THE EMPEROR WHO WORE NO CLOTHES--- ??

The State of the Union Address was the hottest ticket in Washington town last Tuesday night, and President Obama, staggering under massive problems,  knocked it out of the park ---if only words were deeds,  soaring rhetoric were based on accomplishments, and poor little 'ole secretaries were not exploited as victims of the nasty, rich Republicans. Think about it---how much salary would it take for the secretary of Warren Buffet, who sat like a commoner next to the regal Michelle Obama, to be making enough money to pay less tax than  her boss??  About 150 "thou"--- and not likely. Shame on Warren Buffet for perpetrating this ruse on the American people, and Obama for using it as the center piece for his speech, and the opening shot for his election campaign, which should be called  ' Obama is my name, and class warfare is my game. You might call this the State of the Union---I call it " hard ball", the Chicago way.' It was a great show of bravado in the face of low approval for performance ratings, few noteworthy accomplishments, and an anxious administration wondering how they will fare in the upcoming election." Give 'Em  The Old Razzle Dazzle"  could have been the opening number.

The theatre of the absurd continued during the speech with talk of giving everyone a "fair shot", how well the country is doing, and will be doing,  if only the Republicans would stop obstructing everything. Never mind that they have sent numerous bills to the Senate only to have them completely rebuffed. House majority leader, John Boehner looked like he had been forced into the principle's office and made to sit behind him as he berated all things Republican.. Biden apparently was there just in case Boehner couldn't take it anymore, and tried to walk out, or passed out from the verbal beating his party took.

No mention, of course, was given to the actual state of affairs, which is dismal. Our union hasn't been this troubled and divided in a very long time. Our economy is hardly doing well, with a slight growth rate of 2.8% but there are grave worries about sustainability, with millions of people still out of work, and the housing situation reporting the worst, this past year , of any in recorded history. The budget crisis has never been solved, and is now at 16 plus trillion.  The tax payers' money, to the tune of 130 billion, which funded the president's stimulus programs has largely failed, and continues with poor investments in energy companies like Solyndra,  and yet another bankrupted energy company, called Enter One.  Nothing was mentioned about fixing Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, the real, core problems which must be addressed if ever we are to free ourselves of our drowning financial situation. And interestingly, Obama barely mentioned his very unpopular healthcare program--- presumably because it too, will add only more debt burden to all of us.

But regardless, our president seems to have his mojo back.  He likes a good fight, and he's never better than when he can talk the talk of a man who seems to consider himself almost emperor like, with his swagger, wise, defiant tones of voice, and direct, stern glares into the eyes of the American people.  Will they buy it this time? Or will they finally ask themselves what it is he's selling? Do we really want the kind of America he envisions? Do we even know what he really envisions? One can frighteningly guess by looking at his past history, his associations, and his mentors, which include  Jeremiah Wright, the  angry pastor of Obama's long attended church, and author of the memorable words, "God damn America", Saul Alinsky, the radical  left wing godfather of community organizing, and Bill Ayers, the unapologetic,  x-weatherman underground terrorist.

Obama's words of "fairness" are meant to identify with the occupiers' grievances and garner votes from those who want to believe that somehow if we keep blaming others, and asking those who have much to give more and more to those who have less,  that they and the country will be better off..  It  does not seem to work that way---never has, never will. For even if all the very rich gave all they had, it would only make a dent in our financial woes, and eventually the entitlement state would run out of money. But  Utopia is a dream that plays well to the masses--and so it  lives on. What happens, when we can no longer afford ourselves??  Will that be "fair', or just another failed experiment in governance that finally reached its tipping point and failed as many others have?

Yes, the speech was a home run---if it were baseball.  But it wasn't---it was the beginning of a very contentious and important election season.  Too bad the president of the United States couldn't have used it to, as it was originally intended--- report the actual facts, and try to bring us together in order to make us unitedly strong and focused on reality.  He could have listed his actual accomplishments, along with his failures without appearing a failure. We would have at least respected, instead of suspected the motives of this very charming politician, but less than great or effective president.  But what we saw Tuesday night, as he worked the distinguished room and basked in the applause and admiration of his constituents was a man who still induces and experiences the magic that swept him into office--that undefinable quality that engenders adoration, respect, and a sort of Kennedy-eque worship. But to many, the speech that followed lacked credibility in that it looked like a strut and sounded like a toast---to himself, but without substance.  The facts are that the economy is still extremely fragile, the people have lost confidence, and the future is very cloudy at best. We have not come back yet. We're not sure we ever will. And somewhere along the way, we have lost even our national pride. It was shallow and a cheap shot to ask us to believe that the only reason more hasn't been done in terms of the budget and other matters is that the Republicans have stood in the way, when the Dems had two full years of controlling both the Senate and the House, and accomplished very little.

 Overly long , appallingly boastful,  and celebratory spoken to a country still reeling and suffering from the after shocks of an economic catastrophe, the speech was, if nothing else, a clear view of Obama's ideology.  In trouble or not, lost or sinking, he believes the answers lie in bigger government,  more social entitlements, and a distribution of wealth by the wealthy. To that end, he has now staked his presidency, and thrown down the gauntlet to the Republican challengers, but  the question remains---is that what the majority of Americans want, and is that philosophy in the best interest of a country founded on very different principles?

Judjing from the reception he received on Tuesday night, and other polls which suggest high marks for Obama's personal popularity, not to mention the problematic Republican party, it is conceivable that this president will work his magic once again, in spite of having little to show, in terms of addressing our real problems, for his first four years in office.  Is this some kind of an illusion of greatness bestowed upon Obama by people who see something that so far doesn't seem to exist?

Or, in the final analysis,  is Obama actually exactly what we see----a man dressed not in the traditional garb of America's past, but in those of a very different kind of America---blame, entitlement, and re-distribution of someone else's wealth, used to re-organize us into what Obama referred to as an America "built to last"?  What a strange term for a country, built on independence, capitalistic values, limited government, and liberty for all, and which  has lasted for well over 200 years, but  is now already crumbling under the weight of an opposite ideology, one which exploits a a crowd pleasing platitude of "fairness" which in turn invites resentment and division and  ultimately begets dependence on a government built too big to survive. The election of 2012 waits in the shadows of our future---the choices are stark and without precedent. Consider, and cast your vote carefully-----