ASIDE FROM THE WORDS

There is an abundance of opportunity for you to read the words of President Obama's State of the Union Address on the web, in the papers, and elsewhere today. I won't duplicate those opportunities here.

Rather, I thought I'd share a few "asides" which caught my attention. Please bear with me.

+ It always bothers me to have to watch the VP and the Speaker reacting. Very distracting.

+ Just once I'd love to hear a President say something like: "Look, folks, this annual event has become a circus. Let's hold the applause until after the speech and can the standing and sitting for the sake of the cameras. It makes this into a political ping pong match, and this stuff is too serious for that."

+ I know the rules don't allow the Supreme Court to react to the words of the President, but if that's the case, move them away from the front row and can the robes. Incidentally, I don't remember hearing a President take a jab at the SC before. They deserved his comment.

+ Bill Livingood,Sergeant-at-Arms of the House, who announces the presence of the President and then acts as his guide through the crowd, is a friend of mine. He never seems to age.

+ Humor (sometimes cutting as it was) found a home in the speech last night. At times it was more like a fireside chat than a State of the Union Address. That's not all bad.

+ I have never appreciated the "Response" from the other party after the Address. It signals a partisan flavor which I feel is over the top. Having said that, I thought Gov. McDonnell did a decent job of it.

+ We are getting much better at reading lips these days. Side comments by those attending aren't nearly as private as the whisperer thinks.

+ Watching last night made me wonder if maybe more progress would be made in the Congress if Members and Senators were seated by seniority instead of by party. Maybe the days of the other side of the aisle should be relegated to history. Wouldn't it be better if elected people had to talk on a daily basis with those from the other party rather than constantly reinforcing their opinions with colleagues from the same party? Chumminess can go only so far before it becomes a distraction and an excuse for stubbornness.

+ What's with the autograph session at the end? Aren't these people who see the President all the time? Don't they have plenty of opportunity to ask for his signature away from the State of the Union Address?

+ Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is looking particularly frail these days. I suspect her recent illnesses have taken more of a toll than we have been told.

+ Wouldn't it be strange to have an unmarried President? To whom would the cameras point at those staged moments in a speech when everyone stands and turns (awkwardly) toward the First Lady?

+ Last night I rushed home from a basketball game (where Providence College drubbed Connecticut) to watch the Address. It helped my mood. I was anxious throughout the day anticipating the speech. My basketball euphoria gave the speech a lighter finish.


So...that's my semi-serious take on it for the day after the 2010 State of the Union Address by President Obama. Overall, I think he scored well in a troubled year. I'm curious to see how his expressed plans, hopes, and commitments will fly away from the television extravaganza.

THE STATE OF THE UNION: more than an address

We are just one day away from President Obama's first official State of the Union Address, and I am anxious. Oh, he will present it with great oratory skill, and there will be the usual applause, standing, sitting, and ceremony to which I have referred before. It's not the presentation which gives me anxiety...it is the plan which begins a minute after the speech which makes me nervous.

This President who was elected by a massive, trusting electorate, is struggling to be effective just one year later. Not only are his polls down, but even among supportive people like myself, there is a growing sense of impotence in the job. It has taken less than a year for the hope of a new democracy to fade to a disappointment level which frightens me.

A disclaimer: I have not given up on Barack Obama's ability to govern this nation. I continue to believe in him and to support him. But I would be less than honest if I didn't express a concern about his governance quotient. We're not getting where we want to be and the credentials required to get there are fading into the mist.

I want to be perfectly candid and say that I believe this is a direct result of the betrayal of Democrats. I was tempted to lengthen that sentence to add softer qualifiers, but I won't. I think it stands by itself. The Party which selected Obama, groomed him, encouraged him, fought for him, and spent an enormous amount of time and money getting him elected ran for cover at the first signs of faltering. I believe he has received bad advice from administration leaders and party leaders who then avoided blame and scurried into the mist, leaving him standing alone at difficult times. I am shocked at the intimidation I have sensed in men and women who should be strong.

There is no question that the President has pursued causes which have brought about doubt...and even anger. It is the kind of anger that has rallied his opponents and strengthened the Independents and cross-over Republicans who took a risk and supported him for election. The Massachusetts senatorial election was a barometer of that emotion.

The Health Care debacle has been poorly managed and is now almost an embarrassment. Making it the hallmark of his young presidency may have been too much, too soon. The crisis in the economy deserves greater attention, and the Health Care battle, important as it is, sticks out as a denial of urgent priorities.

There was a time in October and November when a bipartisan bill was attainable; Democratic party leaders rejected it to fight for personal agendas...and it is those personal agendas which have eaten away at the cause bringing it to a place where the whole thing could fail. Ideological footstomping and mudslinging (on both sides of the aisle) destroyed what could have been a historic victory for this President. Should he have played a different role in the debate? Probably. He trusted his leadership and they were not trustworthy.

Now I see Democratic leadership abandoning ship at a time when they are most needed. Their eyes are on their own political ambitions and not on the promise of a new way of governing which they promised a year ago. It is clear that the electorate is charged up with anger and the November elections will be difficult and risky. Those who place themselves in positions of leadership for this country should be willing to bulk up and restore faith in a new democracy instead of cowering in the mist watching Obama's credibility fade.

President Obama is not immune from criticism. This has been a year of learning for him. But the experienced leadership surrounding him has not been effective in assisting him through a difficult time.

It is not too late for President Obama to regain momentum. This is only the first of four years of his term as President. Our expectations and hopes need not disappear. But this is not a time to exercise denial and a puffy "stand fast" with the existing agenda. The State of the Union address he delivers tomorrow night and the plan he articulates must be about restoring faith in his ability to govern. In order for that to happen the people who believe in him and have agreed to serve with him must stand up and cheer...not at the speech...but at the revised agenda which is necessary and attainable.

Someone in last night's news used the phrase that President Obama needs to "lead with his heart and not his brain." I don't want him to abandon his intelligence in favor of his emotions. But a healthy combination of them would be a welcome sight at The State of the Union address.

Photo Credit:AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

JANUARY: the wintry first month of the year

Photo: Januar, Leandro Bassano (16th c.), Common Domain

I love this painting by Bassano. It is his attempt to depict the Northern Hemisphere's experiencing of the month of January. It is one of those paintings that causes you to keep searching. Your first viewing makes the point: January is cold, raw, and barren. But as you keep searching out the details of the painting you discover Bassano attempting to put everything he could imagine into the painting which describes the affect of the wintry month. Every character, every stick of wood, every inch of drab color has a message of January's discomfort and creative attempts to overcome it.

Appropriately named for the Roman god, Janus, whose two faces allow him to look forward and backwards at the same time, January is like that, isn't it? We spend a lot of time in this month remembering the past year and postulating on that which will occur in the coming year. January is fickle.

* New Calendars are distributed, every year becoming more and more eclectic. No longer limited to major national holidays, the tiny boxes of the new calender now remind us of such vital things as National Pie Baking Day, Grandparents' Day, Administrative Professional Day (formerly Secretary's Day ,) and other urgent 24 hour periods. I remember years when we have burned the previous year's calendar ceremoniously, like shaking the dust from our sandals for a year we'd sooner forget.

* We are encouraged to make New Year's resolutions, obligatory promises to lose weight, give up smoking, knock strokes off our golf game, and other such significant plans which, predictably, go by the wayside within a matter of hours or days.

* It is time to begin the process of gathering the data necessary for completing the IRS forms, due on April 15, which identify the losses or successes of the previous year. Sometimes, if one is lucky, we acknowledge our less-than-efficient act of letting the U.S. Government hold our money at no interest, to be returned in a check we are convinced is a windfall.

* The President goes to Congress with his State of the Union address, identifying the advances and short-comings of the past year and laying the groundwork for legislation and programs to bring about a successful and safe new year. It is an exercise in clapping, standing, cheering, poker-facing and jeering by Congress and members of the Administration, and measured restraint on the part of robed justices.

* While conference play barely begins in January it is a time of prognostication about the makeup of the Final Four in NCAA basketball. Wise and "in the know" sports commentators take to the media to let the rest of the nation in on the secrets they "know" which are as fickle as the snowstorms and thaws of mid-winter.

Going back to the painting by Bassano, I find a beauty in the depiction of January. That, too, is part of the two faces of Janus: miserably cold and wintry January but majestic and snow-covered mountains. Desperate attempts to gather fire-wood and ingenious fireplace pumps, copper bed warmers, and woven woolen wraps. There is something about the mid-winter which is cleansing: preparing the way for the return of Spring; new growth, and the fresh, warm breezes which bring soft rain and the blossoming of spectacular flowers; births of farm animals and the promise of new life.

Bassano painted a series of depictions of the various months. By the time May and June paintings emerge, there is the beginning of the use of reds, greens, and yellow tones in his paintings.

Sloshing through the fresh snowfall predicted for today in Providence, I'll try to remember my romantic thoughts of this early morning expose of the month of January.