He's Pretty Good as a Speaker, No?

I only caught part of the Almost State of the Union speech, but Obama was masterful as usual. A little short on the details, but then again, whenever a Pres. starts going into details in one of these things, everybody always complains about laundry lists and lack of a bigger vision.

I liked the "we are not a nation of quitters" line. I liked the emphasis on health care. He seemed both optimistic and doggedly realistic. That's not an easy thing to pull off.

Bobby Jindal got the unenviable task of following him, and did not do so well. I mean put aside the content (I really wonder how many people thought the problem with Katrina is that the government was TOO involved??) -- his presentation was simply stiff and kind of mechanical, in my view.

Jindal said something like, "we know we screwed up but we are going to regain your trust." It sounds like a bad boyfriend: "I know I've let you down baby, but this time it'll be different, I swear!"

Jindal said the Dems want the governmenet to solve all our problems and that Republicans want to trust the people to solve the country's problems. "Americans can do anything," he said. Really? Can they snap their fingers and suddenly catch up on their mortgage payments? Can they wave a magic wand and suddenly have health insurance? Can they clap three times and fix up their kids' crumbling schools? Can they click their heels and suddenly become employed again?

And they call Obama naive.