STATE OF THE UNION

There is, of course, a great deal of commentary about the State of the Union speech delivered last night by President Obama all over the web. RealClearPolitics and Instapundit have lots of links, and Drudge Report links to most of the MSM. Conservative commentary can be found in abundance at The Weekly Standard and The National Review. Here are my thoughts...

He still is a smooth, even impressive, orator. In that sense, he is similar to Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan. But unlike those men, Barack Obama just does not seem, to me at least, to connect with working class white voters, and I don't think racism is the major factor in that equation. I think it is elitism. Bill Clinton was a good old boy from Arkansas, even though he was a Yale and Oxford man. Ronald Reagan was from a Midwestern working-class family, even though he spent many years among the rich and famous in Hollywood. They gave the impression that they were one of us (yes, I am also from a white, working class family and background). Barack Obama does not give that impression, not so much because he is of mixed race, but because his background is decidedly crunchy granola, Ivy League, law professor, community organizer, anointed candidate of the Chicago political machine. It simply does not jibe with the white, working class experience. This is why Hillary, once she got herself on track, wiped Obama out among those voters during the primaries, too late, of course, to save her. McCain and the Republicans were somewhat discredited going into the Fall 2008 campaign, but were given a death blow by the financial meltdown. Now, those white, working class voters are swinging hard against Obama and the Democrats, and the speech, despite the platitudes, did no good on that score, in my estimation.

Obama keeps talking, but the people he needs to win over are not listening. Unless the unemployment numbers start to come down significantly or the President makes a national security decision that proves to be tough and smart, they are not going to start listening anytime soon.