Duffy has a confession to make. He did not watch the State of the Union address last week. He figures he sees enough of Obama nearly every day appearing on some news show, late night comedian show or as on Saturday both him and the Vice President, Joe Biden, taking in the Duke - Georgetown basketball game. I fully expect to see him on cable hawking the latest $19.95 wonder gadget soon. I guess when the economy is in serious trouble with unemployment at 10% the president and vice president can knock off from work and catch a basketball game. I'm sure the secret service just loves the Prez and Veep sitting together in a large public venue. Duffy wonders whether Obama is as big a narcissist as Bill Clinton. One hopes not.
Anyway, Duffy did read everything he could about the State of Union speech both pro and con and watched some clips on You Tube. The thing that struck ole' Duf is that on one hand he says Americans are angry with "Washington" which I assume he means mostly Congress but on the other hand the solution to the problems lies with........"Washington". The unstated premise seems to be that if the American people would just let the Democratic controlled Congress do their work, i.e. pass the Obama agenda, then everything would be alright eventually. But why the anger? Because the Republicans are fighting Obama and Pelosi tooth and nail against the Health Reform bill that would bring one sixth of the economy under federal control? The American people have already seen what happened with a $787 billion stimulus bill that hasn't exactly stimulated anything. The takeover of Chrysler and GM that bought off the UAW. The people looked hard at a "cap and trade" system that supposedly would increase costs on American business of over a $trillion and "solve" a global warming problem that many people don't think exists. The people are wary of proposed legislation on immigration that would enable 12 million illegal immigrants to become citizens without paying a price. You bet the American people are angry and wary of future Obama agenda items engineered by Pelosi Democrats from the Northeast and California. Finally to insult the Supreme Court when six of the members were seated in front of him is the rankest of bad manners. You can bet there will be even fewer or no Supreme Court judges next year at his State of the Union speech.
Obama went to a Republican conclave in Baltimore and agreed somewhat to "listen to their concerns" but I don't think he really meant it or that Republicans really believe him. If he doesn't listen to Republicans and Pelosi doesn't bring them into creating legislation then nothing will change and gridlock will continue.
Duffy now believes that Obama, who claims to be a pragmatist, is really a hard left ideologue that fully intends to move the federal government more into people's lives to solve "problems' that a lot of folks don't perceive to be problems at all. Moreover, he doesn't seem to be able to stand up to the Pelosi Democrats who are still scheming to jam a health reform bill through without Republican votes. Mr. Obama seems to do a good job of sounding tough, but rarely acts tough. He is seen more and more by the American people as a weak president who can't and won't stand up to the far left ideologues in his own party.
The Massachusetts election brought out in the open in the bluest of all states a massive repudiation of Obama policies most especially his health reform bill, and should be a clear and loud wake up call to Mr. Obama and Mrs. Pelosi that they have to change direction. Duffy doubts that Mrs. Pelosi, who seems to be living in a parallel universe, will "get it" while Obama will "get it" but will he do anything about it? We'll see.....
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