Last night's State of the Union address, which even many among the Talking Left seemed to agree was a pointless execise, struck me as an exercise in misdirection.
The President started off talking about teachers spending extra time with students, autoworkers working hard, farmers, doctors, fathers and mothers and soldiers. The theme seemed to be "the real state of our union is in our hearts," and it was an attempt to divert attention away from real, empirical measurements of how well we're doing, which is pretty awful.
Consider:
- Unemployment is higher under Obama
- Economic growth is slower under Obama
- Total employment (labor force participation) is far lower under Obama
- Iran is about to have a nuclear weapon under Obama
- The world is a more dangerous place under Obama
- Overall energy prices are higher under Obama
- Gasoline prices are higher under Obama
- Amazingly the ranks of the uninsured have increased under Obama
- Health insurance is more expensive under Obama
- Food stamp dependency has increased under Obama
- The poverty rate has increased under Obama
- Food prices have increased under Obama
- The national debt is $17 trillion under Obama. It was $10 trillion under George Bush. Debt has already increased more under Obama in 5 years than it did under Bush in 8 years.
So it's little wonder that we're having show and tell with nice people in the audience, talking about Michelle, and generally diverting attention away from the President's dismal track record.