Surprisingly, No Surprises

"One Trick Pony" will be performing again tonight. It's the evolution of a seemingly innocuous line which the Founders put in the Constitution: "the President shall from time to time report to the Congress on the state of the union." Seems simple enough. Drop by and tell us how you are making do with what we've asked you to administer.

Washington and Adams would drop in and speak. Jefferson wasn't a fan of public oratory, so he sent letters. It was sort of the CEO meeting with the Board of Directors.

Over time, radio made it possible for the nation to hear the report. That marked a shift because gradually it became apparent that while the President might be delivering his remarks to a joint session of Congress, he was really able to talk directly to the American people. Franklin Roosevelt was master of the genre.

With TV, the evolution continued and it became not only an opportunity to speak to the nation but a theatrical production with costumes and staging, entrances and exits, choreography and emotionalism. Tonight the show must go on.

Same Song, Same Chorus, Same Lame Tune

Remarkably the Bamster thinks his problems are about communicating with us.

"In this political environment, what I haven't always been successful at doing is breaking through the noise and speaking directly to the American people,"

Are you kidding me? With more than 150 formal speeches and more than 440 interviews in the last year he still thinks he isn't speaking directly to the people? Give me a break!

We need him to shut up, go in the office, fire some sycophantic incompetents, listen to some heartland citizens and actually start attempting to learn how the business of business operates. We don't need more speaking directly to us, Daddy. We've heard you and we don't want what you are selling.

He will push for health care reform, regulation of Wall Street, energy and immigration reform, and a global fight against terrorists.

We don't want healthcare reform that you are selling! We can't stand more regulation and penalizing of our financial system. We certainly don't like your road to energy policy. We haven't seen squat about immigration from you other than legalization of hordes of aliens to allow them to vote for welfare. And, your "fight" against terrorists is demonstrated to be inept and ill-advised.

"The president will highlight his commitment to education reform in the State of the Union tomorrow night including his plan to improve outcomes for students at every point along the educational pipeline,"

There is nothing in the enumerated powers of the federal government listed in our Constitution regarding education. Education has traditionally been a local responsibility in America. School boards, district funding, policy choices come from the community. Didn't Hillary, herself, say something about it taking a "village" and not a national government to raise a child?

"Improve outcomes" sounds suspiciously like affirmative action alternatives to objective grading standards to insure mandatory "progress" toward bureaucratic goals. How about teaching basics, testing competence, and failing those who don't measure up? It worked for the Greatest Generation, why not now?

the president plans to use the address to renew his focus on jobs, calling for swift action on lagging bills providing tax cuts for job creation

At the risk of sounding repetitious let me say again loudly: governments don't create jobs. Successful businesses create jobs. Entrepreneurs making profits create jobs. A business environment which offers security and dependable future stability creates jobs. Threats of regulation, mandates, taxes, and bureaucratic oversight don't create jobs. Stand aside, Mr. President, and let our free market capitalist system work to create jobs. Apply a Hippocratic Oath principle on the economy, "First, do no harm."

We're going to hear a lot about him tonight. There's going to be a lot of denial. There will be a deluge of promises of largesse. There will be a heaping pile of class warfare and punishment of the successful. There will be no surprises, however.