Lies, Threats, and Empty Promises

          Sitting around a lunch table with a group of friends on January 29^th, I asked if anyone had watched President Obama’s State of the Union message.  Not a single one had.  I suppose that says something about the enthusiasm people have for listening to someone whose word can no longer be trusted. 

          I hadn’t watched it either, but I did read the transcript of the speech, line by line.  It was pretty much what I expected: warmed-over ideas that haven’t worked, small-ball proposals with insignificant goals, misleading statistics on inequality and unemployment, and many boasts of accomplishments the president had nothing to do with.  The most dishonest among these, in my view, was taking credit for an energy policy that is creating jobs.  The brazenness of this lie is stunning, considering Obama’s refusal to approve the Keystone pipeline, the denial of permits to drill on public lands, the attempt by the EPA to impede exploration and drilling on private land, and the move to shut down a coal industry that employs many thousands in some of the poorest areas of the country.

          The centerpiece of the president’s speech was a threat -- no, a promise -- to exercise unlawful executive authority to bypass Congress to achieve his progressive agenda.  Like the fools they are, the Democrats in the chamber rose to their feet to applaud the consequential loss of their constitutional prerogatives.  

          Elsewhere, the president’s defense of ObamaCare was laughable, his solutions for creating jobs misguided, and his claim of progress in the Middle East embarrassing.  On the other hand, nowhere in this speech did the president accept responsibility for his failed economic policies, for this country’s crushing debt, for the multiple scandals of his administration, or for America’s loss of prestige throughout the world.

          But the president did say something I agree with.  He said, “There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments.”  That was a perfect description of how the majority of Americans view his incessant speechifying, and the principal reason America has tuned him out.   

          President Obama deserves his miserable poll ratings.  It’s a pity we didn’t turn him out when we had the chance.