State Of The Union Reflections

I found Obama did a lot of talking but in the end didn't say much (of the truth). I found it irritating that he chose four (or more, I lost count) ways of saying "it's all Bush's fault," an annoying ploy of "don't blame me." Another thing was his complete disregard for decorum, I found it uncouth for him to berating the Supreme Court decision right in front of the Justices and especially since he got it wrong.

....This time, Justice Alito shook his head as if to rebut the president’s characterization of the Citizens United decision, and seemed to mouth the words “not true.” Indeed, Mr. Obama’s description of the holding of the case was imprecise. He said the court had “reversed a century of law.”

The law that Congress enacted in the populist days of the early 20th century prohibited direct corporate contributions to political campaigns. That law was not at issue in the Citizens United case, and is still on the books. Rather, the court struck down a more complicated statute that barred corporations and unions from spending money directly from their treasuries — as opposed to their political action committees — on television advertising to urge a vote for or against a federal candidate in the period immediately before the election. It is true, though, that the majority wrote so broadly about corporate free speech rights as to call into question other limitations as well — although not necessarily the existing ban on direct contributions.

But this was a populist night and the target was irresistible. There are a variety of specific proposals floating around to address the Citizens United decision. The president offered no specifics and did not endorse any of them. Just as the decision doesn’t lend itself to a sound bite, neither do the fixes.

I was watching it with Obama supporter and she liked that he made a lot of jokes and liked how he told Congress "if you have better ideas I want to hear them" - to me it was empty words, to her it seemed like a show of his good character. Agree to disagree I guess. Also, let me be clear the g&t we made were delicious.