Cenk Uygur a sell-out? 4 million little reasons

[tkmorris]

112. Here's your problem: That's a SOTU speech

They are almost always filled with pie in the sky agendas, designed to sound appealing to the base (and hopefully swing voters) without usually spelling out clear pathways to achieving those lofty goals. It's an annual free opportunity for the POTUS to sell people on how awesome he/she is.

Now of course a President whose party controls Congress has to be careful here. In such a case they will be expected to deliver at least part of what they are selling. However, a President who faces a hostile, belligerent Congress (such as Obama did here) knows full well he won't be expected to deliver on much of anything so he can lay out any agenda he wants to. The purpose at such a time is to get the opposing party to go on record as opposing whatever you lay out there, so you design a speech that has them opposing rainbows, little girls, apple pie, and senior citizens or whatever else you can dream up. None of it means squat and everyone knows it but for those who only engage with what is going on politically on such rare occasions as SOTUs it might swing a few voters.

If you really want to claim that Obama has an ambitious agenda for his remaining years you are going to have to argue on the basis of what he has done to PURSUE that agenda. You may feel he is doing all he can, and if so that's fine. Others will assuredly disagree, and that is ALSO fine. The point is, at least try to make the case based on real things. Forming an opinion on whether Obama is "coasting" based on a SOTU speech is just as silly as forming an opinion of a corporation based on the blurb their PR department wrote to put on their "About Us" page.