Quote of the Day

"Our troops come from every corner of this country – they are black, white, Latino, Asian and Native American. They are Christian and Hindu, Jewish and Muslim. And, yes, we know that some of them are gay. Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love. And with that change, I call on all of our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and the ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation."

--President Obama in tonight's State of the Union Address.  Significant, although it was the only mention of any gay issue in the speech.  Here are a few other points:

There was a great deal of talk about competitiveness.  "The future is ours to win."  "We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out build the rest of the world."  "This is our Sputnik moment."  Competitiveness was the over-arching theme of the speech.     

"Eliminate the billions in tax dollars currently given to oil companies."  Great words.  Never happen.

Simplify the tax code.  Everyone agrees.  Never happen.

He's open to ideas to make health care reform better.  He hit on the advantages of the new law and did a pretty decent job of defending it.  Boehner looks constipated.

He called for medical malpractice reform.  Really?  How very Rick Perry 2003 of him. 

He called for a freeze on "annual domestic spending" for five years.  Gimmick.  Never happen. 

"I will veto any bill with earmarks."  I've got to hand it to the President.  He knows how to get ahead of a Republican issue.  This one brought a standing ovation from Sen. McCain. 

"American Muslims are a part of our American family."  It needed to be said and took some guts.

"This July we will begin to bring our troops home from Afghanistan."  Like they're home from Iraq?

The President is a master at saying things that Republicans have to applaud, whether they like it or not.  I was impressed that Republicans and Democrats sat together.  According to Rachel Maddow, the bipartisan Congressional Women's Softball Team sat together.  Naturally, she noted that.

Basically, the speech can be summed up as follows:  we're going to compete, resolve the deficit, kill the terrorists, and come home from Afghanistan.  I don't exactly know how we're going to do all of those things, but they sounded great.

"We Don't Quit, I Don't Quit"

Stirring words from President Obama who reminded me of candidate Obama in 2008.  Where has he been hiding for the past year?

I watched the whole thing last night, but was too buzzed from the SOTU Drinking Game to write about it until now.

He did a good job of laying out the positive things he's done for the economy, although Harry Reid really should have stifled that yawn on the "2 and a half million Americans are working today thanks to the stimulus." line.  He also did a good job of reminding Americans that he inherited this shit from those bozos sitting on their hands.  I was a bit surprised by the new commitment to nuclear energy and the proposed spending freeze feels like a stunt and a capitulation to failed Reaganonics.

I liked his shaming of the Republican culture of no.  "Don't delay or obstruct on every single thing just because they can."  "Just saying no is not leadership."  Of course, Mitch McConnell kept a Dubya-style smirk on his face the whole time and Boehner, as usual, looked like he overdid the Mary Kay.  Several times, McCain and his BFF Lindsay Lohan Graham gabbed like schoolgirls. 

It was interesting that the GOP sat on their butts without applauding anything at the beginning.  They didn't applaud tax cuts, sticking it to the banks, or any obvious Republican-bait.  Toward the end, however, there was some scattered applause from their side, here and there, as Obama became more and more inspiring.  I don't think this signals a new Republican shift into bi-partisanship, but maybe their iron discipline isn't quite as solid as I thought.

Certainly the big news for us was the announcement that he will end Don't Ask/Don't Tell. 

"This year I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are — it’s the right thing to do."

Great words.  Glad to hear it.  I've heard it before.  I'll believe it when it happens.  Americablog pointed out that he gave us a timetable, "this year" and that he said "repeal" instead of "change."  Maybe this is progress?  I'm cautiously optimistic. 

Joe from Joe.My.God noted that the Joint Chiefs sat there stone faced when the announcement was made.  Of course, it's appropriate for them to avoid reacting to the President's speech.  The military is supposed to be scrupulously non-partisan, right?    Here they are:

   Now, here they are when the President got tough with Iran's nuke program:

Oops.  Forget your military bearing, gentlemen?

I thought it was completely inapproprate for the President to criticize the Supreme Court before the American people.  It showed disrespect for the Court and for separation of powers.  It was also inappriate for Samuel Alito to react to it, shaking his head and mouthing "not true."

If you missed the speech, here's the whole thing.