I tried to read it and gave up after three paragraphs. It was the same old political bafflegab and entirely too long.
I settled for reading what some pundits had to say about it and the words "straw men" kept coming up. A columnist in The New Yorker thought it a rousing campaign speech and compared it to Harry Truman giving 'em hell. Liberals loved it, conservatives didn't, what else is new?
Will the President be shocked, shocked that Congress doesn't immediately jump into action to enact his proposal? No, he'd be shocked beyond belief if they did.
Obama's goal is to show that he tried to solve the problem but couldn't get Republicans in Congress to cooperate. This speech is all about Obama trying to get reelected, it is not about fixing the economy.
Republicans didn't offer a rebuttal which would have emphasized their opposition to his borrow-and-spend proposal. Why help Obama portray the GOP as the problem?
What will happen in Congress? The Republican-controlled House will pass one set of actions aimed at stimulating the economy without spending money. These will include curbing expensive regulations, encouraging foreign trade, maybe facilitating domestic energy production.
The Democrat-controlled Senate will try to offer the President's program or parts of it. They won't pass much since they require 60 votes to shut off "discussion" and Democrats at most can come up with perhaps 55 votes. Result: continued deadlock.
The stock market has given its verdict on the speech. As I write this the Dow Jones Industrial index is down 312, that's 2.74% in one day. Ouch!
