The White House has to be discouraged listening to the commentary following the State of the Union. It seems that even the liberals who were so excited about candidate Obama’s promises to bring down the sea levels have realized that this guy makes a lot of promises he doesn’t intend to keep, and they just aren’t buying much of what he says anymore.
Here’s Ruth Marcus’s take on the President’s speech:
On a rhetorical and symbolic level, his exhortations to “overcome the numbing weight of our politics” felt stale. Voters entranced by this vision a year ago could be forgiven if they respond with more skepticism now, when partisanship and gridlock seem more entrenched than ever.
As a matter of substance, the admonition to “take another look” is hardly a clear rallying cry on health care, particularly coupled with the announcement that “jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010.” A president’s ability to magically create jobs is limited; tax credits for small businesses that create jobs and vows to “slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas” seem designed more with politics in mind than economics. On the debt, a spending freeze is a fine signal but small bore compared to the magnitude of the problem. Obama cannot allow his planned deficit-reduction commission to become another mechanism for the can-kicking he once promised to end.
The article is entitled “The Man Who Fell to Earth”-it’s fitting, except that perhaps the author and her pals should realize that he could never fly in the first place.