State of the Union

In last week's edition of The Column, I covered Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton's State of the State address.  Last night, President Obama delivered his State of the Union (SOTU) address before Congress.  I have not seen a SOTU delivered on television since sometime in the early Clinton years.  But, as with Gov. Dayton's effort, I did get around to reading the transcript.

During the Cold War, western analysts used to watch the military parades in Moscow for clues as to who was in and who was out of power.  Where somebody stood in relation to the leader on a reviewing stand, or a key absence from the event, would send diplomats in a tizzy halfway around the world.

I must be missing that level of nuance in speeches like the State of the Union.  I read the text and it comes across as so much political boilerplate:  a check off of fashionable issues with no real impact on this year's legislative program.  (OK.  I read the first six pages and skimmed the rest).

Even if the rest of us were just going through the motions last night, I was pleased to see that my favorite political charity, TakeAction Minnesota, was working the event for all it was worth.  Taking advantage of proximity (see above) to First Lady Michelle Obama for the evening, TakeAction issued a fundraising appeal during the speech.  Even though members of Congress are prohibited from soliciting donations while within federal buildings, I'm sure we can make an exception for this young lady excited to be Tweeting from the balcony of the House chamber.  After all, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Judging by other items flitting past in my Twitter feed last evening, Obama made some sort of earth-shaking commitment to fighting climate change.  I'm not so sure.

It is said that G.K. Chesterton's father never went to church himself but always carried a Prayer Book on Sundays to set a good example for the lower orders. 

That is how SOTU climate and energy passages read to me:  the lip service paid to an issue by a man who rides about the countryside in a $1 million weaponized Canadian bus.  Events over the next few months may prove me wrong, but the carbon emissions talk in the SOTU read more like the elder Chesterton's prayer book.

As expected, President Obama last night predicted budget Armageddon as the result of sequestration, an idea which originated with the President, not Republicans in Congress.  He applies the decades-old "Fireman First" tactic in threatening our national defense capability, not the layers of useless bureaucratic fat.

Columnist Mickey Kaus dug up this March 1976 Washington Monthly article by Charles Peters which gives the phenomenon its name, "The Fireman First Principle."  Peters wrote,

"This tactic is based on the principle that the public will support [the] valiant fight against the budget reduction only if essential services are endangered.  Thus [he] always picks teachers, policemen, fireman first."

All in all, I don't think the entire SOTU effort is worth the hype or time it consumes.  I repeat my earlier recommendation and ask future Presidents to simply send the message in writing.