Most State of the Union addresses are not particularly memorable. This year's effort achieved that standard.
The President repeated his stump speech health care rhetoric about brain cancer patients being unable to get their drugs due to the evil insurance companies, without mentioning the work being done by the FDA to limit expensive breast cancer drugs. His rhetorical warning about being unwilling to "go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a preexisting condition" was red meat for his base. Though, since HIPAA, the vast majority of health care card holders haven't had to concern themselves with this problem.
What will likely be remembered from this speech isn't the return of the demonic insurance companies — have they ever truly gone away? — or even the "Sputnik moment" quote. What has gotten the most attention is the "sixth-grade dance moment." Like so many awkward teenagers, the talk from the lamestream media leading up to the address and the chatter afterward centered on who sat next to whom.
The media might care about these Washington atmospherics, but real Americans (as distinguished from those holding press passes) thought it was a giant time-wasting distraction from the real problems of the nation. Polipulse and social analysis company Crimson Hexagon analyzed online opinions in blogs and forums and found that 65% had a negative reaction to the gesture. Only 19% thought it was a good idea.
The President told the joint session of Congress, "What comes of this moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow." That's a laudable goal, but thus far, there has been little evidence of such comity. Americans would like to see principled legislators working seriously to solve our national problems. Revisiting straw and bogey men will not cut it any longer.
Despite the game of Congressional musical chairs, most of us understand if you don't stand for something, it doesn't much matter where you sit.
Check out more blog entries from David Saltzman.
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