Brilliant Bullshit!
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On Tuesday evening I watched president Obama's state of the union address. It was brilliant.
Obama rang all the bells, dotted all the i's, and attacked all the ghosts. At times, he even made sense.
All in all, it was a brilliant effort, possibly his best speech ever, even though his speech was essentially bullshit.
In case you missed that speech, whether by accident or out of disgust, here is a Transcript Text of President Obama's 2016 State of the Union address.
Video Ad Libs
Obama deviated from his prepared transcript greatly. Here is a video for interested parties.
Belief in Change
In his address, Obama said "I believe in change because I believe in you".
That's ironic because his first campaign slogan was "Change you can believe in". People believed in change but what change did Obama deliver?
Despite promises, we are still in Afghanistan. Despite promises, we did not close Guantanamo Bay. The Mideast is a bigger mess than ever.
US unemployment is indeed half of what it was when Obama took office. But who gets the credit for that?
The answer is retiring baby boomers dropping out of the labor force by mad. Any US president would have achieved the same result by doing nothing. Obama gets to brag because he is lucky enough to be in office at the time.
Doing Things
Obama did do things. Obamacare was a disaster. But he bragged about it.
Obama's treaty with Iran is his single most positive accomplishment in eight years, but that's in dispute by many on the left and right.
Affordable Education
From the left, Obama received massive applause for affordable education.
Affordable "anything" would get applause from socialists. Yet, "affordable education" will drive up costs every bit as much as "affordable housing".
Without a doubt, history shows that any time government sets out to make something "affordable", the opposite happens.
Dare I ask: Were Bush's "Ownership Society" and "No Child Left Behind" programs all that different from Obama's proposals?
Pure Political Bullshit
75% of Obama's speech was purely political bullshit. Proving the sorry state of divisive politics, Obama received little applause, even on topics where he was right.
Campaign finance reform was one such topic.
Congress is clearly bought and sold by special interest groups. On the left, unions rule. On the right, bankers rule.
In general, neither party really wants reform. If they did, we would have had reform by now.
Hypocrisy in Action
Had a Republican given the exact same speech (stripping out global warming and other obvious nonsense), Republicans would have applauded every step of the way.
Obama's mention of "No Child Left Behind", a ridiculous program of the Bush administration, was nothing short of brilliant.
Republicans cheered Bush's program at that time. Curiously, there was dead silence from the Republican side of the aisle when Obama praised it.
Had a Republican bragged about taking out Osama Bin Laden, Republicans would have cheered like mad and Democrats would have been silent. We saw the opposite.
Brilliance Explained
Obama's SOTU speech was pure brilliance. With just a few minor tweaks, either party could have given the same speech, with accolades from their party.
That's "brilliant bullshit" at its finest.
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
