Wednesday, January 26, 2011

President Obama; Last Night Was No Sputnik Moment

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Before we go into space with the President's State of the Union Speech last night, a couple of comments about the Monday hearing in Olympia:

Thank you for the incredible number of personal email I am receiving from both those who attended the hearing and those who were unable to attend.

I have been unable to personally respond to all comments, as we generally try to do.

This is a sampling of your comments:

"Subject: Re: Yesterday In Olympia
We eventually were told that we could watch the hearing on TVW in the Rotunda. Another hearing was being shown on one small TV, while another was blank. Finally, they told us it would be shown in the Senate Chamber and we could watch from the gallery. Both sides were filled, and we were, as you, tremendously blessed by those who spoke against this bill. Thank you for putting the word out. In spite of the hours of standing in the halls, it was worth it to show our legislators and the pregnancy resource centers how important this issue is to many of us. Lord-willing, I'll be there again on Feb 2nd for the SB hearing.

It was good to see you there. God bless you.

~C____"

2 Things.

Please plan to attend the hearing on the Senate companion bill scheduled for Feb. 2. We will post details.

Second, call Representatives from your district, and tell them you strongly oppose the bill. You may access them through our
website.

_______

Last night was, in my opinion, no "Sputnik Moment" as the President had hoped.

I remember the real Sputnik moment. We were surprised and truly caught off guard by the sudden, unannounced space launch by the Soviets. America's response was genuine, sincere and not contrived.

It is impossible to re-create such a moment.

It is curious that a man who speaks often of moving on, looking ahead, forgetting the past, etc. would even attempt to re-capture and re-create an honest moment from the past. One that actually was a national surprise, experienced in relative innocence.

His attempt at a "Sputnik Moment" appeared to many to be a political ploy to further a political career.

The President seemed to be flat, lacking passion, while delivering some of the right words---and some that could have been left on his desk.

Mocking the TSA, and promising more government spending, while lecturing us on the national debt, left many pushing back a bit. Nancy and Harry, however, spoke of the great impact of the "moment".

His "The Future Is Ours to Win" idea left a good number of people believing he wants to win, (re-election) but may not be up to leading the country in the strong recovery we desperately need.

He said, "Thanks to the tax cuts we passed, Americans' paychecks are a little bigger today."

You will recall, the President and his allies tried to eliminate those "President Bush" tax cuts right up to the end of the year.

Hypocrisy.

And, "This is our generation's Sputnik moment" ?

Ridiculous.

There is no surprise, after watching government grow and overreach, that the country is reaching the tipping point.

More spending on one hand. A spending freeze on the other hand. I heard a small businessman interviewed after the speech who simply said, "Are we eating crazy pills?" It was a total disconnect with real people, who do real things in a real world.

However, Representative Paul Ryan gave a reasoned, articulate response to the flat flow of carefully crafted words.

I have
linked the full text of his 10-minute speech, which you may not have seen on television.

You tell me. Did I miss something?

____________

Gary Randall
President
Faith and Freedom

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