SOTU Reaction

Earlier today, right after President Obama's State of the Union speech, a friend posted this on his Facebook wall:

"President Obama is a great leader and undoubtedly, the best we could have at this time."

Grammar aside, I was surprised to see this viewpoint expressed by this person in this way. And then I quickly realized that I agreed with pretty much every word ... And, it *is* true that I watched and/or heard most of the speech this evening.

The first half I viewed online, and from a purely visual standpoint it looked good. I also really did enjoy the members of congress sitting side by side!  I definitely hope this practice (I wonder how they choose the seats?) will continue....

In addition, there was the decidedly solid image of the president speaking in the House chamber. To me, overall, It feels like i'm looking at an intelligent person who seems like a good guy too. (In fact, during the walk-in, he even leaned into a white man (in his early 50s) with a mustache and said the word "bro" at the end of his greeting!)  Plus, he seems to genuinely love his country (and wants to help it).

So that's what I was seeing from a very basic visual (and emotional) standpoint.  Incidentally, about halfway through, I decided to make a beer run :)   So i listened in the car, and found the audio reinforced the confidence, passion, and authority I was seeing online. Content-wise, I also found it hard to disagree with very much of what he was saying....

In any case, I decided not to post a public response to that FB post (just not my style at the moment). But, if I did post back, I'd say:

Agreed. The fact that individuals to the left *and* right have criticized him indicates he's doing something right.  And who can deny the great speechifying that he's capable of.