Liberty and Justice for All!

Tonight America saw a leader, someone who didn’t just run to what his party wants in the face of political defeats. We saw a president who doubled down on the bipartisanship he called for when he ran for President.

In the start of the debate (and towards the middle) he did make a point of reminding everyone that the horrible economy we are currently facing was inherited by Obama and not created by him and that any short term deficits created by the recovery act was needed to make sure to plug the hole in this economy.

The mention of the recovery act reminded me of my drive to MD recently. I drove through MS and AL, conservative states with GOP governors that publicly opposed the stimulus bill. Of course this did not stop them from accepting funds to improve the infrastructure (like highways) and erecting signs taking credit for spending the “recovery money”.

Obama also called out the GOP members who scoffed at the idea that the spending freeze wouldn’t take place until next year, reminding them how their jobs work and the spending bill that they pass will take effect in 2011.

But criticizing the GOP was not the focus of the address. Obama focused on truly calling for bipartisan solutions on how to fix the problems we face.

On healthare, he stood firm on the need to pass reform, but called on others to propose alternatives if they had them.

On energy, not only did he push for his clean energy bill, but he welcomed drilling offshore for oil and gas, manufacturing safer nuclear power plants, and developing clean coal technology.

Of course, the GOP stood for all the things they want in energy legislation, but sat down for what they didn’t want. I guarantee you that if Obama puts up a clean energy bill that includes drilling for oil and gas, developing clean coal, and building safer nuclear power plants, that the GOP will STILL vote against it. Why? Because they just do not want to pass anything that Obama can claim a political victory on… even if he comes halfway and gives them what they want when it comes to policy.

Obama could pass healthcare legislation that includes tort reform and all the other things they want and the GOP would still vote against it.

So while Obama is making the call for bipartisanship, I am not sure there is any GOP Senator with the integrity to answer that call and do what is right for America. And if they do not answer that call, perhaps it is time to drop the carrot and use the stick.

Finally, Obama called for the repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell” because as he said earlier, what is right isn’t always what is popular. Why people who want to risk their lives to defend our country should be forbidden to do so because of who they have relationships with is beyond me. Of course, Obama has been slow on pushing equal rights for our GLBT citizens so I will believe this call for increased equality when I see action on it.

The GOP response was, of course, full of crap. Health insurance can already be sold across state lines. What the GOP proposes is to allow insurance companies to circumvent state laws by basing themselves in a home state with easy regulations and having the customers who purchase those policies in other states fall under the jurisdiction of the state the insurance company is based in. That just makes no sense.

What I didn’t hear from the GOP is proposals that show they will come halfway.

And it is obvious the Governor of VA has not read his constitution in a while. The fifth amendment applies to all people, whatever the crime, and not just citizens. If we start picking and choosing who gets due process, the terrorists win.

A final thing to point out is that we had a minor Joe Wilson moment tonight. It was not as loud or disruptive as Senator Wilson was last year but I do not recall seeing what I saw tonight in past addresses.

When criticizing the ruling by the Supreme Court giving corporations the ability to spend unlimited funds supporting or opposing any political candidate, Activist Alito visibly shook his head and said that it was “not true”. I do not recall ever seeing any member of the SCOTUS do anything but sit there. They never stand, they never clap, and they never respond to anything that is said. They just sit there like 9 little statues. That is, until tonight. I guess his ruling wasn’t activist enough and he needed the American public to see his activism.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 11:06 pm and is filed under President Obama, State of the Union, Why I would never be a Republican, Civil Rights, Supreme Court, Discrimination, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.