A SOTU Analysis As Dignified as the SOTU

Mr. Obama’s hair is back to dignified, adult gray, not quite as gray as at the Tucson Memorial, but it now appears that he’ll change his hair--as well as his rhetoric--to suit the occasion. Bets on Vegas betting lines on the issue?

He has invoked Tucson/Rep. Giffords twice within the first few minutes. He wouldn’t be using a tragedy to score cheap political points, would he? Well, he did simultaneously invoke the “dreams” of the 9 year old girl who was killed, but that’s not cynical or anything. I wonder if they handed out t-shirts tonight too?

He’s observing that “...the public have determined that both parties will NOW work together.” Hmm. I think they “determined” that a long time ago, but Mr Obama and the Dems told them “I won,” and “elections have consequences,” didn’t they?

Ah! It’s not about the next election, but jobs! That must be why official unemployment is about 9.8% (certainly higher in reality). Mr. Obama, who is in perpetual campaign mode, would certainly never even think, let alone pursue, anything else when jobs hang in the balance.

He keeps harping on “together.” “...thanks to the tax cuts WE passed in December...” WE passed tax cuts? I thought that fell into the category of the Dems and Mr. Obama grudgingly agreeing not to RAISE taxes, not to allow the single largest tax increase in American history to automatically occur, only because the public was holding an electoral gun to their heads (it’s a metaphor! I’m not encouraging holding an electoral gun--whatever that is--to anyone’s head, let alone shooting them with it, which might get them elected to an office they didn’t want, or something) and it would plunge America into bankruptcy so fast that Obama wouldn’t have a chance at reelection. It didn’t have anything to do with actually cutting taxes, did it?

Ah! The steps he has taken over the last two years have “...broken the back of the recession!” Will miracles never cease? Is there nothing that The One cannot do?! I doubt many Americans outside the Dem. side of the Beltway would share that opinion. I mean that he actually did anything to fix the economy and that the recession has had any part even mildly bruised to date. He’ll harp on this throughout the speech which will last about 75 minutes. He is persistent, particularly when he’s dead wrong and lying to the public...

I’ll never understand why some people think the man a modern Demosthenes. I’ve taught college and high school speech. On his best day, I’d give him a B; most days, no more than a C. He’s completely dependent upon a teleprompter, his vocal rhythms and inflections never change, and his pitch and volume fall, as off a cliff, at the ends of most sentences or phrases. His gestures are limited, stilted and stereotypical, and if he doesn’t suffer nerve damage from his constant left-right-left, head movement, reminiscent of a cheap fan, I’ll be amazed. He probably still thinks that when he does that, the public believes that he’s making eye contact and meaningfully connecting with the audience rather than reading from the teleprompter screens.

Tonight, particularly during the first half of the speech, he’s halting, unsure, pausing too much at the wrong times. Is he just having trouble reading? Didn’t practice enough, or is the script scrolling at the wrong speed or in a jerky fashion? Hard to tell, but he’s a bit more clumsy than usual.

Uh-oh. Here it comes: We have to “...out-innovate, out-educate-outbuild the rest of the world.” Now comes the “investing...”

So that’s how we’ve always done it! It was Joe Biden who claimed that government was behind virtually every important advancement practically ever. Mr. Obama tells us that the government will encourage innovation and will “...spark the creativity and imagination of our people.” He doesn’t specifically say we’ll have to “invest” in that sparking, but that’s the point, of course. I always thought the American people did that quite well without government help, but apparently Ben Franklin, Henry Ford, Jonas Salk, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and countless others would have been helpless absent massive government “investment” support. Silly me.

Double Uh-oh. Now he’s invoking the race to the moon. Ah, of course! We have to “invest” in research and innovation. And what will that be, pray tell? Biomedicine, information tech, and “...especially clean energy.” Finally! It rears its feeble head!

Let’s see, clean energy will improve our security, it will save the planet and “create countless new jobs,” just like all of the clean energy jobs that have been created the last two years, you know, like all the shovel ready jobs the President finally admitted didn’t exist...oh.

NEWSFLASH: We’re going to “break our dependency on oil with biofuels.” Oh, like ethanol? Right. It makes food scarce, actually starves people in the third world, has only about 80% of the power of gasoline, is corrosive to engines, and requires huge government subsidies to exist at all. Other than that, sure, we’ll be awash in biofuels any day now! Didn’t the DeLorean in one of the “Back to the Future” Movies run on banana peels?

NEWSFLASH: By 2015, we’ll have one million electric vehicles on the roads! Yup. On the roadsides; out of electricity.

How are we going to accomplish these wonders? More “investment?” Nah. We’re going to cut all of the money we’re giving the oil companies and give it to clean energy companies. There will be “...no subsidies for yesterday’s energy,” no sir! We’re going to “...invest in tomorrow!” Well, he did promise to make energy prices skyrocket. That ought to get it off the launching pad.

WE HAVE A GOAL! By 2035, 80% of our energy will come from clean energy sources. Even the Dems in the chamber can’t produce any more than tepid and very brief applause at that whopper. He does give lip service to wind, solar (which promises to produce up to 2% of our energy needs--intermittently), “clean coal” and “nuclear” sources, but of course he isn’t allowing any permitting for nuclear plants and has sworn to destroy the coal industry and is making good on his promise just as fast as he can. He also knows that he can count on his environmentalist allies to tie up any such projects in years of lawsuits. But it won’t be so bad. By 2035 we might have access to say, an hour of electricity a day? Perhaps it will even be at night! Oh goodie!

Tepid and halting applause is the order of the day. I mean weak applause, lasting only a few seconds, is the norm, not the exception, and much of it is accompanied by obvious groans, moans, and even booing, as when he announces that he’ll replace No Child Left Behind (may it suffer the torments of the damned) with “Race To The Top,” which, as far as I can tell, is a program primarily designed to reward unions and union members for putting on shiny PR faces. That one really did’t impress anybody in the chamber. Even the smug Cheshire Cat grin on Mr. Biden’s face faded a bit--quite the accomplishment.

Some of the biggest applause came when he praised teachers, saying that we should respect them more. He even went so far as to suggest that he’s all for local control of education. Uh-huh. I’ll buy that one as soon as he abolishes the Department of Education.

Uh-oh. Here it comes: “Higher education” must be “in the reach of all Americans.” Apparently whether they want it or not. That’s why, he tells us, he took over the student loan business from that infamous Enemy of the People, the greedy banks! That doesn’t impress the crowd either. By the end of the decade, we’re going to have “the highest proportion of college graduates in the world!” Whether they want to or not! I guess the American people are just too dumb to know whether they want or need to go to college. I withdraw my suggestion that we do away with the Department of Education. That one impresses them a bit more, but not much.

IMMIGRATION NON-ENFORCEMENT DEPARTMENT: We need to address the issue--in a bi-partisan way, of course--because if we don’t then all of the “undocumented workers” who graduate from college will leave America and compete against us and that would be bad and wrong--or something. We’re kicking out people who would otherwise work in “research labs,” or “open a small business,” or something. And we’re going to work together--just like Mr. Obama and the Dems have been doing for years now--to “protect our borders,” and to “enforce our laws.” That one really didn’t impress the crowd. Apparently acknowledgement and disapproval of hypocrisy and blatant lying is back in fashion in the Congress, at least for tonight. Even the Dems couldn’t come up with much enthusiasm for this.

RAILWAYS TO NOWHERE: So that’s how we’ll do it! We’re going to invest untold gazillions in high speed rail and high speed internet. He’s not giving specific numbers tonight, but he wants to spend--I mean “invest”--lots. Now he’s comparing us to China (again--he’ll do that a bunch tonight) and Europe, and as always for him, we’re not looking very good. I don’t know. I just don’t hear that clamor for high speed rail in restaurants and coffee shops. You just don;t hear that many folks pining for the direct, high speed rail route from DesMoines to New Orleans. But Amtrak has been such a stunning success. We’ve only lost...how many hundreds of billions subsidizing it? But Joe Biden used to ride it, so that makes it...a government boondoggle?

Ah-hah! I knew it! The last two years we’ve been rebuilding America! Mr. Obama’s policies have created “thousands of jobs for the hard hit construction industry.” Well, maybe making signs advertising all of those “shovel ready” jobs, which Mr. Obama, last October, admitted didn’t ever, actually, you know...exist.
He really must think that the American people are complete idiots.

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! Yes! All of this will be “completely paid for...” and he doesn’t really say how, exactly. Fairy dust, apparently.

WE HAVE ANOTHER GOAL!! Yes! In 25 years, 80% of Americans will have “access to high speed rail!” In some instances, it will be “faster than flying.” At his point, Mr. Obama took the kind of brave, forward looking, progressive excursion off the teleprompter for which we love him so much and quipped that it would be faster than flying “...without the pat downs.” I’ll bet that was part of the script. So did the crowd, who, for the most part, groaned--not at all happy-making sounds in the house. Mr. Biden thought it was hilarious. Perhaps he has the Secret Service “pat him down” whenever he flies on a government plane? Good times; good memories. Speaker Boehner, sitting to Mr. Biden’s left, was less than amused. He flies commercial. So do we. But wait a minute! Couldn’t Mr. Obama do something about those “pat downs?” He’s the President after all, and...oh. Never mind.

SO THAT’S HOW IT HAPPENED! Want to know how the tax code got so screwed up, so “rigged,” as Mr. Obama put it? That’s right. It was another Enemy of the People: Lobbyists! They did it. Would that be the plethora of lobbyists Mr. Obama solemnly swore never to employ, but did anyway? He tells us we have the highest corporate tax rates in the world. That’s the first point truth has put on the scoreboard tonight! Bring out the cheerleaders! He observes that it “makes no sense.” But wait a minute...he’s the POTUS. Couldn’t he have done something about that during the last two years...what? Oh. He did? He made it worse? On purpose? Right.

So how is he going to fix things? He’s going to “simplify,” “close loopholes,” and “lower the corporate tax rate.” Well if it was that easy, why hasn’t he done it before? He’s been POTUS for more than two years, and...oh. Never mind.

Hey! He’s done some deals with China that will “support” 250,000 jobs. Support with what? How? When? Is that the same as actually having 250,000 real, actual, you work and someone pays you money for more than a week, jobs in the private sector that actually contribute to wealth and the tax base, or is that like pseudo-medicines on late night TV that “support prostate health,” or give you erections that last for more than four hours so you have to call a doctor right away, and what’s the deal with two apparently naked people reclining in two cold, separate bathtubs out on the tundra anyway? I dunno, but at least it’s more entertaining than this speech...

Oh, and we have some sort of deal or something with Korea that will support, or create, or provoke, or annoy “7000 jobs,” or something.

WELL, THIS ONE GOT AT LEAST SOME APPLAUSE: He’s going to ruthlessly root out unnecessary regulations that are “burdens on business.” Apparently the same business that he has been ruthlessly trying to run out of business for two years (like the insurance industry?) and calling to the White House to threaten. Ah, but there’s a caveat, you see! He will also rigorously enforce “common sense safeguards that protect the American people.” What one hand giveth, the other taketh away, even more so. Hey, but didn’t he just create, with ObamaCare, so many new regulations and disincentives and new costs for business that he could remove old 100 regulations a day from now until eternity and still have so many regulations that, if stacked end on end, would reach all the way to, well, eternity? Yup. He really does think we’re morons.

WELL THANK GOD--I MEAN, THE ONE. He saved us all from another evil Enemy of the People! Mr. Obama “passed reform that finally prevents the health insurance industry (cue the sinister, evil insurance industry cackling track) from exploiting patients!” But wait a minute: Aren’t some 80%+ of the public happy with their current level of insurance industry “exploitation?” And isn’t the “reform” he’s talking about ObamaCare? You know, the takeover of health care that will, by itself, bankrupt the nation and bring us the wonders of socialized medicine that has Canadians fleeing over the northern border every day to avoid? The reaction of the crowd: Mild, unenthusiastic Dem. clapping, and annoyed and angry muttering and thinly veiled imprecations from the rest of the chamber. Looks like at least some of the Dems have been listening to voices of The People--the bastards.

On the positive side, Mr. Obama will go along with doing away with businesses having to file with the IRS whenever they do $600 in trade with anyone. That was just one of simply loads of little, unrelated to health care surprises in the 2700 page bill, you know, the one Ex-Speaker of the House (it feels soooooo good to say that) Pelosi said we’d have to pass before we could learn its contents? Rumor has it that another little known part of the law requires all Americans to wear organic lettuce in their underwear, but to wear it on the outside so Department of Agriculture Inspectors can check. That should “save or create” some federal jobs.

And Mr. Obama is not going to “re-fight the battles of the last two years” over health care. Wait a minute...what battle? Didn’t the Dems just steamroller that one against the wishes of the American people? Anyway, he wants to “fix what needs fixing and move forward.” Yeah. Into bankruptcy and the glories of socialized medicine. Swell. At least the crowd caught on and responded with tiny applause and a cacophony of boos and catcalls.

GOOD NEWS! He said it lots of times, so it must be true: The worst of the recession is over! Remember how he broke its back earlier? And did you know that the government “spends more than it takes in,” and that that “is not sustainable?” He even said--stop laughing right now! I mean it!--that “government should live within its means.! I wonder who told Mr. Obama? Does he believe anything he reads on the teleprompter? Do the people who write it?

So, he’s going to freeze domestic spending for the next five years! That will save “500 billion” in a decade. So that’s what? Two hundred fifty billion in five years? So why did he say a decade? But wait a minute, he’s racked up four trillion+ (that we know of) new debt in just two years, and that’s not counting ObamaCare, so if we freeze at current levels, we’ll still be in the hole by numbers understandable only by astronomers and math geeks, and that doesn’t count ObamaCare. So that isn’t actually “saving” anything...? Yup. He thinks we’re total idiots. The audience gets it too. One or two claps forlornly echo. Maybe there is some hope for at least some Dems...Naaaah!

We’re also going to cuts billions out of the Defense Budget, but only for things the military really doesn’t need. The camera focuses on Defense Secretary Gates. He is not overflowing with enthusiasm. Mr. Obama will “listen to proposals” for reducing the deficit, but “not on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.” You know, like labor unions, General Electric, Fannie and Freddie, ACORN or whatever they call themselves today... I somehow suspect that any substantive cuts suggested by Republicans will be quickly discovered to be on the backs of our “most vulnerable citizens.”

LESSONS IN POLITICAL HUMOR: Thus far, Mr. Obama has tried to make several jokes. They’ve all fallen flat. Even the Dems aren’t laughing. Rodney Dangerfield he isn’t.

WHAT? Mr. Obama is going to “cut spending through tax breaks and loopholes.” Uh...right. No one in the house has any idea what he’s talking about. Even the bobble-heads who have been consistently bobbling all night when Mr. Obama so much as blinks are confused and momentarily stop bobbling.

Of course. He trots out the blatant falsehood that repealing ObamaCare will somehow cost the nation a quarter of a trillion dollars. Right. Fail to spend untold trillions and that will cost a quarter of a trillion that isn’t being spent. Perhaps he learned that while he was the editor of the Harvard Law Review. You know, the one for which he really didn’t edit or write anything? But he will “look at” malpractice lawsuit reform. Hasn’t he promised to “look at” a great many things? And hasn’t he, having “looked,” immediately returned to the socialist path of the glorious revolution? Thought so.

Of course, of course. We have to have a “bi-partisan solution” to “strengthen Social Security for the future,” but “without slashing benefits for future generations,” or relying on the “stock market.” But no one is suggesting cuts for those currently in the system...Oh, right. He won’t authorize any cuts for anyone, ever! And no involvement of another running dog Enemy of the People, the stock market, which by the way, he bragged has rebounded! So I guess they’re not so evil, or maybe they are, or something...

YET ANOTHER ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! “We can’t afford a permanent extension of tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.” Oh, you mean that 2% that pay the majority of all income taxes instead of the 50% who don’t pay any? That 2%? The 2% whom you have determined have reached the point where they made enough money?

I GUESS HE REALLY IS THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE WORLD! Mr. Obama has discovered that it would be a good idea to “simplify the tax code.” Genius. And it only took him two years to figure it out! The camera pans to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-Brady Campaign). He is smirking the smirk to end all smirks, which is extra-smirky even for him, and he’s the smirk-meister. I know exactly what he’s thinking: “Yeah, like THAT’S going to happen!”

NOW HE’S THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE UNIVERSE! Mr. Obama has also discovered the necessity of “reorganizing government.” He make his point by providing the example of the salmon who are under the jurisdiction of one federal agency when in salt water, but another when in fresh water. Then he does it. He makes a drug joke, well, sort of. He says, “and I understand it’s even worse when they’re smoked!” Odd, unsettled sounds rebound about the chamber. He grins like a dim witted freshman fraternity pledge, waiting for the audience to “get it.” I’m waiting for him to say, “when they’re smoked, you know, smoked? Get it?” but he somehow avoids it. Some of them actually gasp and titter nervously as he soaks in the adulation that really isn’t there. Embarrassed laughter, groans, and rolling eyes throughout the house. What dignity and decorum. He has class and style, that one. I wonder if it was an ad-lib or actually part of the script. Which would be worse? Ten points for a correct answer.

And we’re going to get even more government transparency from the most transparent administration in history! Did you know I have a bridge for sale in San Francisco Harbor? Must be seen to be appreciated! Call 1-800...

Mr. Obama is going to veto all bills that contain earmarks. Mr. Biden is convulsed with laughter. I had no idea vetoing earmarks was such a laugh riot. Mr. Boehner looks like, maybe, he wants to cry.

Mr. Obama is promising a “...new level of engagement in our foreign affairs,” and swearing that we will “defeat determined enemies wherever they are...” Sounds good. It’s just kind of a shame that he can’t tell the difference between our enemies and our allies and particularly that he gets them exactly mixed up. I’m expecting a declaration of war against England any day now, particularly since he wasn’t invited to the wedding. I bet they were afraid of getting another iPod with his speeches again, or maybe more cheesy movies that don’t play on European DVD players.

By this point I’m struck by the realization that Mr. Obama almost sounds like an American President who is actually, you know, on America’s side. He’s making lots of patriotic noises this evening and talking about how swell America is and Americans are, even, apparently all those God and gun clingers who hate everyone who isn’t like them. Sad that our expectations of our President have sunk so low that one the rare and fleeting occasions when he actually behaves like an American President, it’s noteworthy. He continues to live down to our expectations.

AH, SO THAT’S WHO THEY ARE! “American Muslims are a part of our American family.” Well sure, all of those who don’t want to practice Sharia and aren’t trying to kill or convert every infidel by force, anyway. This one was multi-culti and diverse enough to get a standing ovation, by most of the Dems and some Republicans. Sigh.

COMEDY GOLD DEPARTMENT” Mr. Obama is now talking tough on terrorism. His inspired leadership has the terrorists on the run in Pakistan. Well, with the help of the Pakistani intelligence agency, sure. And the START treaty was a great accomplishment that will “lock down nuclear weapons” so they “won’t fall into the hands of terrorists.” Oh, the great accomplishment so great the Russian Duma won’t pass it? And now that you mention nucs falling into terrorist hands, what about the Iranians? Well, we have “tougher sanctions on Iran than ever before!” That’ll scare them a whole bunch more than all of the tougher sanctions we’ve had on them before these tougher sanctions before the previously tough sanctions. And what about the North Koreans? Well, Mr. Obama is continuing to keep “insisting that the North Koreans give up their nuclear weapons.” I suppose they’ll just shell another South Korean island or torpedo another South Korean ship in the face of such forceful, manly insistence. Perhaps if, instead of giving them billions as we usually do when they kill people, Mr. Obama threatens “tough sanctions?”

FOREIGN DISENTANGLEMENTS: In March Mr. Obama is traveling to to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador to “forge new alliances” in our backyard. He didn’t say whether he was going to continue to order the State Department to pressure Honduras to reinstate their lawfully, constitutionally deposed Marxist ex-president. Also no word on the mutual defense pact between Iran and Venezuela or all of the MANPADS Iran sold them, or the medium range, nuc-capable missiles Iran will soon install in Venezuela.

Mr. Obama also “stands with Tunisia,” and “supports the democratic aspirations of people everywhere.” He almost sounds Kennedyesque for a second, but only for a second. Yes, he’ll bear any burden to fight for liberty, except in, for instance, Iran, or Tunisia, or pretty much anywhere in Africa, or Georgia--not the state, the country, but come to think of it, he wouldn’t defend them either--or well, just about anywhere. But he’ll absolutely “stand with” them. If they can make it to DC, and if he can fit it into his schedule, if he isn’t golfing, or on the campaign trail, or on vacation, or working on the new civility, that is.

WELL, HE JUST HAD TO SLAP SOMEBODY IN THE FACE! Last year it was the Supreme Court (only five of the nine were present tonight), and this year--drum roll please Maestro--The Joint Chiefs of Staff! Mr. Obama pays ritual lip service to our troops and their families and promises fidelity, yaddah, yaddah. The troops know the difference between a POTUS who actually respects them and one who sees them primarily as props for photo opportunities. But he gamely speaks the words to polite applause. And then he makes a troop related announcement that is REALLY important: That’s right: Gays will now be able to serve openly! Dems go wild. Republicans are still, silent, or polite. The camera focuses on the Joint Chiefs of Staff who are doing their best to impersonate Mount Rushmore, but it’s not hard to imagine what they’re thinking, and it’s not fit for even this scruffy little blog. Oh yes, and he calls on colleges to embrace ROTC, not like he’s actually planning on enforcing the law or anything to make that happen. He certainly hasn’t to this point. But to be fair, I’m sure that Mr. Holder has been very busy trying to secure soccer tournaments to provide important jobs for millions of those in the badly depressed New Black Panther voter threatening, hotdog, peanut and beer service industries.

QUICK! A GLASS OF WATER! I’M GAGGING! Now he does it. He’s actually praising our democratic system, you know, the one he swore to “fundamentally change?” The one that he, and the Dems, ran like a tinpot dictatorship for the last two years, cutting Republicans completely out of the legislative process and ramming through legislation that a clear majority of the public opposed? That democratic system? The one full of evil business Enemies of the People, who he now, by the way, embraces and wants to “spark” with “investment.” Hey! I’ll bet THAT’S why he hired GE’s CEO! They have lots of sparks there! I have a sneaking suspicion that “investment” is a code word for spending ludicrous amounts of borrowed money that we don’t have and haven’t a prayer of paying back, but I guess I’ll have to take Mr. Obama at face value...

Oh yes, and he’s observing that “we all still believe in the rights enshrined in our Constitution,” that is, unless, you know, any of them might be, sort of, well, inconvenient, or you know, stand in the way of righteous Progressive...progress, then I guess “we all,” doesn’t REALLY include Mr. Obama and the Dems, because after all, the Constitution is a “living document,” which Progressives seemed determined to kill at the earliest possible opportunity, but it’s a nice sentiment, even if it’s one that no one with an IQ larger than their shoe size believes Mr. Obama really means. The crowd wildly applauds on the “applaud the principle, not the man, principle.

And now he’s calling America “the greatest nation on Earth.” Wait a minute...Didn’t he used to say that on the campaign trail, but add: “... and I need you to help me fundamentally change it?” Why yes, I believe he did. Wouldn’t that be kind of...contradictory?

And now he’s talking about the “ordinary people who dare to dream.” He’s invoking the majesty of the little people! All the haters and God and gun clingers in flyover country! Before he asks God to bless America, he virtually shouts that “we do big things!” Indeed. Like destroying the finest medical system ever known to man and spending us into oblivion.

SUMMARY:

According to Fox News, the speech was interrupted 80 times by applause, but it was, overall, the most tepid, brief, embarrassing applause I’ve ever seen at the annual national pep rally...ooops! I mean at a State of the Union speech. Despite the fact that every time Mr. Obama clears his throat or belches, the Media or Obama’s adoring followers (I know, I’m being redundant) proclaim it the greatest speech since the Gettysburg Address, maybe even better, I somehow suspect that somewhat fewer of them are going to praise this one quite so effusively. We’ve all heard it all before, over and over again from the most over-exposed POTUS in American history. It’s a another world’s record! And he doesn’t think he’s explained himself enough to the American people. It’s a problem of “messaging.”

Mr. Obama provided no specifics, no numbers. Many talking heads have wondered if Mr. Obama’s new stances are the result of a genuine Road to Damascus conversion or merely cynical rhetoric masking the same old Socialist drives temporarily tucked under red, white and blue cover. Most are saying that it’s too soon to tell. Nonsense. Much of what Mr. Obama said tonight is the exact opposite of what he has been saying--and doing--all of his life, to say nothing of the last two years. In normal company, in the company of the “ordinary people who dare to dream,” that’s know as “lying.” Progressives call it “messaging.” Mr. Obama messaged the American people up one side and down the other tonight while making it clear that he won’t entertain any real reforms or cut any real costs.

So is this new Barack Obama a political calculation born of political necessity? Is he yet a socialist wolf in centrist clothing waiting for the chance to cast off imperialist chains with a second term? Is rhetoric cheap and easy, but actual change impossible for a committed movement socialist? Do bears play in the woods? Is the Pope a Catholic?

So. Mr. Obama is going to freeze spending, cut defense, reorganize government, reform the tax code, and save simply scads of money--while simultaneously spending more and more scads of money, including not repealing the single largest, bankrupting entitlement/governmental power grab in history. Oh, that's right, he's not going to be "spending money." He's going to be "investing in the future." And he really, really loves and respects America, the troops--particularly if they're gay--and the Constitution and the ordinary people who dare to dream, and exactly how stupid does he think we are again?