Thread: State of the Union stirs current of hope, doubt

State of the Union stirs current of hope, doubt

Published January 26, 2011

TUCSON, Ariz. – Some craved words of comfort and a strong signal that the many promises made since a gunman's rampage stunned the nation just might, in fact, be kept.

Others sought much more than polite talk and a show of etiquette via a bipartisan seating arrangement — a turnaround in tone, yes, but also something tangible: More jobs, less spending, a dramatic course-correction for a country that, for some, seems headed down the wrong path.

The everyday Americans who tuned in for President Obama's State of the Union address heard, once more, the many calls for compromise and saw political adversaries sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in an unusual demonstration of unity. Some even cheered when the president referred to "the American family" as something more consequential than party or political preference.

And yet there was a common refrain among those who watched Tuesday night from bars and college campuses — even from the living rooms of homes in a town still scarred by tragedy.

Far more important than the words they heard will be what comes next.

"Them sitting together is a fine start but standing together tomorrow would be better, and I have very little confidence that they'll be standing together tomorrow," said Ron Canady, a retired telephone communications worker in Tucson.

In ways big and small, this southern Arizona town shared a stage with the president on a night meant to gauge where our nation has been and where it is headed. The address came not three weeks after an alleged assassin opened fire at a congresswoman's meet-and-greet here, leaving a nation in mourning for the six lives lost and politicians propagandizing a new era of civility.

On Tuesday, the parents of the youngest victim, 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, sat in the chamber of the U.S. House as President Obama spoke of moving "forward together, or not at all." Also in attendance were one of the doctors and an intern who helped save Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' life. Her place on the House floor was marked by an empty chair. All around it sat members of the Arizona congressional delegation, Republicans and Democrats side-by-side.

Here in Tucson, where memorials to the dead and wounded still cover a street corner outside of Giffords' office, people watched the speech longing for the same message as much of America: that there is still reason for hope.

Susan Hileman said she found one.

Hileman was holding Christina Green's hand when the shooting erupted. Though shot three times herself, 58-year-old Hileman is recovering. She watched the speech from her Tucson home, crying when Obama referred to Christina and the camera panned to her parents and brother, seated next to the first lady.

"I love when he talked about our robust democracy — that's what I took Christina to see that day," Hileman told The Associated Press. She said the president's speech — despite her own lingering grief — made her proud to be an American. "I believe wholeheartedly that we can be the kind of nation Christina thought we can be. We need to listen instead of scream at one another.

"We're all in this together," she said, adding that, in her view, the state of the union "is better than it has been and not as good as it's going to be."

That same uplifting attitude — perhaps unexpected at a time of high unemployment, an ongoing war and persistent debates over everything from health care coverage to the deficit — was shared by others who watched around the country: a student looking for work, an illegal immigrant hoping for citizenship, a retired insurance man who acknowledged "serious problems" but remained "very hopeful."

Ian Hainline, 21, studies political science at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. In 2008, his father was laid off and his mother was forced to move from part-time to a full-time job to help support him and his sister. Today, Hainline said, both of his parents are working, and he credited the president for helping begin to turn the economy back around.

"I'm sitting here in the midst of job-application season, feeling very confident about my ability to find a job," said Hainline, who supported Obama in 2008.

Carlos Savio Oliveira lives in Massachusetts but is an illegal immigrant from Brazil, brought to the U.S. by his parents when he was 8. Oliveira recognizes that his future largely depends on the many promises to get Democrats and Republicans to work together. Nevertheless, he said: "I'm hopeful ..."

The 22-year-old was elated over Obama's call for Congress to — "once and for all" — fix illegal immigration. "Wow," he said. "He nailed it, and it felt good."

Retired insurance executive Paul Marabella, of Medford, N.J., watched the speech from Philadelphia's National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan institution dedicated to increasing public understanding of the Constitution. Marabella, 68, lamented the lack of bipartisanship that has plagued Congress, acknowledging "we have some serious problems."

And yet, after the address, even his tone was a bit brighter. "I feel better about the president, and I'm very hopeful for Congress. Some of them will follow his lead," he said. "There were some baby steps in terms of sitting together. Now they ought to start walking."

College student Josh Schmidt dismissed all the talk of newfound civility. He gathered with about a dozen other students in a meeting room at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C., to eat pizza and take in the president's speech. The 19-year-old said this so-called new spirit of compromise, if it really exists, wouldn't last long.

"We're not talking about the real critical issue. Talk and debate is good, but we're not looking at things like gun control," he said, referring to the Tucson shootings.

That same cynicism was shared by Navy Seaman Ronnie Valentine, who watched the speech with buddies at a Ruby Tuesday's restaurant outside the gates of Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. Obama, he said, means well but can only do so much. "There is so much going on behind the scenes," he said.

Tea party advocates, especially, found little to cheer in Obama's address. In Indiana, college secretary Monica Boyer hosted a small viewing party for three board members of the tea party group, Kosciusko County Silent No More. She said they all laughed when the president promised more government transparency, and were unimpressed with the gesture of the Democratic and Republican members of Congress sitting together to watch the speech.

"A ploy from the Democrats," she called the move, saying: "If this is the first step that the Republicans take to working together, I don't care where they sit, but we will be watching their policies very closely. We did not elect them to compromise. We did not elect them to move to the center. We elected conservatives ...

"So if they just join hands and sing Kumbaya," she said, "that will be the last year we will have faith in the Republican Party."

Still others said they were waiting for Obama to back up his "centrist"-sounding proposals with action — namely through cuts in federal spending.

"I want to see him actually reduce spending, not just freeze it," said Kenneth Cobb, a tea party organizer from Bemidji, Minn. Cobb said he's all for civil, levelheaded dialogue, but not at the expense of the right to speak out against a federal government he sees as spending itself into a "slavery to debt."

"You can still be civil without compromising on principles," he said.

In Tucson, some 20 people gathered at Ron Canady's home for a viewing party. Like other Americans, they wanted to hear about jobs and health care and the war in Afghanistan. But more so, they wanted their president to reaffirm his commitment to unifying Congress — and the country. When the president spoke of Giffords, and her vacant seat suddenly popped up on the TV screen, several stopped sipping wine and wiped away tears.

Ron and his wife, Pat, consider Giffords a friend and sometimes volunteered at events like the one on Jan. 8 that turned into a bloodbath. A signed photograph of the congresswoman and Pat, framed the day before the shooting, hangs in their home office.

Their two vastly differing views on the state of this union may best reflect the conflicting hopes, and fears, of a country still struggling to recover from the many tough times of the past, the tragedy in Tucson being just one.

Said Ron, the self-described "eternal pessimist" of the family: "I think we're in horrible shape, and not just economically and socially. We're two or three different countries under the same flag."

Pat, however, refused to lose faith.

"I'm hopeful for our country to get back on track because if we don't start coming together, we're going to fall apart," she said. "My prayer is the situation in Tucson will help bring that about in the next two years. Maybe this is an awakening for the country."

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Russell Contreras in Boston; Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia; Bruce Smith in Charleston, S.C; Melissa Nelson in Pensacola, Fla.; Rick Callahan in Indianapolis; and Trevor Born in Minneapolis.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/26/st ... z1C9E6XjT5

There is indeed enormous cause for hope. I'm a Republican, life-time, from a family of Republicans who have been Republicans since there were Republicans. And as such, I was delighted with the President's State of the Union message. And here's why:

He praised the Republican history of progressing our country, without of course giving credit to the Republicans, which is not a problem, because we're not in this for credit, accolades or attention. For example, he praised the days when America was great when we built the intercontinental railroad. This was a Republican initiative. He then praised the subsequent days when America built the interstate highway system. This was a Republican initiative. He praised our nation because we passed child labor laws. This was a Republican initiative one of many Republican labor initiatives such as the minimum wage law, a Republican initiative, the 40 hour work week, a Republican initiative, automatic overtime pay after 40 hours, a Republican initiative, worker safety laws, a Republican initiative, OSHA, a Republican initiative. He even praised the low spending deficits of the Eisenhower Administration, a Republican administration.

He also wants to secure our borders, a Republican initiative! Yippee! Woo Hoo! Praise the Lord! He also wants to enforce US immigration law, a Republican initiative! Yippee! Woo Hoo! Praise the Lord! He also wants to have a conservation about what to do with the millions of illegal aliens living here in our "shadows"! Yippee! Woo Hoo! Praise the Lord!

Now he wants to FIX his Obama Care, a Republican initiative. Tremendous!! Now he wants to freeze government spending and cut where it makes sense to do so, a Republican initiative. Tremendous! He wants to cut earmarks and pork, a Republican initiative, and claims he'll veto any bill that has an earmark embedded in it, a Republican initiative!

Now he says he'll only support free trade treason agreements when a few jobs will be created in the US for American Workers and mentioned 250,000 jobs that would be created by his new trade dealings with China and 70,000 jobs to be created in his new trade deal with Korea, but unfortunately failed to mention the millions of jobs lost to these 2 countries because of these free trade policies. Not to worry, most Americans have figured it out and more are discovering the truth every single day which is protected trade is good and free trade is bad. He'll soon come around.

Now he says he wants to streamline and simplify the tax code! Yippee! Woo Hoo! As we know there's only one way to do that and that's repeal it and replace it with the most streamlined tax code ever, the FairTax, a Republican initiative. He even wants to reduce the corporate tax rate under the existing system, also a Republican initiative.

He also talked about special interest group innovations, emphasizing internet and high speed rail for 80% of our population within 25 years, and wireless phones everywhere, and solar energy. Great stuff, but private industry is already miles ahead on some of these and high speed rail just has no real market for the cost of it. Maybe it will in 25 years, but not today. And I don't want a wireless gizmo. I'm tired of static and bad connections and not being able to look people up in the phone book. This really isn't progress worthy of a mention in the state of the union speech, but I think that's all he or his speechwriters could think of when they tried to find items to stuff into the "infrastructure" part of his agenda.

We shouldn't spend any more government money on new technologies with an administration that doesn't understand what the term "infrastructure" means. Infrastructure is roads and bridges. It's oil, gas, water and sewer lines, curbs and gutters, storm drains, electric lines and electric grids. It's oil refineries, nuclear plants and waste and water treatment facilities. It's landfills and controlled HAZMAT dump sites. It's not Wi-Fi at Starbucks, which is great, but that's an example of consumerism, not production. Nevertheless, he tried to talk about what matters, and infrastructure does matter, just not wireless gizmos and green energy that as yet is not affordable beyond what the private sector is already doing to meet the market demand for such products. Infrastructure isn't products, it's the auxiliary facilities that make production of such products possible.

Yet, Obama and the speech-writers tried. He has more to learn about economics and getting the terms right, but his speech showed a desire in this direction.

And get this, he even said he wants to reduce government regulation and save tax money by doing so, another Republican initiative.

So while the President and his staff have some ways to go, many things still to learn, major misconceptions to unweave and some ideologies to perfect, last night's State of the Union speech showed that while Obama has not succeeded in transforming the United States, Republicans have in fact transformed him.

Keep up the good work Republicans. It's quite an accomplishment to transform the most socialist President to ever sit in the American White House to our ideology, and do so in less than 2 years.

With something this remarkable, maybe there really is a magic hat to pull rabbits from after all. We can always hope and get lucky. But I was raised to believe that the harder you work towards a goal or objective, the luckier you get. Lets work harder than we've ever worked to sell our ideology that leaves our people alone, the liberal laissez-faire part of our philosophy, and protects our economy and all legal players that are part of it, which is the regulated capitalist part of our ideology. We got people on first and second with a pinch hitter up to bat. Lets load those bases and and in 2012 have a home run so we can bat them all home, fix our country, and do so in a manner that unites our citizens so what has happened to our country, never ever happens again.

And yes, the conversation about what we do with the illegal aliens already here will require that they each and every one be deported with their families in tact, no child or parent left behind, because that is the law, it is just law and exists for a reason, to protect the people of the United States and our posterity. It's in the Preamble of the US Constitution. Anything different would be breach of common sense, fiscal responsibility and the very documents upon which we were founded.

He insinuated that he was still all for the DREAM act and wanted to push it through whether we like it or not. He sat there and insisted that illegal alien kids pledge allegence to our flag and they are Americans when we know they are not. Vote him the h**l out, he will do nothing but continue to try to push amnesty through and overburden the US.

Please we've been though that hope and changy thing before it only invokes disgust from me.

I didn't watch him lie to the American People any time he comes on I change the channel he is nothing but a liar and traitor to our Country and the Constitution ....He can keep his kumbaya and anyone who believes in his lies deserves what they get.


A leopard does not change his spots given the chance he will tear your head off....

Kathyet

Originally Posted by thedramaofmylife

He insinuated that he was still all for the DREAM act and wanted to push it through whether we like it or not. He sat there and insisted that illegal alien kids pledge allegence to our flag and they are Americans when we know they are not. Vote him the h**l out, he will do nothing but continue to try to push amnesty through and overburden the US.

Yes, he sure did, and that was a political blunder by his speech-writers and a slap in the face for every American listening in. It was the one sour grapes sentence of his speech, a futile and pointless message. Americans aren't going to give up 1 seat in college or 1 good job opportunity to illegal aliens of any age, no matter what the circumstances of their illegal presence in our country derives from or whose fault it is that they are here, because no matter what the sob story is for each and every one of these students, none of the sob stories have a thing to do with US and we aren't responsible for their predicaments. We wish them all well back in their home countries where they belong and hope they use their educations and talents to propel their homelands into better futures for their fellow citizens.

What I got out of that little one minute remark about undocumented foreign diplomats is we're going to be fighting the Dream act again and again the stupid smug grin on Reids face told the whole story on that!

"He also wants to have a conservation about what to do with the millions of illegal aliens living here in our "shadows"! Yippee! Woo Hoo! Praise the Lord! "

He doesn't want a conversation , he just wants amnesty,

As for the little brats pledging allegiance, yup , they sure do , TO THE MEXICAN FLAG

Some of us will not forget the marches from a couple years ago , IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE MEXICAN FLAG , In the coverage and the ones I SAW WITH MY OWN EYES it was mexican flags and viva la raza

WE CAN'T LET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FORGET THAT

NPR had post-speech comments which included two small business owners and two unemployed people. The business owners graded him F and D, the unemployed said that there was nothing for them in his speech.

This speech was an opening of his 2012 campaign. He positioned himself as a centrist. But he had absolutely nothing to say about structural unemployment, tho he did continue to want amnesty for illegals.

Nothing has changed for pro-Americans.

Originally Posted by Judy

There is indeed enormous cause for hope. And here's why:

He praised the Republican history of progressing our country....He also wants to secure our borders, to enforce US immigration law, to FIX his Obama Care, to freeze government spending and cut where it makes sense to do so, to cut earmarks and pork, and claims he'll veto any bill that has an earmark embedded in it, [and] says he'll only support free trade treason agreements when a few jobs will be created in the US for American Workers.

Keep up the good work Republicans. It's quite an accomplishment to transform the most socialist President to ever sit in the American White House to our ideology, and do so in less than 2 years.

OK, 'Bama is a closet Republican But from day one, 'Bama has been using Slick's playbook. That means that he'll *say* anything which will get him reelected. In effect what he's doing is showing that there's nothing to be gained by electing a Republican president, because he's already in favor what the Repubs want to use, to define their uniqueness.

IMO Demos were clobbered because they ignored Americans' primary concern: keeping roofs over their heads by being employed. If Repubs want to win the Senate and the Oval Office, they'll have to make it obvious that 'Bama is the obstacle to dealing with jobs for Americans. Denouncing his efforts to get more free trade agreements in Asia will help, but unless the Repubs are seen as at least trying to make progress on job creation, 'Bama will out-speechify any Republican nominee.
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Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

"I think people are gettin' sick of lookin at his face and hearin' his line of BS!"