On Obama's State of the Union

First of all, let me state that I am tired and about to go to bed, because sleep is awesome.

Oh tay, here we go. The Presidential State Of The Union is always a balance between lofty vision and concrete policy proposals. You always want an equal mix of the two. You want to feel moved, but you also need a "where's the beef?" aspect to the grand themes of the speech.

Overall, I thought Obama did a good job - not great, but good. For me, it was a tad heavy on the "where's the beef" aspects of smaller policy prescriptions and a little light on general vision of why his leadership is right for this moment. He articulately laid out the facts that he has issued less regulations than Bush, domestic oil production is at the highest levels in 8 years (even with the BP oil spill), more WTO complaints against China than Bush, and his administration is doing it's best to get rid of dumb, red-tape regulations - culminating in the terrible "spilled milk" joke (which was oddly effective due to its extreme terribleness), which helped illustrate that he is actually, lo and behold a moderate Democrat. And he did a nice job at the beginning and end of the speech by simply stating that if Congress just had a smidge of the national purpose of our military we could get some great things accomplished. Although awkwardly phrased, the story of the Bin Laden mission with Republican Defense Secretary Bob Gates and former rival Hillary Clinton in the situation room was a nice window into the fact that only the mission mattered and party ideology dissolved and that in the small window of executive authority Obama has led as promised.

Interesting and good ideas - Ernie translated

- If you want to send jobs overseas, that's fine, but you shouldn't get a freakin' tax break - that money can be "spent" giving a tax credit to corporations that have expressed interest moving production back to the U.S. I find nothing wrong with a little bit of supporting domestic industry.

- Natural gas exploration is totally OK - so long as you prove it's environmentally safe for U.S. citizens. Also linked to a great point that federal research dollars eventually led to these new ways of accessing shale oil and relating to green/clean energy investment now even if it doesn't pay off IMMEDIATELY.

- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Financial Fraud Task Force - A major part of the collapse of 2008 wasn't just because there were some dumb homebuyers out there. Many financial institutions sold fraudulent mortgages to weak buyers because a higher division of the bank was investing/betting on the failure of said mortgages! It's about time for an honest assessment of the difference between honest failed lending and a bad economy versus banks that proactively gave mortgages for the sheer purpose of monetizing them.

Neutral / Bad ideas

- Forcing everyone to finish high school - Totally agree with the principle, but no meaningful way of enforcement.
- China trade task force - We already have trade lawyers who do this work, this is just a more visible way of seeming like we're tougher on China (not likely to have much impact).

Missed opportunities

- Could have taken a larger stab at comprehensive tax reform. As you can see in the good ideas section, Obama proposed some small credits for corporations bringing jobs back to the U.S., but no mention of general tax reform of lowering rates in exchange for removing loopholes and deductions.