The 2011 State of the Union speech leaves one to wonder whether it serves a useful purpose any more, or is it just another political stump speech.  

I didn't watch the 2011 State of the Union speech.  I didn't need to.  After all, for years now what gets said is merely a lot of cheer-leading and campaign style rhetoric.  You really can't take much of anything any president now says seriously. 

And so, after reading the text of the 2011 speech later it became obvious that the 2011 speech was another case of a politician speaking out of both sides of his mouth.  While this is nothing unusual, in this instance the amount of double-speak was worse than usual.  In fact, Barack Obama had, last year, characterized this type of speech as "grandstanding when the cameras are on."  Now he is as guilty of what he has condemned as the next guy.  Of course, it would be silly to assert that he hadn't done the same previously, but back to the double-speak.   

Consider how Mr. Obama has been the chief promoter of profligate government spending, while at the same time talking right and left about the need to deal with the national debt.  Obviously, with his numerous calls for more spending (aka investment) he has no intention of dealing with the budget or debt issue.  Despite his statement that he would be willing to listen to other people's opinions, for him it is a simple matter to discount any ideas for cutting spending followed by pontification about how unrealistic their suggestion is.  He can be certain that 95% of the media will back him to the hilt. 

Next, lets look at the issue of jobs.  No intelligent person takes the assertion that we are in an economic recovery seriously.  Even Jay Leno suggested on the Wednesday night following the speech that the instead of the back of the recession broken, the audience might be broke and that the recession was back.  Does Obama really want to increase employment?  Then he could do the job in no time flat.  First, admit that Obamacare was a mistake and request that Congress repeal it.  After all, the labor unions and most major corporations are scrambling for exemptions because they know it won't perform as advertised and is a job killer.  Next, he could direct the Environmental Protection Agency and other government bureaus regulating energy production to get out of the way of oil drilling, coal mining, refinery building, nuclear reactor construction, or anything else impacting the national energy supply.  And, while he is on a roll, he could also ask for elimination of the National Labor Relations Act as outdated and atavistic. 

Meanwhile, the real estate market continues to be stagnant.  Employment statistics, ditto.  The only things rising are the stock market and the cost of commodities.  Inflation anyone?  The brakes are kept on the energy industry while the prices of gasoline and food rise.  Prices on the commodity exchanges are rising as well.  No, there isn't any official inflation, but the bill at your favorite store or gas station tells another story.  And the moral of that story is that you can trust government statistics even less now than in the past.  Obama never mentioned inflation in his speech.  He also said nothing about the sorry state of affairs at the Social Security Administration, or about the states that are on the verge of bankruptcy, if not already bankrupt, but not yet acknowledging same.  And lastly, there is the fact that he has set the nation on course for a $1.4 trillion excess of spending over income this year with increasing deficits for as long as the nation lasts.  Of course, the Congressional budget office didn't report on the status of Social Security or the national deficit until the day after the speech.  Maybe Mr. Obama didn't know about these things, and if you believe that, maybe I can sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.  

Of course, King Barack I had to renew his call for infrastructure building and high-speed rail, which, he assured us, wouldn't require enhanced passenger searches.  Well, I have news for you, just in case you haven't had any other ideas about using the rails for terrorism, that the science fiction series Caprica started off its first season with a maglev train being blown up by terrorists.  And, lest we forget, we were supposed to spend all of those stimulus funds on "shovel ready" infrastructure jobs that didn't exist.  I had a great one in mind; if the money had actually been made available, widening US Highway 290 between where I live in Cypress and the I-610 Loop in Houston.  It would save loads of time and gas for me and all the other folks who commute that route every day.  And then, where are we going to get the money for all of this?  Will we borrow it from China too? 

And don't forget that high-speed rail requires a lot of energy to run.  How are we going to get that energy?  Certainly not from solar panels, windmills and corn ethanol.  One of my contacts in the commodity trading business assures me that the rise in corn prices is due to the diversion of grain from food to fuel, where it costs more to produce than gasoline, while providing only about two thirds as much energy per gallon.  The government's current energy plans simply don't work. 

And how about out-competing the rest of the world?  Well, we can't do that while we are strangling on regulation and destroying the profit incentives that make innovation and development rewarding.  Over-taxing businesses and eliminating their access to reasonably priced energy will not bring about a brighter future.  And, this kind of development won't happen just because someone wishes for it.  You can't order the world to comply with your desires. On the individual level, no one will, in the long run, create the next generation of computer chips just because the government is going to give you a medal.  People want financial rewards and security for their families.  But the Obama mantra continues as asks for everyone to work together to "win the future."  It is a hollow request, very easily understood as a call for everyone to support his agenda.  And when everyone realizes that there is nothing in it for him or her, they will refuse to do so.   

What big government advocates forget whenever they open their mouths is that Edison, Bell, the Wright Brothers Hewlett and Packard, as well as the guys behind the creation of Google and a million other American achievements did it all without government help.  They didn't need it or seek it.  Today's business owners or potential entrepreneurs need government to get out of the way.  But that's not what is happening.  Instead we get legislation such as the Food Safety Modernization act, which creates mountains of new regulations and chokes off more of our independent agribusiness.  Whenever government gets involved business suffers.  When government stays away then it does well.  Unless of course the business is involved in crony capitalism, in which case the politicians and business management both benefit, unless they are new businesses that the government will strangle in order to preserve the old.  Obama has all the evidence of this, but wouldn't look at it to save his life.   

Ignoring all the other topics of this needless speech is fairly easy, as it amounted to shameless self-promotion.   Particularly the statement that we either move forward together or not at all, which was a thinly veiled threat that he would not tolerate deviation from his agenda.  Days later he was calling for the government of Egypt to give the people what they want.  Yet here he refuses to do the same.  More doublespeak. 

Presenting some form of message on the state of the Union is a constitutional requirement.  But when this requirement is used for political purposes rather than for its original intent; an opportunity to examine the national condition seriously and give the body politic a realistic appraisal of the nation's needs, then one has to question the usefulness of the requirement in modern times.  This becomes particularly true when the state of the union is called strong, as it was on Tuesday night, when obviously there are serious cracks in the national foundation.  States are challenging federal law through a mechanism known as nullification, not seen since before the War Between the States.  Bills are in the works in a significant number of states to require presidential candidates to prove their eligibility to run.  Others are moving to or have declared goods originating within a state and sold strictly within the state boundaries outside of the federal interstate commerce power.  One serious proposal in Texas would create criminal penalties for anyone acting to enforce Obamacare.  Our national borders generally leak like a sieve and our finances are quite literally one step away from collapse.  This is hardly a condition to be described as strong.  Yet no one is seriously willing to tell the truth. 

The weak, poorly directed speech of last Tuesday makes it fairly clear that Mr. Obama is now in the position of a dog that has finally caught a car.  He simply doesn't know what to do with it.  It reinforces what many people knew years ago; that he simply doesn't have the intellect to run a hot dog stand, let alone a government.  When one seeks political power it is a good idea to know how to use it properly.  A bunch of ideologues who believe that the people will act like trained seals when ordered simply don't know jack about America.  It is time that Mr. Obama went back to the planet Zontar where his kind of society may work and leave us normal intelligent citizens to pick up the pieces by restoring a free society.  And just maybe we can restore the State of the Union speech to its proper status in the process.