For an hour I forgot that Obama was a Democrat

The revealing thing about the comments by Harry Reid’s and Chris [I forgot he was Black] Matthews is that people are conscious of race ALL THE TIME.  We don’t live in a post-racial society, but a hyper-racial one.  These are Obama’s friends.!  We can only imagine what the real racists are saying.

For me, the take-away from last night was that the Democrats, as the majority party, are as impotent as they were as the minority party.  Health care reform is all but dead, and even over-turning “don’t ask, don’t tell,”  seems like too tall an order for these yutzes.  I don’t believe, given all the outsourcing of our nation’s manufacturing sector, and the failed state of the auto industry, that it is possible to create enough jobs to stave off an economic disaster — not unless we invest heavily in green technology, and with the all-powerful minority Republican party standing in the way, this is next to impossible.  Though Obama paid lip service to green technology I do not  believe he has the drive to follow through. 

Glenn Greenwald at Salon wrote about the Alito breach of protocol, where he mouthed the words “Not true” during Obama’s criticism of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on corporations contributing to campaigns. 

  “Recall all of the lip-pursed worrying from The New Republic’s Jeffrey Rosen and his secret, nameless friends over the so-called “judicial temperament” of Sonia Sotomayor.  Alito’s conduct is the precise antithesis of what “judicial temperament” is supposed to produce. ”

This, rather than Matthew’s ignorant gaffe, is the real travesty of last night.  Whether one attain a success as a Supreme Court Justice, or an influential media personality, it is clear to me that intelligence and morality is not a deciding factor.

State of the Union: Depressing.

I defy any Republican to label Obama as a liberal.  After this long-winded, occasionally glib tribute to bi-partisanship, I was left with a sinking feeling that we, as a nation, are running on empty.  True, Obama made pains to attribute our enormous deficit to the tax cuts and war-funding by the Bush administration, but rather than cut military spending he offers a freeze on government spending.  This freeze will account for 1 of the 9 trillion of our debt.  It begs the question, what will it take to erase the entire debt.  Tax increases anyone? 

Health care reform received lip service, but it is clear that Obama’s main priority in 2010 will be job creation.  This is a noble endeavor, but offers little consolation to the hundreds of thousands that will lose their insurance in the near future.

The highlight of the evening for me was Chris Mathewspost-speech analysis.  He gleefully stated that he managed to forget that Obama was Black for one hour, and in the next breath said that the Democrats should go ‘all Clemenza’ [the hit man from The Godfather] on Mitch McConnell.  Amazing.

No hope, and you can keep the change.

This year’s State of the Union Address stands in stark contrast to last year, in which optimism reigned.  Back then we were welcoming a new president who had Democratic majority in Congress and, seemingly, a mandate from the American people to effect a new course in government. 

One year later Barack Obama has proven himself to be a corporatist in the Clintonian tradition.  Rather then ending our two [illegal] wars in the mideast, he has escalated our forces in Afghanistan, increasing our military budget while freezing spending on necessary domestic programs.  To my horror he has codified many of the civil rights abuses of the Bush-era, in particular denying prisoners their right to due process.

During the campaign Obama’s ‘hope and change’ bit felt a little contrived.  I desperately wanted to believe that real change was possible so I gave him a pass on the lack of specificity in his policies.  This SOTU is all the more depressing due to the fact the Democrats are in power.  I expected so much more.