mike! Brandes

Barack Obama, our nation’s president addressed congress tonight in what could only be described as a joint session of congress, as it is too soon in his young presidency to declare a full state of the union.

Obama faced a difficult task, creating a sense of urgency and explicit cause for action on the state of our economy, while remaining optimistic about the daunting, long term challenges ahead. President Obama also needed to create a sense of congruence between his platform of fiscal responsibility with tax cuts and spending; in addition to the nearly $2 trillion in stimulus plans.

From a history of Public Address standpoint, while far more pointed and direct, Obama and his speechwriting team did a terrific job of mirroring, and mimicking the famed “Fireside Chats” of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The plain language, and simple parallelism reminds us of the discourse of a President communicating to the citizens of the nation instead of only communicating to congress, and letting the citizens try and interpret that for themselves.

I’m no staunch conservative, or bleeding liberal, I fall somewhere in the middle, and with that in mind, here is my take on the speech, and the issues (for what it’s worth).

The stimulus plan is not an immediate solution, it’s not a bandage to stop the bleeding, to continue with that metaphor, it is more of an antibiotic ointment, or saave if you will that is designed to minimize the scar and promote healing once the bleeding has stopped. In a recent conversation with a co-worker, the question “do you think the stimulus package will turn the economy around before the end of the year” was posited to me. In a short answer, NO! The stimulus package, won’t turn the economy for some time, but it will help to right the ship slowly. President Bush had a stimulus plan that he spent $152 Billion (according to Wikipedia, so take that with a grain of salt), that was supposed to turn the economy immediately. That plan failed, because it was a short term fix. The key to righting the economical ship, and prevent it from sinking is a long term solution, and one that probably won’t yield any hard results until 2010, or possibly 2011.

As far as balancing the budget, Obama was a somewhat sophomoric in his plan here. He continually referred to it as the deficit “we” inherited, an obvious jab at Bush. It’s no secret that I am not running out to get my George W. Bush commemorative plate set any time soon, but you can only beat a dead horse so much. The fact is, it’s America’s deficit, not former President Bush’s. I did think that Obama created a sense of congruence in terms of balancing the budget long term, and cutting the deficit. Ultimately the more the deficit is reduced, the less inflation we will face, and that is the key to righting the ship economically.

Obama is my president. I did not vote for him, but he is my president. He’s in charge of my nation for at least the next few years of my life. There have been many before him that weren’t good, and there will be many after him that aren’t good. Right now, I have to give him my vote of confidence. If nothing else, these are rocky times, and I’m just glad to be along for the ride, its like a roller coaster.