Herman Cain’s Tea Party Response To the State of the Union

Cain’s central theme raises the interesting point that the State of the Union has become an entirely political affair.  It’s a campaign speech, a laundry list of promises - in Obama’s case, very expensive promises, and largely the same ones he made in his previous State of the Union addresses.  Very little of Obama’s speech had anything to do with describing the state of the Union, in factual terms, to American citizens. 

There wasn’t much chance Obama would do that.  Even using the cooked unemployment metric favored by the media, he wasn’t about to boast of finally noodling it down to 8.5 percent, after years of bringing us even higher unemployment.  If he reported on unemployment honestly, and added back the missing millions from his workforce, as Cain does in his speech, he’d be telling us to celebrate 18 percent unemployment. 

It’s funny that we didn’t hear much about the state of ObamaCare from the President, either.  How are things going with that great project to “bend the cost curve down?”  Why didn’t Obama tout his Administration’s wisdom in issuing all those waivers to those he judged deserving of exemption from his crowning achievement?

The debt ceiling battle was a big deal for Obama this year.  Why didn’t he tell us, using precise numbers, what he’s done for the national debt since taking office?  Since Obama likes to posture as the CEO of America, Inc., and his government is the world’s largest “investor,” why didn’t we “shareholders” receive an accounting of our financial situation?  Instead of rhapsodizing about all the public money he plans to spend, why didn’t our chief executive tell us what happened to the trillions he’s already spent?  You don’t respond to a financial audit by reading your shopping list to the auditors.

It is often thought that the response to a State of the Union address always seems muted, because it’s not delivered in front of a huge room filled with cheering politicians.  Whatever his flaws as a presidential candidate, Herman Cain remains an engaging speaker who doesn’t need applause to keep his energy level up.  You can see why he was cited as almost every other candidate's dreamboat choice for veep, four long months ago.