Yeah, I got that feeling too, Ronnie. I was hoping that President Obama wouldn't turn the State of the Union Address into a campaign speech, but I guess that was naive of me. I mean, show me a President in his fourth year who hasn't done the exact same thing.
I understood the point, a Clintonian strategic speech in pandering to the middle class in perks and values. Also gave specific proposals for down the ticket local/state Democrats to run on and bludgeon the GOP Congress.
If anything, the speech came off as a moderate Republican address. You know if anybody in the GOP was
sane. I did think however the high school segment was just retarded in general, but others have pointed out why that's stupid already, so let's move on from that handjob.
But all that said, if this was a shameless handjob, it worked apparently rather well.
91 percent of those who watched the speech approved of the proposals Mr. Obama put forth during his remarks. Only nine percent disapproved. Last year, 83 percent of viewers approved of Mr. Obama's State of the Union remarks.This year, 82 percent of those who watched the speech said they approve of the president's plans for the economy, up from 53 percent who approved before the speech. Eighty percent said they approved of Mr. Obama's plans for the deficit -- in contrast to 45 percent before the speech. Eighty-three percent approved of Mr. Obama's proposals regarding Afghanistan, which received only a 57 percent approval rating beforehand.
From a 50 person focus group of self-described "swing voters":
The dials spiked when the President made his strong populist pitch for the “Buffet Rule,” with Democrats exceeding 80 on our 0-to-100 scale and both independents and Republicans moving above 70. There was no polarization here, as voters across the political spectrum gave Obama high marks. And Obama’s framing of the economic challenges facing the country through the lens of post-World War II America was particularly effective. He also received high marks for his proposal to change the tax code to encourage “insourcing” instead of “outsourcing,” his call to change our “unemployment system” to a “re-employment system” and his appeal to make it easier for entrepreneurs and small business to grow and create jobs.
