SOTU 2011

Tonight is the annual State of the Union speech from the President.  Yes, it's one of those unfortunate evenings when nothing good will be on any of the network TV or cable news channels.  Still, given the importance of this tradition, we should put at least a little focus on it.  Or at least close to it.

Personally, I've gotten to the place where I find any big speech from Obama to be completely uninteresting and irrelevant.  It's invariably a situationally tweaked form of the same template: I rock, Bush is evil, I've SAVED America, and you need to sacrifice more for the good of everyone else.

Yes, I'm being serious.  If you have the stomach for it, just watch and see.  Never mind how the facts illustrate the economy taking a nose dive when he came into office (or, more specifically, turning down when the Democrats taking over Congress in 2006 and plunging through the floor when Obama took over the White Hosue) and staying there ever since, never mind the fact that many of Obama's policies outside of a handful of big ones are eerily similar to Bush's (not his words, mind you, but what he actually has done), and never mind the fact that he and Michelle are living on the highest horse in the world with no sign of slowing down while he chastises you and me for being greedy and wasteful.  Never mind all that.  Remember, liberals cannot be troubled with facts or reality.  It really cramps their style.

Anyway, the typical ritual right about now is for pundits to guess what he's going to say, but most of that seems to be speculation based as much on what that particular pundit wants to hear as anything concrete.  The White House usually releases a few nuggets early, and this year it appears that Obama is expected to call for some new spending as well as a spending freeze (yeah, but it's Washington...of course they can call for both at the same time).  Ho hum.  He did that last year, and look where it got us.

And so on, blah blah blah.

I'm much more interested in the GOP response that will follow.  It will be given by Rep. Paul Ryan, one of the bright new stars of the Republican party, and someone that conservatives love.  By all accounts, the guy is truly brilliant on economic policy, and is the architect of a major new push for reigning in government fiscal insanity.  First off, the very fact that he was selected by the Republican leadership is indicative of the direction the party wants to take.  As for me, it's a terrific sign of good things to come.  The Wall Street Journal did a write-up about him, so I wanted to include a few excerpts:

When Rep. Paul Ryan delivers the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday, many viewers will get their first look at a man whom GOP leaders are trusting to manage a central policy issue—how to cut the federal budget—that could shape the party's image for years.

While unknown to most Americans, Mr. Ryan, 40 years old, has established himself as a leading conservative thinker on federal spending, shaped in part by his early work for supply-side icon Jack Kemp.

Now, Republicans not only have made Mr. Ryan chairman of the House Budget Committee, but on Tuesday the House is expected to vote to give him unprecedented powers to force spending cuts for the current fiscal year. That authority will allow Mr. Ryan to act unilaterally in setting an overall spending level for the rest of the year, a job usually handled by his full panel.

...

In elevating Mr. Ryan, Republican leaders are taking what Democrats believe is a political risk. He has written an anti-deficit plan that includes politically explosive ideas—replacing Medicare with vouchers and allowing some workers to invest Social Security taxes in private accounts—that go beyond what even many Republicans are prepared to embrace.

But conservatives counter that the 2010 election outcome showed he is precisely the kind of political figure to put forth as the face of the Republican Party.

...

In the past year, Mr. Ryan has gone toe-to-toe with Mr. Obama in high-profile venues. When the president a year ago addressed a conference of House Republicans in Baltimore, he called attention to Mr. Ryan's "roadmap" and jousted with him over the plan's details and implications. A month later, at a televised bipartisan summit on Mr. Obama's health-care legislation, Mr. Ryan delivered a stinging critique of the bill to the president's face.

The one knock I have against Ryan is that he supported the very first TARP bailout back in early 2009.  Given that his track record is (to my knowledge) flawless since then, I'm willing to call it a mulligan, though I believe he certainly should have known better.  By all accounts, Congress, President Bush, and the candidates at the time were painted a picture of horrific economic disaster if they didn't do something, but I don't know that anyone outside of those people truly know what was said.  Regardless, Ryan appears to be one of the brightest lights on the conservative scene, and seems to have no problem picking the fights that need to be picked.  You know, the fights that Americans demanded with their votes last November.  We'll see how his response speech tonight goes; hopefully it'll be a solid policy statement that is crystal clear.  There's every indication it will be just that.

As for the President's speech, well, you're on your own there.  There will be flowery language, doom-saying, chastisement, and probably some soaring rhetoric...but don't expect much substance.  Most Presidents don't include much, and we certainly haven't gotten any from Obama's previous appearances.  For variety's sake, it's interesting to contemplate what he won't say tonight.  The short version: the truth.

Of course, you could always go with the last resort and join the increasing millions who play SOTU Bingo.  Bottoms up!