any sort of nation that is doing anything but declining.

But overall I believe he did a very good job. Avoided anything that could really offend people, went down the re-election checklist very efficiently, and made some very interesting points; now all we need is a good bit of action.