State of the Union Bingo

  
My buddy, Donald Borsch, Jr., at Conservative Firestorm, sent me a clever Bingo card. The premise was to check on typical words and phrases which are standard in any Obama speech. These were entered in the squares under the word B-A-R-A-C-K—you know the drill. I then settled down at 8 PM and started the ordeal, Bingo dobbers in hand.

The entire speech ran about an hour and ten minutes and was interrupted by applause roughly once every forty seconds. Those Democrats really “love” their guy. For the most part, the opposition sat on their hands. The Teleprompters did their job and the “O” came off looking like an accomplished orator.

I needed an “uh” or an “er” to complete a Bingo but he managed to avoid both. He also managed to not use “bipartisan” specifically and the exact phrase “let me be clear.” Others not called included, “bitter,” “greed,” inherited,” “job creation,” and, not least, “both sides of the aisle.” It appeared that he must have canned his regular speech writer and found another with a new set of stock phrases. The new guy is pretty good and we will probably hear his new word combinations again.

Although rare, there were occasions of laughter. This was elicited by reference to “climate change,” “health care politics,” “meetings of both parties,” and the timing of the new budget freeze—“next year.” The latter because the audience realized that it affected less than 1% of expenditures. The laugh lines delivered the only evidence of any awareness that he might possibly be less than perfect.

Unlike most of his orations, he led off with a pep talk during the first 7 minutes of how great and resilient, Americans are. He failed to observe that we had better be if we are to endure three more years of his presidency.

As I listened, it came to me that we live in two different countries. And, we do. He lives in a world of constant physical protection, perpetual travel to exotic locations (Elyria, Ohio?), a body slave for his every need, unwarranted praise and reward for unseen accomplishment, ritual respect for the office he holds, and absolute satisfaction of his need for self-aggrandizement.

My neighbors and I live in a world of knowledge of issues which never cross his mind. We are much aware that a gallon of orange juice, although well priced at Wal-Mart, is over a dollar less (a popular sale item) at a different local market. We avoid traveling to Springfield, a larger market center, because we realize just getting there entails additional expense and often defrays any savings from the trip. When we have a car which exceeds 250,000 miles, (’93 Explorer) we love driving it more than when it was new. It’s a point of pride. His implied criticism of senator-elect Nelson driving a well worn pick-up betrayed his utter lack of knowledge of the real world. I would be extremely surprised to find he had ever ironed a shirt. We understand economics at a painful gut level in order to survive. We all share liberally in dropping our pittance in the collection plate at church because we realize our collective effort can make a real difference to others.

Our interests in life rarely co-mingle. How can I expect him to ever understand what it’s like for folks to scratch out a living even in the best of times? He is surrounded by a community (Washington, D.C.) where workers enjoy an average income nearly 60% higher ($74,000.00 annually) than the US average and unemployment rate which is only 40% of current reported figures. It is obvious he has gamed the system from the git-go. An affirmative action education, subsidized publishing, insider real estate deals, and unwarranted Nobel awards are not common currency for the average bear. How can anyone with such a background ever hope to appreciate the needs of the people? For certain, he would never see the humor in the BARACK bingo card.

For those with an interest in truth, we turn to the ever dependable Associated Press and their impressions of several areas where the president strayed. I choose AP because they have had an extremely sympathetic relationship with Obama over the last couple of years. It is a scathing indictment of twisting facts, projection of false outcomes, and in general, just telling lies. For their report, just click here. Do it; it’s worth the trip to a source not generally known to be hostile to the president and generally “in bed” with him since the beginning.

One cannot easily sum up the speech since the entire matter is ongoing. Aside from the outright lies, the speech sounded great, was artfully delivered and the coverage furnished a few laughs—the biggest being Alito mouthing “not true” concerning remarks about overturning portions of McCain-Feingold. Granny left me undisturbed to listen and watch the proceedings because she couldn’t stand the thought of enduring an hour and ten minutes of his blather. (Granny went to church.) I’m glad she did since I was able to confirm all of my pre-conceived notions about the speaker and his “programs.” Toward the end, I stopped counting the use of personal pronouns (I, me and mine) around seventy-something. Although I didn’t count them, I did notice that “we” was conspicuously absent. I remain comfortable with that because I see little that we have in common.

One item remains to be said. Someone needs to remind the president that George Bush had a Democrat congress for the last half of his term. Presidents do not pass legislation spending money or allocating budgets. Their only recourse is to object by the use of veto and even then may be over-ridden. Obama’s principal inheritance which he blames on Bush is a result of the actions of that congress. Barry, give it a rest. Man up and accept responsibility.

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon