Pretty good speech, in that the exhaustion of a clearly broken political system was palpable, being described not only by Obama but also by the Republican rebutal-ist South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. This is good insofar as its ability to produce actual change to fix it, so there is more to see.
Mostly a lot of the hot air from a lame duck politician; However, when he mentioned the TPP, my ears sprang up. TPP is legislative gobbeldy-goop to most, probably shouldn’t be included in the last SOTU, yet, it is here. They want this thing BAD. We must gut it of its insane sovereignty-destroying language, at the very least. As we have seen, they can just ram it through alongside other legislation, akin to what happened with the recent passing of CISPA through the recent spending bill.
My kids kept asking why the one guy behind the President (Speaker Paul Ryan) never smiled or clapped. You try explaining the two-party system and election-year posturing to a couple of five-year-olds.
I would think that five-year-olds would be in an excellent position to understand politics: they’ve probably been exposed to three-year-olds and seen how they act.
Exactly. The best way to explain i to five year olds: “These people aren’t as grown up as you!”
In which he kicked ass. Thanks for posting the text.
I agree.
he spoke of how great the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership is
How can you be so cool in so many ways, yet completely short-sighted about this bullshit?
Come on, Obama.
And finally, how can we make our politics reflect what’s best in us, and not what’s worst?
What a slap in the face to those who favor being the worst!
Some good stuff, some bad stuff and some pie in the sky. All said using words that low information voters could mostly understand. That was probably a good strategy. Berating Trump was just amusing.
He’s been a mixed bag, but moving in the right direction. I hope we can move the needle even FARTHER in the next presidency! This nation cannot reject Trump and the chinless douchenozzles that are currently his ilk strongly enough!
You’re right, we probably can’t.
/intentional misreading
There were some good mic drops.
You’re summary first sentence pretty much is every single SOTU since the beginning. 
Why do you think Ryan never smiled during the whole thing?
Did you delve into a discussion on the separation of powers, and the significance of four missing Supremes justices? I would have loved to hear someone break that one down.
(I get that their feelings got hurt but it really reflects poorly on Roberts’ legacy of being a chief justice. He’s definitely not a leader.)
Holy moley, you’re subjecting your kids to this crap!?
Even if you want to raise them to be political, their time would be better spent, I dunno, watching Schoolhouse Rock. SOTU speeches are worthless.
I listened Tuesday night on the radio and it came across as a lackadaisical presentation. I watched it today from a video recording and it was totally different, much more compelling. On the radio Obama’s dramatic pauses just made him seem disengaged, but on video he seemed to care a great deal.
To make an hour with Congress more tolerable I tried something new: I wadded up a bunch of newspaper balls in advance and set the pile next to me on the couch, then pitched a wad at the screen any time I felt the need. I discharged almost my entire stockpile during the part about TPP. Peter King got one for being a grouchy-face, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan each got one any time one or the other stifled a yawn, and Nancy Pelosi got one for never having met a surveillance bill she didn’t like (unless she’s the one being surveilled). That was very satisfying.
I didn’t “subject” them to anything. Sometimes daddy gets to watch TV too, and kids are naturally curious.
A war on cancer is great, but we would get a whole lot of mileage if people would simply stop doing the things that we KNOW (i.e. smoking) CAUSE CANCER. It boggles my mind how people do this, and then are bewildered when they wind up getting cancer.
