For more my other observations on the speech, check out www.aaldef.org/blog

Obama’s speech wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t great.  A 7  out of 10. A gentleman’s C.

Great would have been better. But what do you expect for a man going for the great middle?

When you’re going for the center to begin with, then the “vision” thing isn’t quite relevant. You’re limited from the start. So I’m not too disappointed there was nothing really bold.

But this is our Sputnik moment?  Yes, we’re coming out of a recession and the markets are up. Bbut we’ve gone into tremendous debt and we’re  printing dollars to keep up with all the raises the CEOs are getting. 

 We can’t expect anything too bold.  We can afford Bold Lite.

Considering Sputnik, I’d settle for the second coming of Tang.

I also would have liked to have heard more for the people who are really in trouble in this country.  Nice story about the 55-year old biotechnology person reinventing herself. But I didn’t think that was enough rah-rah fro the people who are unemployed and desperately trying to stay above water.  He mentioned jobs in deals with S.Korea, China, India, but somehow I don’t think that was enough to keep people inspired about the American dream.

For example,I wish there was more for people who have been trying hard to get loan modifications but have been shut out and denied by bureaucratic hurdles. 

I wish there were more for people who really did need a lift.

For all those folks, the jobless and the overmortgaged,  there wasn’t enough meat on the bone. 

They know the real state of the union. And it’s not as happy or as bright as it seems to politicos.

The real people are hurting. The speech seemed to sidestep the pain. 

To that end, credit the president for standing some ground versus the budget hawks.

“I’m willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without,” Obama said. “But let’s make sure that we’re not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.”

That’s the closest  he got to saying  variations of the terms “working class,”  “middle class,
” working poor.”

But it was a wink that this president still gets it.

Even when he has to play it so close to the middle.

I suppose SOTUS  isn’t really for the people.The speech is a political speech that has to be given.

He’s got to say the “state of our union is strong.”  He’s not going to say the ugly truth.  He’s there to give hope to try to say convincingly,  and repeatedly “We do big things.”

Sort of felt like he was trying to make the speech fly at the end there. But to me it just fell flat.

My truth bell rang when I heard him say  these words: “We should have no illusions about the work ahead of us. Reforming our schools, changing the way we use energy, reducing our deficits—none of this will be easy. All of it will take time. And it will be harder because WE WILL ARGUE ABOUT EVERYTHING. THE COSTS. THE DETAILS. THE LETTER OF EVERY LAW.”

But as the president continued: “As contentious and frustrating and messy as our democrcy can sometimes be, I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth.”

No argument there.

So here we are stuck in America trying to get to the great middle.

That’s the real state of the union.

Check out more observations on the speech my blog at www.aaldef.org/blog