• He mentioned North Carolina cities three times in the first five minutes. Methinks he likes it here.
  • When is this president going to wake up and realize the Republicans will hate him no matter what? Before he even started his speech they were already criticising and tearing it apart. Grow a pair, put them in their place, push your agenda through. Quit waiting for the a-okay.
  • I’m not sure I like his idea about requiring all students to go to school until they finish high school or turn 18. Don’t get me wrong, I think kids should stay in school, and I want them to succeed. But if college taught me anything, it’s that school just isn’t for everyone, and a good percentage of the population would be better off just entering the job market right away, rather than delaying things and racking up debt and bad karma.
  • Yay, clean energy and conservation!!!
  • Crying over spilled milk. Cute.
  • Will populism work again? All this talk about the little people vs. the big nasty corporations is great and all, but it has to be backed up to be worth anything. A lot of us voted for a populist president, only to get a marginal improvement over the last douche in chief. How about some action?
  • Finally, punking down the Repubs about the debt ceiling. Banning insider trading by members of Congress is an idea whose time should have come years ago.
  • Who decides what people can do for themselves and what government should do? I like the spirit of his statements, but it gets a little cloudy if you ask me.
  • “With or without this Congress…” It’s about fucking time.
  • Why do we care if Iran has nuclear weapons?
  • …..blahblahblahblahtroopsblahblahblahblah…..
  • Hillary: “Oh you! Bringing that up again! Silly!”

 

All in all, a pretty good speech. The problem is, it might be too late. Congress has been strangling him for three years now, and he waits until now to try to break free. But everyone knows that during an election year you don’t get a lot accomplished, you just fight to keep your job. He’ll probably succeed at that, simply because the Republicans can’t seem to find anyone who isn’t batshit insane. But if the past three years set the tone for the next, I’m not getting my hopes up.

I still have to wonder what could be if all of the Occupy protesters and sympathizers woke up and voted for independent candidates. It’s not really “throwing your vote away” if thousands of people do it, right?

Hmmm…..