SOTU speech

[AZhitman]

I give it a B+. Enjoyed it immensely. Well-done, Mr. President.

I'm hoping against hope that it's not just lip service and posturing...

I really like the idea of removing unnecessary regulatory barriers to business, rewarding teachers whose students excel (and increased accountability for teachers), more investment in R & D, reintroduction of the Dream Act, and cutting spending. If he'd mentioned strong consideration of reductions in foreign aid, and a 5-year pay freeze for Congress, I'd have graded it higher.

Discuss.

[bigbadberry3]

Soild overall, always boils down to the implementation though. I liked the seating

[mattblancarte]

Loved the bilateral spirit of the speech. I'm also weary of it being lip-service...

I found the Race to the Top reference intriguing, as I hadn't heard about his plan for education reform yet. Will be looking into it via Google this evening.

[AZhitman]

Yeah, that was news to me.

Sounds eh. I like the idea of replacing NCLB.

Wish he'd said, "We're gonna re-introduce the DREAM Act, but we're gonna make people with a criminal record ineligible." I'd have cheered. Love the idea of the DA, hate that a few inflexible a$$hat Dems wouldn't budge on the stipulations about criminal record. I blame them for every deported student.

[IBCoupe]

I didn't get to hear it, but was race to the top the way he's been doing it the past few years? (*Nudge* he's a modeeeerrraaaaaate)

The DoE, at least twice now, has sent out to all the States a request that they come up with a way to radically improve their schools. The winning state gets a ton of money for that purpose. I think the reason I've heard about it is because much was made locally about the fact that CT got snubbed twice. We didn't even make the final 10 in either round.

[stebo0728]

Didnt watch it, and have yet to get a chance to read it. Cant expect someone who is good at delivering a speech to give a lousy one right? Did he mean any of it? I dont know, time will tell.

Heres the word cloud from the speech, the larger the word, the more often it was used.

[audtatious]

I see the word "transparency" has been left out....

It's all BS. It was mostly BS when prior Presidents made this speech and will be the same with this one. I have no faith in the Fed Gov to manage anything other than expensive lunches and lining their pockets.

[stebo0728]

Ok heres a few links

First the transcript
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/State_of ... id=9678572

Heres the Republican Response from Paul Ryan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00941.html

And heres a response from Michelle Bachmann (some may consider this a Tea Party response )
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/20 ... the-union/

And last but certainly not least is a SOTU speech from John Stossel
http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStos ... on_address

[stebo0728]

Truly sad ........ NPR asked people to describe the SOTU in 3 words, here is the word cloud from their responses:



Pretty sad the largest word is SALMON

[IBCoupe]

Silly joke chart is silly.

[mattblancarte]

Fox News didn't like the salmon joke: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/commen ... amas_sotu/

[IBCoupe]

Absolute d!ck-munchers. I like one of the comments below:

"What time do the grown-ups come on?"

[audtatious]

He should fire his joke writers

[heliochrome85]

http://wonkette.com/435883/dc%E2%80%99s ... union-time

[AZhitman]

Silly joke chart is silly.

Careful. Actually, that's the most valid assessment of the speech.

It measures what a bunch of smart people took away from the speech. ANY speaker would want to know "what stuck?" with their audience...

[IBCoupe]

Actually, no, it measures what a bunch of facebook users were posting during and immediately after the speech.

[AZhitman]

Actually, no, it measures what a bunch of facebook users were posting during and immediately after the speech.

NPR asked people to describe the SOTU in 3 words, here is the word cloud from their responses:

Facebook? What's that got to do with NPR?

[IBCoupe]

That's where they asked people to describe the SOTU.

[AZhitman]

So it was on NPR's FB pge?

[IBCoupe]

I would assume so, but I don't know for sure. I just remember that I read the NPR story that had that stupid word chart and they said they had been asking during the SOTU what people's impressions were.

[AZhitman]

So, it measures what a bunch of NPR listeners took away from the speech.

[srellim234]

What their impressions were DURING the speech, not what they took away FROM the speech. Two totally different things.

[AZhitman]

Hmmm. Semantics?

Looks like the accompanying post says, "NPR asked people to describe the speech in 3 words", so I'm not sure how either of you are arguing with me over something that neither of you can clearly define.

[IBCoupe]

Takes two to tango, on that count.

In any event, what is clear is that this was a sampling of facebook users who are willing to post on NPR's facebook page.

[srellim234]

I find the breakdown along party lines even more interesting in the responses. Republicans only heard the salmon joke, Democrats heard the joke plus other topics while independents heard the most.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/28/133211131 ... 1014&sc=tw

I think mindset going into the speech shows that people only heard what they wanted to hear and had closed minds going in instead of listening. Republican word choices include "blah, bull, bullsh*t, uninspiring, lies, empty, weak." Democats had more positive responses. Independents picked up the most substance from the speech, although, like the Republicans, a number of them also described the speech as "blah."

[audtatious]

People have closed minds because we have seen time and time again where the words mean nothing because stated direction, or what is said, is usually far different than the truth. I don't care if it's Obama, Bush, Clinton, whomever. It's nothing but words.

[srellim234]

That's absolutely true. The next morning, when the work of moving the country forward falls to those in the chambers of Congress, all is forgotten.

[IBCoupe]

People have closed minds because we have seen time and time again where the words mean nothing because stated direction, or what is said, is usually far different than the truth. I don't care if it's Obama, Bush, Clinton, whomever. It's nothing but words.

That's why I didn't watch.

Also because I was stuck in class and then stuck in the commute home.

[audtatious]

Here's another reason to get rid of the violent and racist Tea Party....

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3ctO7fd ... r_embedded[/youtube]

"String him up" or "put him back in the fields", what horrible things those rednecks think of concerning a black man.

Figured I'd post it in this thread to be ignored instead of wasting it in a new thread.