The Divided State of the Union

Ok, I'll admit it! I only watched about 10 minutes of President Obama's "State of the Union" speech last night and listened to about 5 minutes of it on the radio. Also, I tuned in and out of WI Rep. Paul Ryan's rebuttal. I did watch most of the "Tea Party Express" address given by MI Rep. Michele Bachmann, which was NOT broadcast on FOX, but on CNN. It seemed that FOX News distanced themselves from Bachmann's speech which was too bad, since Bachmann's struck me as the most genuine and hopeful of the addresses.

I read through the Wall Street Journal transcript of what President Obama had to say and it just seemed incredibly recycled. The usual "spending on infrastructure, paying down the national debt, pathway to citizenship for illegals", etc. Even when he comes across as being "hopeful", it just struck me as disingenuous and really lacking inspiration.

I will give equal criticism to the Republican response by Rep. Paul Ryan, which, while it contained some fundamentally good ideas, the delivery of the response came across as highly scripted and insincere.





On the subject of Michele Bachmann's address, her speech was the crowning jewel of the evening. She delivered a hopeful and inspirational message, which was NOT broadcast in it's entirety on most of the networks or on FOX News. CNN, on the other hand, did broadcast the speech, which was immediately criticized and rebutted by their political analysts, Ronald Martin and anchor John King. Over at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow criticized CNN for carrying the Bachmann speech, but of course, Rachel Maddow is much more "enlightened" than the rest of the media World, so it seemed suitable.

I may not agree with Mrs. Bachmann or some of her politics, nor am I a fan of "The Tea Party Express", which is an offshoot of the ORIGINAL Tea Party, founded by Ron Paul supporters in 2008, I do feel that her message was the most optimistic, hopeful and underrated of the evening. The Tea Party Express intended the message to serve as a complement to Rep. Ryan's remarks not an alternative to Ryan's speech as much of the mainstream media had sold it as. While I am more politically inclined to support Rep. Ryan, I view this as a missed opportunity to challenge a lackluster speech given by a slightly vulnerable President. While the message was there, the delivery fell short of expectations. We shall see how this plays out as we officially enter the 2012 Election season.