Myron Waters
Getting at Obama's State of the Union:

Well. I think he did what I expected him to do. He has very good speech writers and he is quite an elegant and effective orator.
That being said, I personally was hoping for more. More passion, more directness, a more defiant and respectfully "in your face" message. I see the President as someone who had his heart in the right place both times he ran for office but someone who had an uphill battle since day one, for several different reasons. And Race was definitely one. I think he hit on all the areas everybody thought he would, but there wasn't enough details in each area to make the case. If we look at any one of the issues he mentioned, they all have a valid need to be addressed. But, take gun control for example, with all the tragedy that has happened and is happening every day, I think he could have not only mentioned where they happened but why and how they happened, and what "good, bipartisan, common sense", ways to deal with this problem.
Watching the partisan reactions to the speech lets me know that nothing is likely to change until he is gone. Or at the very least until there is a House, Senate and President all under the same party. Which is unfortunately terrible for our country. He is a President, not a King or Dictator. Contrary to what some GOP hate mongers want to characterize him as. Which means the party of "NO" is going to do nothing but obstruct as they have for the last 5 years. He doesn't seem to be a big practitioner of the Executive Order or he would use it more. Even though they can be cancelled or over written by the next president, who's going to have the balls to do it if it's in place and working for millions of people, i.e. the Affordable Care Act, also negatively referred to as "Obama Care" by the GOP.
Finally, as far as the Republican rebuttal goes. I didn't see them all, of which there were four(4), which shows, in my opinion, that they don't speak with one(1) voice even within they're own party, there's fragmentation and disagreement, and we're supposed to follow or believe in them??? The "official" response was also a dish of the same old thing, just toned down. "We have a better plan, a better way", but if they do why haven't they brought those ideas to the table and worked on making things better for the people they claim now they want to help. US, the middle class and even less fortunate. I hope my dissatisfaction with the whole process is coming through LOUD AND CLEAR


http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/obama-income-inequality-100662.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/full-text-of-obamas-2014-state-of-the-union-address/2014/01/28/e0c93358-887f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html