Analysis of President Obama's State of the Union Address
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-01-25/analysis-president-obamas-state-union-address
Building an economy that’s built to last, reclaiming the American dream, and economic fairness: these were some of the main themes of President Obama’s State of the Union address. He spoke last night about the challenges this country faces and the teamwork he believes will be required to boost economic growth. Governor Mitch Daniels, who offered the Republican response, connected the slow growth of recent years to the President’s stewardship of a government that stifles private enterprise and fails to address staggering government debt: Join us for analysis on the speech and the presidential campaign ahead.
Guests
E.J. Dionne Jr.
senior fellow, The Brookings Institution, columnist, Washington Post and author of "Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right" and of "Stand Up Fight Back."
James Thurber
professor and director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University; author of "Obama in Office: The First Two Years."
Byron York
chief political correspondent, Washington Examiner.
Comments
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Most laughable SOTU moment..."we are going to go back to the moon"...right and how do we pay for it and 2 wars????? From the fratboy with a smirk
President Obama said this last night :
"From the coalitions we've built to secure nuclear materials, to the missions we've led against hunger and disease; from the blows we've dealt to our enemies; to the enduring power of our moral example, America is back.
Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about."
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Zbigniew Bryzinski has been on MSNBC's Morning Joe the last two mornings discussing his new book "Strategic Vision" Zbig said this yesterday about the US standing in the world and the effects of the invasion of Iraq based on lies
"“I don’t think the (US) decline is inevitable. I think it is avoidable. But it is looming on the horizon. There is a lot of evidence for a relative decline and also an absolute decline in the American standing in the world.”
He went onto say this about Iran
Zbig:
“I don’t want the US either stampeded into a war with Iran lets say by an Israeli attack to which the Iranians react probably more against us than against them. Or by a decision by the United States itself reminiscent of the decision to go into the pointless war with Iraq in 2003″
HOPE THE REHM TEAM HAS ZBIG ON TO DISCUSS HIS NEW BOOK ON FOREIGN POLICY
How can your panel summarize the housing crisis as just simply that people can't afford their houses and therefore should lose them through forclosure? You do realize that those homes are then sold at current market value at tax payer expense if a Freddie or Sallie backed loan. Why not lower the loan amount to keep families in their home? Either way, someone gets the home at market value.
I want to express my opinion of Obama's speech last night. Throughout the speech, I felt like he was a monarch (not a president) speaking to his people and telling them what they were suppose to do. Throughout his administration I haven't seen any sign of him negotiating or trying to influence people to his side. He's always telling and demanding. He talks a lot of teamwork, but he never appears to act as a team player. He's in charge and that's all there is to it.
E.J. what a nice way to wrap it up..if providing health care to those without it is called redistribution....so what! Thank you that is a nice quotable statement
Diane on health care in the SOTU transcript
"
The American people know what the right choice is. So do I. As I told the Speaker this summer, I'm prepared to make more reforms that rein in the long term costs of Medicare and Medicaid, and strengthen Social Security, so long as those programs remain a guarantee of security for seniors."
And this:
"That's why our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a Government program."
I thought he had said something about not going back to the old ways that health care has been distributed unfairly or lack of access but I believe I am mistaken. Can not find anything in the actual transcript.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/24/transcript-obamas-2012-state-...
Candy you are hallucinating! Obama in my opinion has tried to negotiate too much with the party of NO. just roll right over them in your 2nd term.
Teece Bowman wrote:
"The Kochs have given more than a hundred million dollars to right wing causes "
You provide absolutely no documentation for your claims at all. (Quelle suprise!)
By the way, "it's well known" doesn't count.
So the Koch Brothers support causes they are in favor of with their money. So what? So do I! So does George Soros. But I don't hear you complaining about that.
kathleen wrote:
"How can anyone argue with Obama's and others who argue capital gains taxes should be raised to a level equivalent to what the middle class pay? "
I CAN!!!
Because wages represent remuneration for labor. Cap gains represent remuneration for investment. Here's an idea, kathleen. How about CUTTING everyone else's tax rate to 15%!
kathleen wrote:
"Bush had nothing to do with this operation. Nothing at all"
Well ... except without Guantanamo, OBL would probably still be alive. Does that count?
Agreed!
The bigger problem is the public's impulse to foist the performance of the economy onto the President. Plus, it's very unsettling to think about what this tells of the public's understanding of the role, and the power of the President.
However, this misunderstanding is not helped by Presidents crowing about a good turn in the numbers either.
As for the short memory: I wonder if the GOP's concerted and organized smear campaign is all that convincing. I want to believe when people think about it, they see the mess he was left with and cut him a bit of slack.
However, pile on the vitriol, the persistence of the recession and lazy media who dumb down the issues, and it's no surprise we are where we are.
john so what kept the Bush crew from using that alleged information?
In the speech Mr Obama bragged that the new healthcare law was done with the cooperation of the private sector healthcare companies. So why does the left support crony capitalism?
In the speech Mr Obama bragged that the new healthcare law was done with the cooperation of the private sector healthcare companies. So why does the left support crony capitalism?
I agree, some of the work tracking down OBL was probably done during the Bush years, however, Obama gave the order to do it & it was a tense moment. A failure could have been catastrophic. It takes guts to give that order. And this happened on President Obama's watch.
I have great difficulty understanding the revisionist history I hear so much of these days. Bush does not get credit for creating the econimic disaster that happened on his watch (Obama seems to be getting that) & yet Bush gets credit for OBL demise. Doesn't make sense to me.
Re the economy, I tend to feel if things hadn't been handled as they were when Obama took office, we would be in worse shape. What was done was necessary. History revision talks about the high deficit (created by Obama). Well, if the economy had not been in an extreme downward spiral, there wouldn't be such a high deficit. It seems logical to me.
President Obama's speech last night was inspring. I hope he can get some of what he said done. If we have to depend on the current Congress to get on board with any of his suggestions we may be lost. Congress is set in one mode & doesn't seem to care about anything else I'm sorry to say.
"billtmore wrote:
"Candy you are hallucinating! Obama in my opinion has tried to negotiate too much with the party of NO. just roll right over them in your 2nd term"
Boy do I agree with this !!
Democrats tend to leave out facts. The fact is the housing bubble started under Clinton and the democrats. Remember the community reinvestment act?
I was a lifelong Democrat until I decided to wake up and do a little homework.
Ther are articles written in the year 2000 predicting the collapse of 2008.
The excuse that Obama inherited the mess doesn't fly with those who have taken an honest awake look at the facts. It was Democrat party ideas that got us into this mess. Remember the community reinvestment act?
The excuse that Obama inherited the mess doesn't fly with those who have taken an honest awake look at the facts. It was Democrat party ideas that got us into this mess. Remember the community reinvestment act?
kathleen asked:
"john so what kept the Bush crew from using that alleged information?"
Don't know. What took Obama 3 years to use the information?
My suspicion is, based on the comments of SEAL commanders that the right circumstances had to come together to 1) find OBL, and 2) get one shot at him. But according to commanders, the information gathered did pay off.
I agree. It was more big government rhetoric.
In response to Kathleen. Yes I heard this said last night and this is just one more example of crony capitalism. Does anyone really know what is in this 1700 papges of the new Government controlled Healthcare law?
Behind closed doors left or right, I don't think many give BO much credit for killing OBL and rightfully so. Any president would have done the same thing, if it failed there would have not been much fallout even with American casualties, just another day on the front-lines of nation building. We might have not even heard about the goal of the mission.
BO transcript,
I'm not sure any president would do the same ... maybe & maybe not. I personally cannot see Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney doing it. Neither seem to have what it takes in my opinion, & that is not so much criticism as much as fear for our country. I wish the GOP had a good candidate that I at least thought was qualified & would do a good job. I can't see that. It all seems like a game to them - not real life with real people affected.They say what they think will get them elected ... they go which ever way the wind blows.
I have never seen so much mud-slinging as in the current GOP primary race ... & that would be except for the rethoric thrown at Obama.
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Re Clinton causing the housing problem, well ... George Bush had 8 years to fix it ... was he just not looking, was he blind ... what was his problem with changing things. How about maybe ... nobody cared. How about looking into it & being informed about what's going on.
I realize this is an Obama rah rah party, but why does everyone think that raising taxes on the rich is better than lowering taxes on the middle class. Bring the tax rate down to the capital gains tax rate.
Mike
Incline Village, NV
mftrute wrote:
"I realize this is an Obama rah rah party, but why does everyone think that raising taxes on the rich is better than lowering taxes on the middle class. Bring the tax rate down to the capital gains tax rate."
Hey! There's an echo in here!
A footnote should be included with this list. It would read "prior to Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Afterwhich, tabulating private contributions to polical campaigns became impossible because corporations are citizens."
I was quite flabbergasted by your guests comments in relation to foreclosure and the economy. It is unsettling at best to hear the old corporate excuses and corporate propaganda echoed after more than three years down the road in what I like to call the Economic Holocaust. "Homeowners bought more than they can handle financially" homeowners are living beyond their means" etc etc... Did I.Q's drop suddenly? I thought based on all the books, studies and certainly Editorials, Blogs Tweets etc.. At least all that I have read; The economic crisis was caused by the Banks and Wall Street investing and gambling with exotic financial instruments, CDO's, CDS etc. Yeah, I am quite angry that you did not get in your guests face to qualify for your audience, by reminding your guests that thanks to the Banks and Walls Street, jobs were lost, unemployment ran amok, people could not borrow money, the game changed. Millions of mortgages underwater, and the problem was caused by homeowners late mortgage. I guess the attention span of the population thanks to a corporatist controlled media will eventually allow the blame to fall with the homeowners. I am sick to death about this and I am powerless to do anything about it. Voting for the game show hosts and corporate stooges is not an option.
mftrute wrote:
"I realize this is an Obama rah rah party"
The broadcast part was kind of a rah rah, but it looks pretty clear people here were not very impressed by historical standards for this forum. I think the liberals know they have a real loser on their hands whether they want to admit it or not.
Are you suggesting lowering the taxes of the rich over lowing the taxes of the poor?