The State of the Union

This evening the world will stop. For a brief hour, people that should be sleeping will stay awake. People that would rather be watching crime shows will tune in, and people that hate the president’s guts will listen to him speak for one hour.

It’s a bit of politics, pageantry, history and pure magic all rolled into one speech. The State of the Union Address. The President is called to the witness stand to give us the State of the Union, from his point of view, in his version of reality.

Of course, we can already be pretty sure of what the president will speak on. He will talk about how great the economy is doing under his administration, as he reminds everyone almost every week in his weekly addresses. At some point he will make a reference to our troops. He will talk about his record, and will probably address the fact that his party just lost congress. This in turn will most likely bring about some sort of token mention of how he is for bipartisanship.

He will also talk about his new plan for free college for all, and his sceme to tax the rich more to pay for this.

But we must remember that that is the president’s view. According to a Gallup Poll yesterday half of the country disapproves of the job he is doing. And less than half approve. Many Republicans would tell you that Barak Obama is in no way interested in bipartisanship dealing, but rather has the view of deal making that says “you compromise and give me what I want, and we have ourselves a bargain.”

The economy has not healed like it should be, foreign problems are mounting, and nothing is being done about them. Race has become a problem once again, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is still not working the way it should, and immigration still has not been reformed.

Barak Obama is already a lame duck. He is not running again, the hourglass has already been turned over for the final time and the sand is now running out. His day in the sun is almost done, and whatever he says now, it will certainly carry less weight than before.

Some presidents have managed to keep themselves powerful right down to the very end, but so far not this one. As for the real State of the Union, many Americans do not think it is as great as Obama seems to think.

When the grand speech is given, one of the great moments every year is when the doors are opened, the president is announced, and he walks towards the stage. Some have done it with a sure stride; some have even had reason to take that walk with a swagger. But for Barak, this year, his walk will be a bit more of a limp.

Andrew C. Abbott