Wednesday, February 06, 2019

State Of The Union

     Last time I checked, the Second War Between The States had not started, so we're good.

     There was a speech last night.  I watched some of it.  It's mostly ritual -- a nod to current events, a nod to history, and a lot of pushing the President's agenda.  If you like him, you liked it.  If you don't like him, you didn't.

     There's not usually any tea-leaf reading to be done over a State of the Union speech and this one was especially that way.  We had all three branches of the Federal government in one room and they all got home okay afterward -- and that, in the broad sweep of things, really is an accomplishment.  A low bar?  Sure it is.  The Fed.gov is supposed to be a plowhorse, not a hedge-jumper.


1 comment:

pigpen51 said...

I watched a little bit of the State of the Union last night. You hit it pretty much spot on. The president was sort of subdued, only whipping the Republican side up on the points he intended to, with the Democrats tagging along when expected. The Democrats of course looking dour at times, when they could, but one could tell that it was by effort, not completely due to the president's words.
I usually have tried to listen to at least some of all State of the Union speeches, just to get a feel for what was going on in the room. I usually have not listened to the entire thing, unless it was an unusual year. This year was not especially unusual, to me. Sure the Democrats hate Trump, and there is a lot of acrimony on both sides, but that is not a really unusual thing.
Trump did seem to be trying to read from a written speech, or prompter, at least he was trying to hit on a set of points, and he was going to make sure that he hit every one.
The highlight for me that I saw was that he brought in a couple of survivors of the holocaust, one from Dachau, and a soldier who was in the American forces who participated in the rescuing of Dachau, and those two were seated next to each other. A nice touch, they got a huge ovation, of course, and when Trump said that it was ones birthday, the entire room spontaneously broke out into singing happy birthday. That may be the only time that both houses and both parties will agree on anything for the next two years.
Not much came out of the evening that I can see. Of course the news networks try and make it to seem like the biggest thing in the world, but that is their job. Although they had Liz Warren and her Native American mess and the other political crap in Virginia to spin and twist also.