The 2014 State of the Union: Two bright spots in an otherwise grueling evening

This was what I wrote around this time last year:

“…If you skipped the State Of The Union speech (and I couldn’t blame you if you did…), then you missed roughly an hour of our president insulting our intelligence and lying about objective facts and figures.

So, basically, no real surprises…” 

And how was THIS year’s speech? The same. Actually, almost exactly the same. To the point that it will be easier to focus on this year’s differences, because the similarities would take much, much longer.

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First of all, here’s the full transcript, just in case you have trouble falling asleep tonight.

Apart from the almost laughable repetitiveness of it all (“hey, let’s close Gitmo, …still!!“), the most entertaining part was watching Vice President Joe “The Human Gaffe Machine” Biden smirk, point, and gesticulate throughout the evening, acting every bit like an over-caffeinated 9-year-old attending his first grown-up party:

I’m so sad I missed this moment. I was sitting in the balcony above them h/t @novy_williams #sotu pic.twitter.com/ycUeljXjTs

— Alexis Levinson (@alexis_levinson) January 29, 2014

But once we get past the comic relief that is Joe, the overall tone of the evening was strained: it was trying a bit too hard at appearing sunny and upbeat. That probably stemmed from the evening’s theme, “We Can’t Wait”, which is verbal shorthand for Obama’s insistence that he’ll bypass Congress via Executive Order to accomplish whatever he wants to do.

And for some extremely odd reason, the Democrats in Congress seem awfully eager to allow him to do just that:

And…this is lawless. “I will take steps without legislation.” Your imperial President, everyone

— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) January 29, 2014

Democrats wildly cheer powerful executive vowing to bypass them.

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 29, 2014

You know, I seem to recall the Left telling me that George Bush’s go-it-alone, “cowboy” strategy was not only unwise, but a threat to our democracy. I have to assume that if Bush’d had a catchy slogan like “We Can’t Wait”, everything would’ve been just dandy, right? Riiiiight….

President Obama then proceeded to run through a cavalcade of topics. First was the economy (it’s awesome!!), and then employment (even more awesome!!), which was then inexplicably followed by a call to …extend emergency Unemployment Insurance.

You know, ’cause everything is so “awesome”:

Yep, a zillion billion jobs were created. That’s why the workforce is collapsing and real unemployment is still in double digits.

— John Hayward (@Doc_0) January 29, 2014

The lowest unemployment rate because the admin refuses to count those who’ve dropped out of the workforce. #TheBlazeSOTU

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) January 29, 2014

So the economy’s in great shape and America is sailing past China, AND the system is so rigged against you that we need to remake it.

— Drew Cline (@DrewHampshire) January 29, 2014

Then it was on to Equal Pay for Women, which I kinda/sorta thought he’d already fixed?

That “women earn 77 percent of men” number is so bogus, so repudiated, it’s almost in “9/11 was inside job” territory. #SOTU

— Michael Graham (@IAMMGraham) January 29, 2014

Here’s @CHSommers on .77 cents stat. http://t.co/06cv5mWSsL

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) January 29, 2014

Unfazed, he then jumped to education and the vital importance of preschool:

“I propose working with states to make high-quality preschool available to every single child in America.” (B. Obama, SOTU speech, 1/28/13)

Only one problem, Mr. President: it doesn’t work, and as such is a colossal waste of our taxes. Not that wasting our tax dollars has ever concerned you before, of course.

Perhaps the most ridiculous part of the evening was when Barack started to trash-talk the Republican House about Obamacare, as if the last few months of Affordable Health Care-related disasters had not just happened. There was no mention of the millions of folks who couldn’t access the website, or who’ve lost their coverage, or who are paying more, or who’ve lost their doctor.

Nothing. Not a single acknowledgment of the ongoing costs and casualties stemming from his signature legislation. Because You. Don’t. Matter.

Dear Americans who lost insurance: drop dead. Love, Barack Obama

— John Hayward (@Doc_0) January 29, 2014

“We’re in the process of fixing [healthcare].” ::laughter::

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 29, 2014

#Obama doesn’t want #GOP to try to repeal law majority of Americans never wanted & still oppose. #ObamaCare #SOTU

— Jonathan S. Tobin (@TobinCommentary) January 29, 2014

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After a while, the speech started to feel like an endurance contest, even though it only lasted for a little over an hour. I know that, personally, I was ready to tap-out at almost any minute:

This just in: Gitmo detainees to be given choice between water-boarding & watching #SOTU speech on Auto-loop. Waterboarding for the win!

— justturnright (@justturnright) January 29, 2014

The first four hours of this speech really flew by

— John Tabin (@johntabin) January 29, 2014

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However, there were two bright spots during the evening, with the 1st being the final part of the address. It was when the President spoke about an Army Ranger, Cory Remsburg:

Thank you Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg for your service to our nation! #SOTU

— Wash. Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) January 29, 2014

10 deployments for Sgt. First Class Cory Remsburg. Speechless.

— John Nolte (@NolteNC) January 29, 2014

The only thing in the #SOTU that I agree with is the long ovation for the injured soldier. #teaparty #tcot #gop

— Tea Party Nation (@teapartynation) January 29, 2014

The entire tribute to Ranger Remsburg was wonderful, and completely deserving. Here’s the full NY Times backstory, if you’d like to read more.

The 2nd bright spot during the evening was Twitter or, rather, what was evident by watching Twitter that evening. Even Politico noticed:

“…Two media companies were trending on Twitter throughout the president’s speech on Tuesday: Fox News and Glenn Beck’s The Blaze. (NBC News enjoyed a few, brief moments toward the bottom of the list.) Does that mean more conservatives and libertarians were watching the State of the Union address than moderates and progressives — certainly not.

But it does mean that they were far more engaged in the Twitter conversation.

What does it mean? Maybe nothing. Maybe it’s just an echo-chamber shouting at one another. But if America’s political audience is indeed as apathetic as the data (above) suggest, all engagement is notable…”

Engagement is energy, and in an election year energy is a must. It’s still early yet, but let’s just say this bodes well for November.

As I stated earlier, the whole speech and surrounding theatrics felt strained, forced, put-on. Part of that was due to its sheer redundancy, I’m sure, but part was also the delivery: I couldn’t tell if Obama was desperate to convince me of something, or simply too bored to try.

Who knows? Maybe he didn’t know, either.

The whole evening reminded me of what the “pep talks” from a last place team’s coach must eventually sound like to his players. After a certain number of consecutive losing seasons together, he knows what he’s saying is complete hokum, and so do they, so why even continue the charade?

Good question.