The Patriot Post® · 2015 SOTU: 'Mission Accomplished — I'm Just Awesome!'

By Mark Alexander ·
https://patriotpost.us/alexander/32548-2015-sotu-mission-accomplished-im-just-awesome-2015-01-21

“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” –Article II, Section 1, Constitution of the United States (1787)

For the last two weeks, my inbox has been inundated with emails priming the pump for Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union – a desperate attempt to avoid a repeat of the 2014 SOTU ratings bust with the lowest viewership since the Clinton years. As my colleague Peggy Noonan put it then, “No one’s really listening to [Obama] … a nonstop windup talk machine.”

The White House deluge started with this message from Joe Biden: “Most years, we keep what’s going to be in the President’s State of the Union address a secret until the night of the speech. That’s changing this year. Because the fact is that this Administration isn’t going to wait for anybody when it comes to taking whatever steps we can to help the middle class and keep strengthening our economy. [Blah, Blah, Blah, ad nauseum…]”

Then there were follow up messages from Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Michelle O. and, of course, Barack, who on the afternoon of his teleprompted campaign recital claimed: “It’s a new year, and our country is moving forward. Gas prices are falling, more people are going to work, and more families have access to affordable health care. We need this progress to continue, and we need to build on it. I’m ready for that challenge. Are you? Let’s get to work.”

Well, once again I endured Obama’s droning drivel Tuesday night so you did not have to. Yes, it’s rather like sorting out the solids in a grease trap – a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.

This year’s SOTU can be summed up with the inimitable words of that great American philosopher, Yogi Berra: “It’s déjà vu all over again.” It was not so much a repeat of his last six annual messages as it was styled after his 2004 Democrat National Convention keynote speech, when his primary political benefactors, Jean-Francois Kerry and Teddy Kennedy, were setting up an unknown junior Illinois Senator to dupe American voters in 2008. And indeed he did.

In addition to a flood of emails, for the last week BO’s adoring Leftmedia has billed his SOTU as the “Robin Hood” speech, given that Obama was going to make class warfare a centerpiece of his remarks, as he has always done. However, as English scholars note, from the earliest references to the fictitious character of Robin Hood in the 14th century, there was no mention of redistributing wealth from rich to poor. Ironically, Robin Hood endeavored to steal from his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham, who was Prince John’s tax collector, and return those taxes to those from whom they were extorted.

That failed analogy notwithstanding, Obama’s latest national address was another fine demonstration of his mastery of the BIG Lie, delivered as if the 2014 midterm election was a “Democrat wave” instead of an historic loss. An observer from another planet might have assumed Obama, in addition to president, is both speaker of the House and Senate majority leader, as he set about to frame their congressional agenda for the next two years. From the way Obama talked, who would have guessed the 114th Congress has 13 fewer Democrat senators and 69 fewer Democrat House members than when Obama gave his first address in 2009?

His atmospheric bravado was so disconnected from reality that my favorite junior senator, Joni Ernst, who delivered the Republican response, did not even justify Obama’s comments with rebuttal. Instead, she focused on the Republican agenda.

So, after Obama worked his way through the gauntlet of “aisle hogs,” here are a few podium excerpts outlining his Democrat Party agenda for the next two years, with The Patriot’s rebuttal:

BO: Tonight, after a breakthrough year for America, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999.

TP: After one quarter of 5% growth, Obama is claiming “It’s morning again in America,” as Ronald Reagan accurately asserted decades ago only after five consecutive quarters of 7% growth. Fact is, despite Obama’s failed “economic recovery” plan, American businesses have endured and are making every effort to make a comeback. But the current “Obama Boom” is primarily the result of a dramatic decline in oil prices and a Republican-led slowdown in government growth, both of which Obama has opposed. The national debt topped $18 trillion last week, and increased more under Obama than every past president combined – and now Obama is requesting $4 trillion in his current budget. Finally, if workforce participation was as high today as it was when Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 9.9%.

BO: We are as free from the grip of foreign oil as we’ve been in almost 30 years. … Today, America is number one in oil and gas. … And thanks to lower gas prices and higher fuel standards, the typical family this year should save about $750 at the pump.

TP: Seriously? He is taking credit for lower oil prices – and with a straight face.

BO: The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong.

TP: The 2008 financial crisis was seeded by Bill Clinton’s government mortgage lending policies, and now Obama is setting up a do-over with a new round of affordable mortgage lending policies.

BO: Will we allow ourselves to be sorted into factions and turned against one another? Or will we recapture the sense of common purpose that has always propelled America forward? … A better politics is one where we debate without demonizing each other.

TP: Sorting people into “factions turned against one another” and “demonizing each other” is the Democrat Party’s primary modus operandi, and Obama has perfected the art.

BO: In two weeks, I will send this Congress a budget filled with ideas that are practical, not partisan.

TP: Partisan? Obama? Surely not!

BO: In the past year alone about 10 million uninsured Americans finally gained the security of health coverage.

TP: Obama’s so-called “Affordable Care Act” was, is and will continue to be an unmitigated disaster, which he sold with a litany of lies.

BO: So the verdict is clear. Middle-class economics works. … Middle-class economics means helping working families feel more secure in a world of constant change. That means helping folks afford childcare, college, health care, a home [and] retirement.

TP: Ah, “middle-class economics” got five mentions in the SOTU, and no doubt will become the mantra for the 2016 presidential election. Unfortunately for the middle class, which was strong five decades ago, the surge of government taxation, regulation and social engineering policies manipulating the economy since then, have had the net effect of constricting the middle class and limiting upward mobility. So, Obama is now proposing more taxation, regulation and social engineering policies to improve the “middle-class economy,” validating once again the old adage, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”? But it’s not really about the middle class, it’s all about political sound bites.

BO: This Congress still needs to pass a law to make sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work.

TP: Obama’s “equal pay” charade is a gender-bait hoax.

BO: To everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, try it. If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.

TP: Obama’s minimum wage hike is a class-bait hoax for young people.

BO: I’ll be taking new action to help states adopt paid leave laws of their own.

TP: As for paid leave, Obama has already instituted a colossal amount of paid worker leave – called “unemployment insurance.”

BO: Let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year, and make this country stronger for decades to come.

TP: Obama’s notion of a “bipartisan infrastructure plan” would be a trillion-dollar boondoggle to greatly expand government spending.

BO: I intend to protect a free and open Internet, extend its reach to every classroom, and every community and help folks build the fastest networks.

TP: If you think ObamaCare is great, just wait until he launches ObamaNet, promising you can keep your ISP and keep your domain.

BO: My first duty as commander in chief is to defend the United States of America. … I believe in a smarter kind of American leadership. We lead best when we combine military power with strong diplomacy; when we leverage our power with coalition building; when we don’t let our fears blind us to the opportunities that this new century presents. That’s exactly what we’re doing right now. And around the globe, it is making a difference. … We’ve halted the progress of [Iran’s] nuclear program.

TP: Yes, Obama’s foreign policy is awesome, unless you consider that the threat of Islamist attack on the U.S. is now unprecedented, and there is no place on the planet where the U.S. standing is better than it was before Obama took office. Fact is, his foreign policy malfeasance is unparalleled. Here is the real foreign policy picture: Under Obama, there has been a dramatic resurgence of al-Qa'ida and there is a Middle East meltdown underway in Yemen, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Jordan and Gaza. This was the first SOTU since the 9/11 attack on our nation, that has omitted any reference to “al-Qa'ida” or “Islam,” as Obama’s preference is to refer to Islamist terrorism as “the ideology of violent extremism.” Obama has squandered our hard-won gains in Iraq and the Islamic State continues to surge in the region. His hollow “Red Line” with Syria fizzled. The threat from Iran is growing daily. And notably, the “Russian Spring” in Crimea and the rest of the region continues unabated. But never fear, John Kerry is on the case, and “You’ve Got A Friend!” Responding to Obama’s absurd suggestion that Iran is not rapidly progressing toward nuclear weapon capability, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said, “The more I hear from the administration and its quotes, the more it sounds like talking points that come straight out of Tehran.” And in a dramatic end run around Obama, House Speaker John Boehner invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress. (Anybody for terrorist profiling?)

BO: As Americans, we don’t mind paying our fair share of taxes as long as everybody else does, too.

TP: Ah, yes, Obama’s new and improved “fair-share income redistribution” plan – as opposed to the current redistribution plan.

BO: “I want to focus…on the values at stake in the choices before us. … It stands up for democratic values… And there’s one last pillar of our leadership, and that’s the example of our values. … Leading – always – with the example of our values. I made Illinois my home…a microcosm of the country where [we] share certain bedrock values. … A better politics is one where we…talk issues and values…

TP: I don’t share Obama’s values, and his utopian dictation "shared values” is alarming.

BO: No challenge – no challenge – poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change. … The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security.

TP: Ask yourself, why did Obama stop referring to “global warming” in favor of “climate change”? Could it be that “climate change” means anthropogenic activity is now responsible for every weather event, be it cold or hot, wet or dry? Why yes!

BO: Since I’ve been president, we’ve worked responsibly to cut the population of Gitmo in half. Now it is time to finish the job. And I will not relent in my determination to shut it down.

TP: The consequence of releasing hundreds of terrorists (like the Taliban Five who were exchanged for an Army deserter) will be heavy. Eventually, when it is determined that some of those terrorists returned to the killing fields – and that time will come – their victims, particularly any American or allied deaths, will be hung around Obama’s neck. Even Obama conceded last June, “Is there the possibility of some of them trying to return to activities that are detrimental to us? Absolutely.” On the other hand, Hillary Clinton [downplayed the threat](http://patriotpost.us/posts/26551) declaring, “These five guys are not a threat to the United States.”

BO: We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. … [But we must] reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves all of us.

TP: Of course he would have to mention Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the primary race-bait fodder Obama and his chief race relations counselors, Al Sharpton and Attorney General Eric Holder, are using to keep his black constituency fired up. Obama, et al., are an offense to the legacy of MLK. Notably, just hours after Obama completed his SOTU, the Department of Justice announced it was closing any further investigation into Officer Darren Wilson, who shot Brown – an investigation which was a political charade.

Finally, Obama insisted, “I have no more campaigns to run. I know because I won both of them. … My only agenda for the next two years is the same as the one I’ve had since the day I swore an oath on the steps of this Capitol – to do what I believe is best for America.”

In other words, Obama will spend the next two years on campaign stops across the country, spewing his divisive trademark class warfare rhetoric under the name “middle-class economics.” No doubt he will launch that campaign on college campuses, where some impressionable young idealists still drink his snake oil elixir and make for an enthusiastic political backdrop.

Needless to say, almost all of those policies violate his oath “to Support and Defend” our Constitution.

But the fact is, Obama now has zero credibility. If the Republican congressional majority will take the lead and not get bogged down in fratricidal infighting, Obama will not gain traction.

Pro Deo et Constitutione – Libertas aut Mors
Semper Fortis Vigilate Paratus et Fidelis