State of the Union

I watched the State of the Union last night.  It was a very good speech!  Then again, I have never heard President Obama make a bad speech.  I thought that he clearly outlined where we are at and what the plans are for the future.  He did it with grace, humor and strength.  He didn’t get flustered when the Republicans sat there all stoic and stubborn.  Instead he called them on it by going off speech and making light of it.  Actually, he improvised a few times which brought warmth and lightness to what could be a very somber and heavy speech.  All in all, it filled me with the hope and faith I felt after the inauguration.  That same confidence that he is the right person for the job and he is going to lead the country where we need to go.

I did notice a few things during the speech that I am curious about:

–         I noticed that the Supreme Court justices sat there without applauding or standing or acknowledging that anyone was even giving a speech. I assume that is because justice is supposed to be blind and, therefore, unbiased.  But then why are they there at all if they are just going to sit there?

–         I also noticed that the Joints Chiefs also sat without applauding or standing.  I suppose they are also supposed to be unbiased and impartial.  But why are they even there too?

–         The Democrats sat on the left of the hall and the Republicans sat on the right.  Unless you were looking at them from the President’s viewpoint.  Then the Democrats were on the right and the Republicans were on the left.  Just wanted to point that out.

–         Who are the people who were sitting in the gallery behind and above the president?  There weren’t many people there so, if it was Congressional staff, who gets the privilege of sitting back there?

Just some things that I noted during the speech.  Oh, and I loved that Vice President Biden was smiling and nodding through the whole speech.  It was like he was emphasizing what President Obama said and it brought a nice touch.  I remember how Vice President Cheney would just sit there with a sour expression on his face looking like he was just unhappy with everything.  People who have bad attitudes can spread that sadness to everyone.  When you are actually on TV for a couple of hours with that attitude, it can spread sadness to the whole country.  The happiness and positive attitude that Vice President Biden conveyed is much better.

All in all, it was the best State of the Union I had heard in a long time.  Makes me very happy I voted for him!!