Here's Some Bad State Of The Union Advice For President Obama

Here's Some Bad State Of The Union Advice For President Obama

In just a few hours, President Barack Obama will deliver a speech called “The State Of The Union” and deliver it to a joint session of Congress. It’s probably already written, save for maybe the obligatory “bad joke that humanizes the president,” and waiting to go to the printers, but hey, when you are the White House’s political opponents and you have some super-bad advice for what should be included in the speech, there’s no time like the present! Let’s review the highlights.

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.): MOAR BENGHARGLE, PLS:

The families of Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty deserve better from this country. They deserve more from this president.

With that in mind, on January 16, I went to the Senate floor and made a simple and respectful request of the president.

I asked that he take the opportunity during his State of the Union address -- on Tuesday, January 28 -- to give those families and all Americans the whole story.

This is a break from Sen. Roberts’ previous admonitions that Obama needed to take things less seriously. I’d be interested in knowing, actually, what Obama thought of his decision to go to war in Libya in the first place -- of which the attack in Benghazi was a natural and predictable consequence -- but I’m guessing I’m going to have to wait for the book. At this point, however, “the whole story” of Benghazi so obviously involves the CIA that the telling of it would probably resemble what the wags call “pulling an Edward Snowden.” I guess that would give the president a rather intimate experience with his own administration’s policy on whistleblowing, though!

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.): You apologize for Obamacare, right now!

“For the State of the Union, one of the things President Obama really ought to do is look in the TV camera and say to the over five million Americans all across this country who have had their health insurance cancelled because of Obamacare -- to look in the camera and say, ‘I’m sorry,’” the Republican senator from Texas suggested during an interview with Bob Schieffer on CBS’s "Face the Nation" Sunday. “‘I told you if you like your health insurance plan you can keep it. I told you if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. And that wasn’t true. I’m sorry.’”

When President Obama stands before the American people to deliver the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, I hope he admits that ObamaCare is an insidious law and a failed experiment in big government.

Obama has basically already taken it squarely on the chin for the whole “if you like your plan, you can keep it” fiasco, and there’s no getting around the justness of that. That said, I actually wouldn’t be surprised if he offered up another round of mea culpas for the bungled rollout of the HealthCare.gov website tonight. If he wanted to be serious about that issue, he’d use the State of the Union to call for broad reform of the IT procurement process that brought all of those woes. He’d be doing future presidential administrations of all parties a favor: Future generations of Americans are going to demand seamless interaction with the government over the Internet and on their mobile devices in greater and greater numbers, so we as a nation need to get out in front of that surge.

Probably won’t happen, though, and it would be an arguably pointless thing to call for, seeing as the House of Representatives is controlled by a party for whom government dysfunction is an essential part of its brand identity.

As for apologizing for the law? At the moment, my position is, "LOL, no," with an option to revisit the matter once we see how enrollment is faring come October.

The Heritage Foundation: Apologize for everything!

President Obama should use his State of the Union speech tonight to launch a much-needed “apology tour” to the American people.

I dunno, it doesn’t sound to me like that would create many jobs.

Reps. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Tim Griffin (R-Ark.): Could Obama just read us a newspaper? We are clueless.

“The entire purpose of the State of the Union Address is for the President to outline where we stand as a nation,” Griffin said. “So instead of more talk about salmon and high-speed rails, more criticism of the Supreme Court or more praise for the Soviet’s Sputnik mission -- President Obama should use his State of the Union Address to tell the American people the truth about the fundamental financial challenges our country faces.”

Actually, I genuinely think that Gardner and Griffin are sincerely asking for someone to help them figure out what’s going on in America? They seem to have completely succumbed to the depredations of Beltway-insiderism and have developed the blinkered perspective of America’s cosseted elites. What Gardner and Griffin want Obama to do in the State of the Union address is agree to gut earned benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare. The popular opinion expressed by “the American people” is that these programs are popular and should be preserved or strengthened.

The State of the Union address isn’t a thing that’s going to bring about an immediate improvement in Obama’s stagnant approval ratings, but if you’re looking for a way that Obama could make them even worse in one fell swoop, you really can’t beat going on national teevee and saying, “Hey, everyone, how about we pointlessly add to the misery of retired people and poor Americans for no other reason than all of this town’s clucking deficit hacks have their boxers in a wad?”

My Bad Advice for the President: Just don’t do these State of the Union addresses anymore.

Actually, that’s pretty good advice, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to charge for it, sorry.

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Before You Go

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