The other night, as I watched the State of the Union address, my mind began to wander to more important upcoming events, notably the centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birth. Frankly, watching President Obama go on, and on, and on, I think all of us got a little taste of what it’s like to feel 100 years old.
Tuesday’s speech was yet another reminder of President Reagan’s greatest gifts. You see, there is a tendency of Ronald Reagan imitators to believe that the power of a speech has to do with soaring rhetoric, voice inflection, head tilts and demeanor, and the practiced turning of the head in tune with the teleprompter. On Tuesday we were reminded that substance, subject, and circumstance count, too.
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At a time when the very survival of our nation hangs in the balance for future generations, we saw leadership incapable of playing anything more than small ball. It is hard to inspire the American people to great things if what you’re asking them to do is repair the tile on the bathroom floor of Suite 6204 of the Titanic. Obama actually made Clinton’s school-uniform program sound like the Marshall Plan. While some people were struck by the president’s reference to Sputnik, I thought it served as yet another reminder that we’ll be lucky if we can borrow enough money from the Chinese to buy a good telescope so we can watch their moon landing.
What else are we to take away from the speech?
We can still reduce the deficit by spending more money. All you have to do is call the spending “investment.” Then it doesn’t cost anything. Look for taxpayers’ next major “investment” to be the states of California or Illinois.
More investment in innovation, education, and infrastructure! Now why hasn’t someone thought of that before? I actually think this is a good opportunity for us to strengthen our ties with China. Perhaps they’d like to “invest,” which will then give them a much clearer and easier path to steal the innovation and buy the infrastructure.
Now that he’s locked in a spending rate 20 percent higher than when he was sworn in, Obama is willing to freeze the budget. In other words, “I’ve got what I want and I’m willing to keep it.” And we said Democrats weren’t willing to make sacrifices.
He’s all for fixing Social Security so long as current recipients, future recipients, past recipients, and no one else in the United States or any of its provinces will be affected. Everybody else will be called upon to make modest sacrifices.
We should put prior legislative battles that the president has won behind us and move on (i.e., health care). On the other hand we should never miss the opportunity to pick the scab when it comes to legislative battles the president has lost (i.e., tax cuts). Those “Top-2-Percenters” are our enemy and we must never forget.
But in all seriousness, was it too much to ask for one honest statement about the most pressing challenge that our nation has faced since World War II?
— Fred Thompson was the U.S. senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003.
Senator Thompson, well stated. About the POTUS's SOTUA you question, "in all seriousness, was it too much to ask for one honest statement about the most pressing challenge that our nation has faced since World War II?" The answer is???........Yes!!!
How Obama might have faced other great challenges in our nation's history
Obama's Gettysburg Address: On page 375 of his 527 page address he states, "...and furthermore..." and continues on with the remainder of the address.
Obama's address to Congress following the attack on Pearl Harbor, "...this day may live on in infamy, depending on what the commission I'm establishing finds out about this alleged attack on our ships purportedly by planes of the Empire of Japan..."
Obama's 1960 inaugural speech, "...ask what your government can do for you, not what you can do by yourself..."
Obama's I Have A Dream speech, "...I AM the other side of the mountain..."
Ahhhh, the possibilities are endless....as are his speeches!
With Captain Obama in charge, it's more like rearranging seating on the Titanic even though a majority of the passengers are screaming about the iceberg in plain view while the Captain exclaims, "Iceberg? I don't see any Iceberg. Oh wait, yes, maybe there's one way, way out there, but we can deal with that later."
The only iceberg the President sees in his way is the Republican majority in the House.We have a President who presumes to know when you have earned enough,who believes that only those who provide what he deems good products and services should keep on making them and who has determined that the role of the American entrepreneurs is not to pursue their own self interest but to fill their core responsibility as dutiful growers of the collective economy.We are through the looking glass and the vision of the annointed in Washington with their regulation,subsidies and entitlement legislation says it's business as usual.
Hey Fred Thompson: Rather than complaining about Obama perhaps you can DO something about him. Declare yourself a candidate for 2012 and run like you mean it this time.
I was hoping to vote for you in the primary but you in the primary but you had dropped out by the time it got to NJ. I wound up voting for Romney. Let's just say that in the general election, I voted against Obama.
I, for one, like the idea of investing in California and Illinois.
Assuming this literal means that I get to buy stock in the state that entitles me and my fellow shareholders, and no one else, to vote on how these states are managed.
California and Illinois remain rich in assets, which are presently being so horribly mismanaged that a new CEO elected by the shareholders could not help but do better, and thereby give me an impressive return on my investment.
Alas, as much as I enjoyed reading this tidbit from FT, it just reminds what a mistake he made by dropping out of the race in 2008 and what a mistake Republicans made in not nominating this common-sense, Federalist Papers-friendly man to be the GOP nominee against Obamination.
Stevem:
Your comment makes no sense. How do schools make money by a foreigner spending X tuition money over a citizen spending X in tuition money? The number is still X.
They very rarely pay out of state tuition, as most states grant residency after less than a year. I went to grad school in IN which requires you to live there for 1 year w/o going to school to qualify for instate. And what they would do with many foreign PHD candidates was to get them over 1 year early and give them a job so they could pay in-state. So I was paying out of state (am from another US state) while people from China were paying in-state tuition.
The MBA program near where I went to school bragged about having a 41% foreign student body. Other programs valued high numbers of foreigners as well.
Mr. Senator, my first time here at NR. Your column, the FDT I remember. I've seen your TV commercial. Clearly, you are fit enough for 2012 should you choose to do so.
"President Thompson," a solid sound to that.
We can still reduce the deficit by spending more money. All you have to do is call the spending “investment.” Then it doesn’t cost anything. Look for taxpayers’ next major “investment” to be the states of California or Illinois.
