{"id":25390,"date":"2011-01-25T21:52:42","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T04:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=25390"},"modified":"2011-01-25T21:55:04","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T04:55:04","slug":"sotu-true-or-false","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/01\/sotu-true-or-false\/","title":{"rendered":"SOTU: True or false?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_25399\" class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 270px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25399 \" title=\"Obama, Barack\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Obama-Barack.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"204\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo of Obama that's obviously not from tonight's address. (White House photo)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>According to the news commentary running up to this evening’s State of the Union, tonight’s oratory\u00a0address is President Obama’s “moment.”<\/p>\n<p>And tonight, in his address to the country, President Obama told America that\u00a0now, right now,\u00a0is this generation’s “Sputnik” moment.<\/p>\n<p>Well, it’s all very good and interesting. Apparently, there are a lot of moments to be had.<\/p>\n<p>And what’s more, there are a plethora of\u00a0policy proposals\u00a0and promises\u00a0to be kept. A la the\u00a0“Sputnik” theme – the president promised the moon and the stars in his address.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>True or false<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>I’d like to know what you think\u00a0about the laundry list of policy proposals and \u00a0promises below. For each one, ask yourself:\u00a0 <em>True or false – will the administration get this done?<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We need to make America the best place on earth to do business.<\/li>\n<li>This administration will take on clean energy – and in such a way that America will have more electric vehicles on the road than any other country by 2015.<\/li>\n<li>Further on the clean energy theme, this administration will embrace clean energy and this will mean that 80 percent of America\u2019s energy will come from clean energy sources by 2035.<\/li>\n<li><em>Race to the Top <\/em>will continue to raise standards for teaching and learning. In fact, <em>Race to the Top<\/em> will prove to be more focused on what is best for children than <em>No Child Left Behind.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Great teachers will start to be rewarded.<\/li>\n<li>This administration will “prepare” 100,000\u00a0new teachers in the fields of math, science and engineering.<\/li>\n<li>Within 25 years, 80 percent of Americans will have access to high speed rail.<\/li>\n<li>Within the next five years, Americans will experience faster Internet.<\/li>\n<li>This administration will put policies into place that will double our exports by 2014.<\/li>\n<li>This administration will engage in Asia-Pacific and global trade talks.<\/li>\n<li>Annual domestic spending will be <em>frozen<\/em> for the next five years.<\/li>\n<li>Excessive spending should be cut wherever we find it \u2013 domestic, defense, loopholes, etc.<\/li>\n<li>This administration will take on medical practice reform to reign in frivolous lawsuits.<\/li>\n<li>This administration will create a bipartisan commission on Social Security reform.<\/li>\n<li>This administration will not extend tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans.<\/li>\n<li>Within the year, this administration will issue a proposal that merges, consolidates and reorganizes the federal government in such a way that provides for a more competitive America? (Lenti note:\u00a0Whoa \u2013 what does this mean? Answer: This would effectively mean moving heaven and earth.)<\/li>\n<li>If\u00a0<em>any<\/em> bill comes across the president\u2019s desk with earmarks inside, President Obama will veto it.<\/li>\n<li>The president will start bringing our troops home from Afghanistan effective July 2011.<\/li>\n<li>We will stand by South Korea and insist that North Korea abides by its commitment to abandon its nuclear weapon program.<\/li>\n<li>America will support the democratic aspirations of <em>all<\/em> people all over the globe.<\/li>\n<li>Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving her or his country for loving who they love.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>True or false? Tell me what you think, please.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Some notes<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In purely petty commentary, I would just like to\u00a0add that:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>I am a huge fan of Secretary Clinton\u2019s new coif!<\/li>\n<li>Representative Pelosi should be ashamed of herself for refusing Representative Cantor\u2019s invite to sit together. Kerry and McCain managed to do it…<\/li>\n<li>House Speaker Boehner is looking, well, crispy – almost mirroring the purple hue of his tie.<\/li>\n<li>That said, Speaker Boehner clearly\u00a0has a heart \u2013 the president\u2019s mention of family brought a tear to the House speaker\u2019s eye.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>In more substantive commentary, I would note that:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>I agree with President Obama in that there is a huge difference in \u201csitting together tonight and working together tomorrow.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>No matter what your political affiliation, I think we can all agree that President Obama is quite an amazingly exceptional orator.<\/li>\n<li>I agree with President Obama\u2019s comment that, \u201cWe need to make America the best place on earth to do business.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Finally, I agree with the notion of American exceptionalism and the case for American greatness.\u00a0As the president said, America is capable of doing \u201cbig\u201d things. \u00a0The president now must lead in a manner that allows for this.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Sarah Lenti is the blogger behind NMPolitics.net\u2019s <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/the-savvy\/\"><em>The Savvy<\/em><\/a><em>. E-mail her at <\/em><a href=\"mailto:sarah@nmpolitics.net\"><em>sarah@nmpolitics.net<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do you think about the laundry list of policy proposals and promises from President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address? Will the administration get them done?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1196,181],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-25390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","category-the-savvy","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}