Trolling for Outrage

Why do I get the feeling that the sole reason that President Obama is speaking to a joint session of Congress tonight about what legislation he wants to get job creation--when the conventional wisdom is that he will just want more of the same that got us here--is that he's hoping for a "You lie!" moment that he can use to portray his political opponents as uninterested in working for America?

I can be cynical that way.

UPDATE: I switched to Seinfeld reruns when the President said he intended to pay for his plan by--wait for it!--asking Congress to find a way to pay for it. That isn't leading from anywhere as near as I can tell. If I'm going to watch a show about nothing, I guess I'd rather laugh than cry.

UPDATE: I didn't miss much. When President Obama was elected, I wrote that I hoped that by 2012 our country would be in such good shape that we'd reelect him easily, just as President Clinton won reelection on 1996. I meant that in all sincerity. My country above all else. Heck, I even drew satisfaction that my fellow Americans proved that we could elect an African American to our highest office. As unhappy as I was that Barack Obama was that African American, the trail he blazed was important to open.

But President Clinton poached conservative ideas to win. Conservatives were upset, but I wasn't. I thought it was great that he had to use conservative ideas to win. That is truly winning, my friends. But President Obama is incapable of that kind of flexibility. All he knows how to do is more of the same and hope--indeed is absolutely convinced--that the results will change.

Grand trappings couldn't hide what this was--a campaign speech. At this rate, by August 2012, President Obama will be speaking at Hoover Dam, Mount Rushmore, and the Acropolis itself to announce midnight basketball programs and the next fundraising event.

UPDATE: The speech really did affect me. You know, I really am uncomfortable with being so disillusioned with the capacity of our president--the only one we have--to govern effectively. Just as Reagan firing the Air Traffic Controllers had a dramatic effect on Soviet views of Reagan's resolve, having a president floundering at home can't send good signals abroad. So let me at least say--again--that President Obama has been much better at foreign policy than I feared. Liberals won't like to hear it, but Obama has more continuity with Bush than they want to admit.