Empty Words: Obama's 2010 State of the Union Speech. Expect More of the Same Tonight!

Focus on jobs, deficit and civility. We're heard it all before without result.

Have the television networks started the season of show repeats already? That's what you may be asking yourself if you watch Obama's 2011 State of the Union Address Tuesday night. You'll likely hear exactly what Obama has already said so many times without result.

But never mind, the media campaign to resurrect Obama's failed presidency will be going into high gear. The liberal media has been working on Obama's rehabilitation ever since the November election. Earlier this month they got a big boost by falsely accusing conservatives of inspiring the Tucson shooter then praising Obama for coming in and calling for civility. Thus far, it's worked as Obama's poll numbers have taken a major dip up for the first time in his presidency.

Obama Staying Liberal and Calling it Centrist

Expect the usual pundits to praise Obama's speech and declare that it's evidence of a "move to the center." Even if everyone, including Greg Sargent at the Washington Post understands that Obama isn't actually moving to the center, but attempting to "redefine the 'center' as something more in line with his own current policy approach and priorities... his speech will be less about moving to the center than about redefining what we call the center."

And editorial in Investor's Business Daily put it this way:

Will the man who conned the public into believing he was a moderate, but who has governed as the most immoderate leftist in the country's history, now try to pull the same con so he can be elected again?
...
Give us a break. Does anyone think that the Barack Obama who set out to "transform" the America that he found so distasteful has himself been transformed? Does anyone believe that if the mid-terms went the other way and the odds of his re-election hadn't gone south, Obama would be considering any detour whatsoever on the leftist low road he has charted? Call us skeptics, but we don't.

The pundits will say that Obama has changed and that he is listening to the American people. Oh really? Well, let's just take a look at his 2010 State of the Union speech and ask what happened to this great head fake?

Excerpts from 2010 Speech: Been There, Done Nothing!

In Obama's 2010 State of the Union speech he mentioned jobs 23 times. He declared that "jobs must be our number one focus in 2010." Obama went on to say:

The true engine of job creation in this country will always be America’s businesses. But government can create the conditions necessary for businesses to expand and hire more workers. We should start where most new jobs do –in small businesses.

Yet, Obama spent much of 2009 and 2010 attacking businesses, especially targeting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which represents most of the small business jobs creators in the country. When he wasn't attacking business, he was passing regulations in health care and financial services that made it more difficult for small businesses to grow and hire.

The result of Obama's 2010 focus on jobs? Unemployment stayed well above 9% for the entire year despite massive stimulus spending which failed to live up to every promise from Obama that recovery was just around the corner. Unemployment remains the worst of any recession in modern times:



Deficit Double Talk

In the 2010 speech Obama mentioned the federal budget deficit 14 times. Mostly, he repeated the false claim that passing health care would reduce the deficit. But everyone who gives the matter the slightest thought realizes that insuring millions of new people with a permanent government program will only repeat the mistakes of previous entitlements programs which are currently out of control where spending is concerned. Recently, 200 economists from government and the private sector stated that Obama Care will add $2 trillion to the deficit over the next 20 years.

Also in the 2010 speech Obama promised " to go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that we can’t afford and don’t work." He claimed to have found $20 billion in savings. Yet the Democrat controlled House and Senate continued to pass and Obama continued to sign bills with massive deficit spending leading to the second year in a row of record deficits.

Obama's other plan to lower the deficit was his proposal for the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. In a post called "A Moment of Truth" the Commission delivered it's report. It was dead on arrival.

Meanwhile, Obama has changed the word "spending" to investments and is already planning more "investments" in 2011.

A "Deficit of Trust" and Civility?
Finally, in 2010 Obama spoke of a "deficit of trust" and promised more transparency and openness just weeks before Democrats crafted the final draft of the 2,300 page health care bill entirely in secret and without adequate time to review before voting or Obama's signature.

Central to restoring trust was this call for civility:

OBAMA: Washington may think that saying anything about the other side, no matter how false, is just part of the game. But it is precisely such politics that has stopped either party from helping the American people. Worse yet, it is sowing further division among our citizens and further distrust in our government.

So no, I will not give up on changing the tone of our politics. I know it’s an election year.

Substitute the word "Washington" for Democrats and that's an accurate statement. Who can forget the clearly false statements Democrats made about conservatives in the wake of Tucson shooting? And let's not forget Obama's own campaign calls to "punish enemies" and telling Republicans they would have to "sit in the back."

And after declaring that he was ready for "monthly meetings with both the Democratic and Republican leadership" those monthly meetings never happened. It was not until August that GOP Leader Mitch McConnell )R-KY) finally had a face to face meeting with Obama. It was not until after the November election that he met with both House Speaker to be John Boehner (R-OH) and McConnell.

"Where is Joe Wilson When You Need Him?"

Expect to hear more of the same flimflammery in tonight's speech. Calls for deficit reduction while proposing new spending now called "investments." One sided demands for civility and jobs, jobs, jobs all the while defending the job killing agenda of the past two years.

As William Huges wrote in the Philadelphia Examiner "Where’s Joe Wilson when you need him?" Rep. Wilson (R-SC Mike's America's Congressman) shouted "You lie" when Obama tried to pull the wool over the eyes of congress in a speech promising that health care reform wouldn't cover illegal aliens (later admitting it could). Joe Wilson was censured for that outburst. When was the last time a Democrat was censured for accusing Republicans of behaving like Nazis or wanting people to die?

So, there won't be anyone in the House tonight to point to Obama's deception. As with most of Obama's presidency it will be "just words, just speeches." And unlike the great presidents of the past, Obama's words never bring the promised result!

For the GOP response to "just words" look for Rep. Paul Ryan's address in response on Speaker Boehner's Facebook page for a livestream of the Ryan's speech. He's the young new Chairman of the House Budget Committee who won't be using "just words" but real numbers.

As for Obama's big move to the center? I cite again the editorial in Investor's Business Daily:

We also doubt that the president's alleged moves to the middle are going down very well with the liberals who form the president's base. In fact, we're surprised we haven't heard more from them if the stories are true that Obama is prepared to leave them high and dry to improve his chances for re-election.

Then again, the silence among liberals may signal they're no more confident than we are that Barack Obama intends to do anything substantive that qualifies him as a moderate.

Will the American people allow themselves to be fooled again? Stay tuned!