Sometimes, Abortion Is Murder

Yes. Sometimes, abortion is murder. Does that seem harsh?

This post on Reddit is going viral. It's a love letter from a young mother who's about to abort her baby. She's not aborting because her life is in danger, or the baby has severe health defects and wouldn't survive anyway. She's aborting it because now is not a good time in her life right now.

Let's look at the problems with this.

She recognizes her baby as a person, a person she can talk to, who exists now, who is going to be killed in a few days, but a person whose spirit she will meet again. She believes she can abort the baby now for convenience, but next time it'll be the same baby, with the same spirit, and that baby will call her Mom. "Hi, Mom, thanks for killing me before I could be born the first time." This is a horrific delusion.

This is perfectly legal. Each person makes their own choice. My own moral fiber recoils at this deep lack of respect for human life, but hey that's just me. Birth control, birth control, birth control if you don't want to get pregnant. Adoption, adoption, adoption if now's not a good time for you. But if the baby's already growing, you don't just kill it. And the comments about doing what's best for your baby. How is killing it what's best for the baby?

How long after a baby is born should parents have the right to kill it? Is this not the next logical step?

The Amendment 3 Song

We were talking about Utah's Amendment 3, and someone asked, "What's Amendment 3?"

"What's Amendment 3?" I responded, which felt like the beginning of  a musical number. I have the tune in my head, but if you picture Robert Preston singing it, you'll be close.

In the Utah Constitution

They sought a resolution

To define the institution

Known as marriage to you and me

But with changing definitions

They gathered and petitioned

To not let the same-sex edition

Rise to the level of legality

The Amendment, it was passed

Man and woman only and at last

But the courts were then aghast

And had to decide if this could stand

And so throughout the nation

In every paper, on every station

They report renewed elation

As gay marriage passed throughout the land

Shot down! Denied!

Amendment 3 nullified!

Republicans, is this settled?

"Activist judges, they have mettled!"

We'll now debate it in our caucus

And neither Evans nor Dabakis

Can sway or calm the ruckus

Until the Supreme Court has their say

So we can stew and fret and wait

And have passioned debate

Until the feds inform the state

"Same-sex marriage is here to stay!"

*fanfare* *end song*

The Inevitable President Hillary, and Other 2016 Speculations

I can't say I learned anything new from Hillary Clinton's interview with Diane Sawyer. Hillary said she hasn't made up her mind if she's running for President in 2016. This, of course, is a lie, but it's a lie we dance around every mid-term. 2006, 2010, 2014 are the years for midterm swings in Congress, but they are also the years for people who have every intention of running for President to issue denials that they've made up their mind.

The remark that's received the most publicity is the one about her and Bill being "dead broke" when she left the White House. Yeah, right. Somehow they managed to make millions back. Even Chelsea made $600,000 from NBC for filing three reports. This is actually one good reason why a Republican needs to win in 2016. Do you value the press? Do you want the media to hold truth to power? They tend to be at their best when a Republican's in office. I predict Years 9-12 of a Democratic Oval Office will further erode the credibility of the Fourth Estate.

Now I actually think Hillary would have been a better President than Obama. She's better at building relationships. We needed him for the history, to help us get over the hump and actually have an African-American as President 150 years after Lincoln. We also needed to not have a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton daisy chain. Now that Obama's been in for two terms, Americans seem to be a little more ready to stomach another President Clinton. It's her election to lose. Of course, so was 2008's.

So maybe Brian Schweitzer and Elizabeth Warren will make it interesting on the Democratic side. As for the Republicans, they need their own Obama, that transformative figure that can inspire. Mitt Romney did not inspire. Never mind he was right about Russia and Iraq and several other things. You have to win first.

So who are the 2016 possibilities? Well, let's see.

NO WAY THEY RUN AGAIN

Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain, Michelle Bachmann, Jon Huntsman, Tim Pawlenty, Ron Paul. Yes, Mitt won't run again. But I have no doubt he wants to help pick the next nominee.

THEY MIGHT RUN AGAIN

Rick Perry - The Texas governor is wearing glasses now to make himself appear smarter and more stately. Of the ones who ran in 2012, I see him as the most likely to give it another shot. I think this would be a big mistake, but never underestimate Texas.

Rick Santorum - Still a decent chance the social conservative gives it another try. It'd be a huge waste of money if he did.

Mike Huckabee - The host of his own weekly radio and weekend Fox News show will send out feelers to see if he would have a chance. His folksy approach is palatable, but I see 2016 as a year where Republicans do not want an also-ran.

THE "ESTABLISHMENT" NAMES

Jeb Bush - If Americans can stomach the thought of a second Clinton presidency, can they stomach the thought of a third Bush? Jeb's always been seen as the smarter brother, the one that should have run in 2000 had Florida played along. There's also no doubt in my mind he would have been a better president than W.  But Jeb's time has passed.

Chris Christie - The press loved the big guy for a while. But without Mitt Romney to kick around, MSNBC decided to become the Anti-Chris Christie channel. Plus many conservatives don't trust him.

THE LIKELY CANDIDATES

Ted Cruz - The divisive Tea Party hero would certainly be able to draw up passion from his base. He'd face opposition in places like New Hampshire and Michigan who view him as too extreme to win a general election.

Rand Paul - Rand will be an interesting one to watch. He can get some of the Libertarian cred thanks to his dad, some Tea Party cred, and he's shown the ability to breathe fire one day, then play nice with others the next. He'll be vulnerable in some primaries for not being as hawkish as other candidates, but in other primaries, that'll be one of his biggest strengths.

Marco Rubio - The Florida senator would greatly benefit if his friend Jeb would decide not to run and just support him instead. Like Cruz, he'd make history as the first Latino president. He's facing early opposition from the anti-amnesty crowd.

Scott Walker - The Wisconsin governor could be a real factor in 2016. He won a recall challenge handily in 2012 after slashing the state budget, and that emboldened his GOP supporters. He's shrunk the deficit there, so fiscal conservatives love him.

Bobby Jindal - Since his disastrous response to the State of the Union, he's kept his head down in Louisiana, just strengthening his resume. His handling of Hurrican Gustav was far better than how his predecessor had handled Hurricane Katrina. His approval ratings dipped after 2012 but have been coming up this year.

Paul Ryan - He's a national name now thanks to his Vice-Presidential candidacy, though I think many voters will remember he did nothing to move the needle in 2012 and how he let Joe Biden steal his lunch money during the debate.

John Kasich - I'll throw his name out there, because he seems to have built a very solid resume as governor. Kasich served in the US House from 1983-2001. He ran for President in 2000 but did badly and dropped out early to support Bush. He had his own Fox News Channel show for a while, and he worked at Lehman Brothers when the stock market crashed. His political rehabilitation as Ohio governor saw that state become one of the first to show true growth post-crash.

WHAT ABOUT THE WOMEN?

There are a few women who could get into this election cycle.

Susanna Martinez - Hey, a twofer! A Latina woman. The New Mexico governor enjoys popularity in her state and has strengthened her bonafides in border security. She could get hit in primaries for New Mexico's low job growth, but between now and 2016 she has time to get that improved.

Nikki Haley - She's South Carolina's first female governor, and she'd be the first Indian American president, should she win. She's young; she's turn 44 in 2016. She attends Methodist and Sikh services, so she has quite a multicultural thing going on.

Mary Fallin - The Oklahoma governor could be tempted to throw her hat into the ring. She's popular at home, she (like Martinez and Haley) should be enjoying her second term as governor when decision-time comes around. She has some personal issues that some could make an issue of, but after Newt ran, that just dwarfs anything any other candidate will ever have to cop to.

Sarah Palin - She won't run, but she'll flirt with the idea through 2016 as she tries to sell a book or score another reality show.

Politically Speaking - 5/28/14

The news has been weird lately, so let me just drop a few things here.

I. The Daily Beast had a couple interesting posts this week. First was "Were Christians Right About Gay Marriage All Along?" Jay Michaelson writes that, you know what, most gays who are married aren't faithful and this is common knowledge, and maybe this will help shift conceptions about monogamy.

Eek. We know adultery has always been and will always be with us, but that's not a good thing. And the article made a couple disturbing points, but primarily, it barely mentions children.

Adults in our society are selfish enough, but marriage - gay or traditional - is not only about committing to another person you love, but about committing to the children you may have. Sure, some people get married after child-bearing years, or they don't want kids at all, but that commitment to the other person is still there. But the destruction of the family unit, the dramatic increase of children born out of wedlock or born to single parents, does not bode well for society. Just because many people don't reach the ideal doesn't mean we should smash the ideal.

I get that divorce is high. Hey, my own bio-parents divorced when I was ten. I am my wife's second husband. But I also have my adoptive parents who've been together for 41 years, my own 18th anniversary is coming up, and there are numerous other good examples I know of out there. Just be faithful, people.

II. The other Daily Beast column that caught my eye was Emily Shire saying the #YesAllWomen movement had jumped the shark. For those not on Twitter, #YesAllWomen was a hashtag that emerged after Elliot Rodger killed two women and four men at UCSB, and his misogynist manifesto made the rounds. I watched the first four minutes and it was enough for me. The kid was obviously narcissistic, self-absorbed, and not right in the head. He's the son of a Hollywood assistant director, and you could tell he took care in how he shot his video. He even had an evil chuckle. He envisioned himself a supervillain about to emerge. But in his video he complained about being a virgin, and now he was going to punish all those hot young women who wouldn't give him the time of day.

The #YesAllWomen hashtag was for women expressing their fears and hardships about 2014 America's rape culture. The quote I saw often was from Margaret Atwood: "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them." I forget the exact stat, but somewhere around 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 women can expect to be sexually assaulted/molested at some point in her life. This is not okay, society.

Now at first when I was reading about it, I had this recoil from the male-bashing. I recognize "feminist" means different things to different people. Feminism is ideally about striving for equality. My mom once told me she felt like feminists were women with low self-esteem. My stepmother called herself a feminist, and she hated men and boys. And she took out her revenge on her young stepsons in illegal ways. That can shape a person. So yeah, I think I'm a little more sensitive to male-bashing than most. I understand this about myself. (And for the record, I've heard she's a much nicer person now.)

The #YesAllWomen phrasing is in response to "Not All Men" i.e. when women start talking about men problems, many guys want to say "Not all men." Not all men are rapists. Not all men are murderers. Not all men sexually harass. This was apparently a popular meme last year but I've just heard about and educated myself on it this week. So going forward, when I hear the general complaints about men, I have to tell myself the "some" is implied in front of "men" and move on. The same with any majority group. Complaints about white people has the implied "some white people" too, I assume. Et cetera.

Going full circle though, Shire said the #YesAllWomen movement has evolved to complaining about trivial things, and thus once something becomes trivial, it ceases to be helpful.

Rodger was just another amoral, mentally unstable narcissist. He can't just kill himself; he has to take others down with him. He felt entitled to lose his virginity. Maybe he should have tried reading some self-help books instead.

III. Cliven Bundy has left the Republican Party for the Independent American Party. Hoo-freaking-ray.

At the 2014 Utah County Republican Convention

I arrived around 6:30am at Mountain View High School to an already almost-full parking lot, with signs blanketing any area where sidewalk and grass met.  Credentialling went pretty quickly, and I saw all of my precinct's delegates made it.

Central Committee meeting had two incidents to break the monotony. One was a debate over a by-law to have someone besdies the Treasurer check the budget for audit. The vote was close to send it back to committee to address later. Another incident happened when the candidates for LD57 sent someone else to grab their credentials. They've changed it to empower the check-in volunteers to credential candidates.

Kirby Glad plugged the new VoterClick app, which will make convention voting go muuuuch faster in 2016. I'm excited for that development.

HD60 - Incumbent Rep. Dana Layton and challenger Brad Daw both spoke. Layton went first, gave a pretty good normal speech about how it's been a privilege to serve you, I'm a small business owner, I'm a mother, etc. Daw's wife then spoke first for Brad, saying she had been suffering breast cancer at the time the spurious attacks from the Powers/Swallow machine swamped her husband, and he hadn't been able to take the time to respond appropriately, and she held up a Daily Herald article from 2012 entitled "Dana Layton's Campaign Fib." (Talk about coming out swinging!) Brad then spoke, said he's available to everyone, gave a couple examples of constituents who've helped him with legislation. The vote was 64-50 for Daw. (56% to 44%). There will be a primary. While they were adding up the votes, they counted our wristbands, which seemed like a moot point. Of the 125 possibles delegates, 116 were there, which meant two credentialed people in the room didn't vote. Wouldn't have made a difference.

Then met with Sen. Margaret Dayton, who's running unopposed. She let us know some of the thing going on in the district but dismissed us a few minutes early so we could have more time to speak with candidates from other races.

Main meeting:

Casey Voeks is UCRP chair and conducted. Gov. Gary Herbert had a nice ovation, said he'd be brief, gave a 12-minute speech about all the great things going on in Utah. Utah A.G. Sean Reyes was next. He had a much louder ovation and had cheers throughout his speech. He had a standing ovation from about 75% of the delegates when talking about defending Amendment 3, and he had another standing O when he left. Rock star. He should go for Orrin Hatch's seat in 2018 whether that Tough Old BirdTM runs for re-election or not.

=Utah County Commission Seat B=

Carlton Bowen - Spent whole time talking about his love of traditional marriage, said he'd pass an ordinance to refuse marriage licenses to any same-sex couples. Lady in front of me crossed his name out once he was done.

Casey Allen - Retiring Commissioner Doug Whitney introduced her before she spoke about her experience in the office and her ability to take over.

Bill Lee - Rep. Jake Anderegg introduced him, said it was his honor - no, his privilege! - to endorse Lee. Lee mentioned his work for Sen. Mike Lee (no relation) and how he was a Republican by choice and a conservative by practice.

Oscar Saldana - Worked for county in surveyor's office for 25 years, lived in UC for 35 years.

Lorne Grierson - Endorsed by his son and then a friend who said you can always get a hold of him. Grierson spoke of varied experience, has solutions now and visions for the future.

David Acheson - Mentioned his experience in different fields, including as former chair of UCRP. Said he's against raising taxes or expanding beyond three commissioners.

Heather Jackson - She remembers as a little girl when her parents let her stay up late to see Ronald Reagan was elected president.

=Utah County Commission Seat A=

Howard Stone - Politicians get Mafia-like support from each other, and it's hard to break in. Very conspiratorial tone to his speech. We have been "brainwashed" to believe that candidates know what's best.

Johnny Revill - Rep. Jake Anderegg was up again to say it was his honor (not privilege?) to endorse Revill for Seat A. Revill asked "Is it important to have a commissioner who has a proven record of service? If yes, then I am your candidate." I tell myself right then if Anderegg personally introduces anyone else on stage today, I'm voting for the other guy.

Greg Graves - We have a debt problem. We need to change course right now. Name-drops Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. First, we need debt elimination. Second, lead by example. Third, be transparent. Pounds pulpit on "We can do better."

Gary Anderson - Gary Ratcliffe endorses him, saying he's principled and will move heaven and Earth to do what he says. "We've had a lot of fun making Utah County the best county in the universe." If you like roads and freeways, I'm your guy.

95% attendence for UCRP. 68% for SLCRP. 1547 delegates credentialled.

=Utah County Attorney=

Jeff Buhman - Sheriff Tracy endorses him. Served in Afghanistan in 2013. The only candidate with experience, I'm the only one who works with police and defense attorneys.

Ben Stanley - Went to BYU. Experienced to work for largest companies in the world, trusted by CEO's and statesmen. I love UC, but we have seen injustices here. I felt moral obligation to press the case. We need a change of culture. We don't need another prosecutor. We need a shield of true justice and integrity.

=Utah County Clerk/Auditor=

Jacob Atkin - John Dougall endorses him. I will stand together with our AG, our Gov, our state leg in defending Amendment 3. I will work to ensure everyone receives a correct ballot so no one loses their vote. UC needs to lead the way in election efficiency.

Bryan Thompson - Said he's avoided endorsements so people will know he's independent. Said he stood up for traditional marriage when he held off handing out licenses to same-sex couples.

=Utah County Recorder=

Raphael Millet - Randy Covington endorsed. Millet said he could have moved on from recorder's office, but he wants to be here, wants to be our UC Recorder.

Jeff Smith - Nearly everyone in my office is endorsing my campaign.

=Utah County Treasurer=

Kim Jackson - Kris Poulson (UC Assessor) endorsed. His slogan is Trusted. Reliable.  Experience. T.R.E. are the first three letters in "Treasurer" and that's about as creative as he gets because he's a numbers guy.

Cary McConnell - Robert Kirk (outgoing UC Treasurer) endorsed. Total of 15 years county experience. We distribute to the tax districts throughout the county. I've been safeguarding your tax dollars.

State Auditor John Dougall then gives a little speech, saying he will have been at 16 conventions today.

The first round of results for UCC Seat B were in order Bill Lee, Lorne Grierson, Heather Jackson, David Acheson, Casey Allen, Oscar Saldana and Carlton Bowen. Lee, Grierson and Jackson moved to next round.

LD48 - Keven Stretten wins 93% of vote.
LD57 - Brian Greene wins 69.8% of vote in 2nd round.
LD60 - Dana Layton (44%) and Brad Daw (56%) go to primary.
LD63 - Dean Sanpei wins 71% of vote.
LD64 - Norm Thurston wins 69% of vote.
LD66 - Mike McKell wins 65% of vote.
SD11 - Multi-county but Howard Stephenson likely nominee.

The first round of results for UCC Seat A were Greg Graves, Gary Anderson, Johnny Revill and Howard Stone. Graves and Anderson moved to the next round.

Utah GOP chair James Evans made it, gave some words. Called Utah County the center of the Utah Republican Party.

So final results:

Utah County Commissioner Seat A - Greg Graves wins
Utah County Commissioner Seat B - Bill Lee & Lorne Grierson to primary
Utah County Attorney - Jeff Buhman & Ben Stanley to primary
Utah County Clerk/Auditor - Jacob Atkin & Bryan Thompson to primary
Utah County Recorder - Jeff Smith wins
Utah County Treasurer - Cary McConnell & Kim Jackson to primary

Actual numbers here.

Some thoughts:

- Not a good day for female candidates. Rep. Dana Layton made it to primary, and all other female candidates who had an opponent lost.

- If the guy who sent the fraudulent FGA letter to LD57 delegates was a Brian Greene supporter, then his plan worked. But if you feel the need to cheat and lie to help your guy win, maybe your cause isn't that righteous. I hope they catch whoever that Jason Powers wannabe is.

- Again, I'm excited for the VoterClick app. It'll make voting go much more quickly, and those without smartphones can still vote by paper, but it'd be 20-25% of the time to add those up.

- I was there 8+ hours and left a few minutes after I cast my last possible vote.

John Swallow: Utah's Most Corrupt Politician Ever?

The full report is out on the misconduct of former Utah Attorney General John Swallow, and it is indeed a web of lies and deceit.

It's interesting because the web extends to former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and U.S. Senators Harry Reid and Mike Lee.  Here's some highlights taken directly from the report:

"The Committee’s investigation revealed that, during his tenure in the Office, Mr. Swallow compromised the principles and integrity of the Office to benefit himself and his political supporters. In so doing, Mr. Swallow breached the public’s trust and demeaned the offices he held. Indeed, the Committee concludes that Mr. Swallow hung a veritable “for sale” sign on the Office door that invited moneyed interests to seek special treatment and favors."

"Mr. Swallow compromised the Office’s position in a pending wrongful mortgage foreclosure lawsuit when he, after the plaintiffs in the lawsuit hosted a fundraiser for him, helped make the lawsuit disappear in an effort to keep his embarrassing ethical conflict from coming to light. In so doing, Mr. Swallow, with the assistance of his predecessor as Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, sold out the interests of thousands of Utah homeowners who would have benefitted if the Office had continued to  pursue the case."

"Under Utah law, a PAC has to disclose its donors, and as the Committee’s report sets out in detail, an intrepid investigator could still have connected the dots to show the  payday link behind some of the PAC donations that Mr. Swallow successfully solicited. To fully obscure the link required more sophisticated machinery, so Mr. Swallow, with the assistance of his campaign consultant Jason Powers, built that machinery."

"By using these daisy chains of entities, the Swallow political machine was able to obscure Mr. Swallow’s heavy reliance on the payday lending industry for campaign support. Moreover, channeling payday money through these dark entities had the additional benefit that the money could then be spent on negative and even misleading campaign maneuvers while allowing Mr. Swallow to deny involvement in such controversial tactics and with little risk that anyone could prove the actual connection to him."

"Mr. Powers, with Mr.Swallow’s acquiescence, authorized a push-poll designed to sway voters’ views of Mr. Reyes by asking questions like, “Would it influence your vote if you knew that Sean Reyes vandalized as a teenager, or called Mexicans ‘brown people’?” The Swallow campaign denied involvement in both the ads and the push poll, and the hidden flow of undisclosed funds made it impossible for voters to assess the campaign’s denials before Election Day 2012 arrived."

"The Committee developed concerns that some of the documents that Mr. Swallow had provided to the Committee were not authentic and had been created after the events they described in order to mislead those who might inquire about those events."

And those are just from the first few pages. It's a 200-page report. It would not surprise me to see Swallow, Shurtleff and Powers get jail-time.

Leaders Who Endorsed John Swallow

Just a reminder...

From JohnSwallow.com -

Congressman Jim Hansen 
Governor Norm Bangerter 
State Senator David Hinkins 
State Senator Howard Stephenson 
State Senator Stuart Adams 
State Senator Ralph Okerlund 
State Senator John Valentine 
State Senator Kevin Van Tassell 
State Senator Peter Knudson 
State Senator Casey Anderson 
State Senator Curt Bramble 
State Senator Wayne Niederhauser 
State Senator Jerry Stephenson 
State Senator Aaron Osmond 
State Representative Mike Noel 
State Representative Ken Ivory 
State Representative Steve Eliason 
State Representative Derek Brown 
State Representative Brad Last 
State Representative Brad Dee 
State Representative Johnny Anderson 
State Representative Roger Barrus 
State Representative Jim Bird 
State Representative Derek Brown 
State Representative Mel Brown 
State Representative LaVar Christensen 
State Representative Fred Cox 
State Representative Gage Froerer 
State Representative Brad Galvez 
State Representative Francis Gibson 
State Representative Richard Greedwood 
State Representative Stephen Handy 
State Representative Greg Hughes 
State Representative Eric Hutchings 
State Representative Don Ipson 
State Representative Todd Kiser 
State Representative Michael Morley 
State Representative Merlynn Newbold 
State Representative Jim Nielson 
State Representative Curtis Oda 
State Representative Patrick Painter 
State Representative Lee Perry 
State Representative Jeremy Peterson 
State Representative Dixon Pitcher 
State Representative Paul Ray 
State Representative Doug Sagers 
State Representative Ryan Wilcox 
State Representative Brad Wilson 
State Representative Kay McIff 
State Representative Bill Wright 
State Representative Evan Vickers

Lawyers for John Swallow -

Rob McKenna, Washington, President, National Association of Attorneys General 
Mark Shurtleff, Utah 
John Suthers, Colorado 
Lawrence Wasden, Idaho 
Marty Jackley, South Dakota 
Wayne Stenehjem, North Dakota 
Alan Wilson, South Carolina 
Pam Bondi, Florida 
Jon Brunning, Nebraska 
Sam Olens, Georgia 
Greg Zoeller, Indiana 
Luther Strange, Alabama 
Buddy Caldwell, Louisiana 
J.B. Van Hollen, Wisconsin

US Order of Succession

As of January 2014

President - Barack Obama
Vice-President - Joe Biden
Speaker of House - John Boehner
Senate pro Tempore - Patrick Leahy
Sec. of State - John Kerry
Sec. of Treasury - Jacob Lew
Sec. of Defense - Chuck Hagel
Attorney General - Eric Holder
Sec. of Interior - Sally Jewell*
Sec. of Agriculture - Tom Vilsack
Sec. of Commerce - Penny Pritzker
Sec. of Labor - Thomas Perez
Sec. of HHS - Kathleen Sebelius
Sec. of HUD - Shaun Donovan
Sec. of Transportation - Anthony Foxx
Sec. of Energy - Ernest Moniz
Sec. of Education - Arne Duncan
Sec. of Veteran Affairs - Eric Shinseki
Sec. of Homeland Security - Jeh Johnson

Other high US officers:
White House Chief of Staff - Denis McDonough
OMB Director - Sylvia Burwell
EPA Administrator - Gina McCarthy
Trade Representative - Michael Froman
UN Ambassador - Samantha Power
Ecomonic Advisers Chair - Jason Furman
Small Business Admin - Jeanne Hulit
National Security Advisor - Susan Rice
White House Counsel - Kathryn Ruemmler
Pres. Senior Advisor - Valerie Jarrett
WH Press Secretary - Jay Carney

*ineligible

State of the Union 2014

"I agree with Republicans like Senator Rubio..." is a phrase that was in this year's address

A teacher helped a student, an entrepreneur added a job, an auto worker fine-tuned a car, a farmer exported some crops, a rural doctor gave a kid some asthma medicine, a man took the bus home, and Norman Rockwell served some apple pie.

I was going to do a live-feed type reaction column, but my mind drifted after a while, I must admit. I've never had that happen before during a State of the Union address before from either party.  Yes, they're scripted, but it still provides insight into where the White House is, what they hope for. It gives us lines to read between.

Pres. Obama started on a positive note, a patriotic note, and mentioned how the war in Afghanistan was finally coming to an end. (It's still one of the most violent places on Earth, but at least we're leaving.)

The part of the SOTU that stuck out to me was this one, early on:

"Some require congressional action, and I'm eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do."

What he's saying is that if Congress doesn't do what he wants, he'll just do it anyway via executive order. After that he lists a series of goals, and maybe I'm cynical, but I just take a "we'll see" approach to whatever he promises. I remember feeling similarly listening to Bush's 2005 SOTU address. We're going to go to the moon again? Really?