The State of the Union Revisited

Biden and Boehner. 

I stayed up in the small hours of Wednesday morning to watch President Obama deliver his State of the Union message. It is a splendid occasion. The Chamber of DC’s House of Representatives and its members play host to the Senate, the Supreme Court Justices, the army, navy, air force and marines Chiefs of Staff, members of the cabinet (bar one) and senior members of the administration. In the gallery the First Lady and Mrs Biden are with many invited guests, some of whom get a mention from the President.

The event may not have the pomp and circumstance of the British Opening of Parliament ceremony but what it lacks in colourful show it makes up in American hoopla. The facial expressions of Vice President Biden and Speaker Boehner were amusing, a sort of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee as good news for one meant bad news for the other.

The President’s entrance is like that of a prize fighter as the entire chamber stands and provides a standing ovation. This year, Mr Obama took a good five minutes to get to the podium. That’s a long time to stand, clapping. One year, I must count the number of times during the speech that legislators and others rise to applaud something said. Of course, roughly half the chamber stays seated and doesn’t applaud at all. It looks really odd. The speech always contains references to the military, always complimentary, at which moment all the Joint Chiefs stand, clap and smile. Occasionally the judiciary gets a mention but the justices never rise. Presumably there’s a legal precedent requiring them to stay seated.

The speech itself could be equated to a diplomatic declaration of war. The President threatened to veto any legislation which would undermine negotiations with Iran! I assume that implies the talks are going well? Syria hardly got a mention. So, genocide is okay? As for the economy, the President laid his cards on the table. Executive orders will be the dish of the day if Congress can’t get it together. Mr Obama mentioned specifically raising the minimum wage and Myra, i.e. “my Retirement Account”, an initiative where savings will be treated like IRAs for tax and “guaranteed” by having the funds invested in US government bonds. CEOs will be pressured to end discrimination against the long-term unemployed. And so it went on, with the President announcing measures that had already been tabled, for example limits on carbon pollution from power plants.

I confess that I am an Obama fan when it comes to speeches. He is a great orator and sometimes becomes folksy. That would woo anyone. However, the style of the speech cannot cover the lack of substance. The President knows this year is his last hurrah, the final chance to change for the better lives of ordinary Americans. Too soon, he will find the nation embroiled in November’s mid-terms and his presidency descend into two years of lame-duck, if his ratings aren’t there already. One wonders if the Framers of the Constitution would like the kind of politics coming from Washington?