Obama's First "Message to Congress"

[Professor S]

Formally known as the State of the Union address, the name changed to avoid to awkward topic of the actual state of the union, I'm sure. Smart move from a very smart man.

Overall I thought it was a great speech, as speeches go. There was not much to disagree with as most of it centered on broad goals that both sides share, such as finding a successful conclusion to our military involvement in the Middle East. In the end the real difference between ideaologies isn't the end goals, but its the path to achieve them.

The best part of his speech was the positive nature of it. I think Pres. Obama has learned that negativity, whether it's candor or not, does more harm than good. As the leader of the free world he needed to come out last night and be decisive and optimistic, and he did that in spades. We'll see his approval rating jump 10 points at least, I think.

Aside from the obligatory raising of taxes for the top two percent of earners, there isn't much to get up in arms about, if you're a fiscal conservative. And there were some definite positives for conservatives, such as cutting spending (what spending has yet to be seen) and educational reform (we'll see what happens once the Teacher's Union is done with congress). The devil is in the details, but taking the speech at face value, I'd say he scored about an A- at least.

In the end I think the big question is whether or not this speech marked a new way forward, or if he believes the political actions he's endorsed so far are representative of the ideas he raised in his speech. If its the latter, he and we may be in for a rough ride.