POTUS: SOTU

Declaring that he “won’t quit,” President Obama’s first State of the Union speech was a 70-minute patchwork quilt of regurgitated reiteration that he made to Congress a year before.

I wanted an apology. What I got was a do-over.

Last year, after his inauguration, the president went before Congress and spoke of his lofty, laudible goals for the country. Goals that included changes and/or reform concerning health care, energy, education, and the stimulus package.

This time, he added a few more goals while talking about America’s resiliency, taking shots at the Supreme Court and trying to sound like an political outsider and chastising his own party.

But the one line that stood out, the one sentence that made me actually shout “Ya’ think?” during his speech was when the president said, “No wonder there’s so much cynicism. No wonder there’s so much disappointment.” He was talking about American’s reaction to Washington D.C., but he should have shouldered the onus upon his slender shoulders because that’s where the blame surely and soundly sets.

I wanted an apology from the president for not listening, not hearing what Americans have been saying for the past year and wasting that year on his agenda, not the people’s.

We need a president to not only lead, but also have a vision for this country.

Instead of leading, Barack Obama has handled our current state of economic and unemployment affairs as a minor distraction in the grand scheme of what he wanted to accomplish. That goal of Health Care Reform died with the election of a Republican to Ted Kennedy’s seat two weeks ago.

In the SOTU speech, once again we see the president not focusing on what is important, but trying to please everyone by regurgitating his entire agenda that got him elected.

The president didn’t sound conciliatory because he truly believes he’s done nothing wrong. By chastising his own party and attacking a branch of government he has proven once again, he is not a leader.

Leaders take responsibility for their mistakes. Instead, all I heard was the same promises and a vow to “not quit.”

I guess that’s better than “hope and change.”