Belén and I watched her first State of the Union address tonight.  Mostly I tried to get a photo of her watching it while she crawled around on the “love nest” configured couch.  I don’t usually partake in political discussions unless it is with my mom (easy way to get her going — hi mom!) but I will use this picture as an excuse to give my 1.5 cents worth of feedback.  I should start with the disclaimer that I really pay very little attention to politics.  I was raised in a family who generally votes Republican due to a desire for lower taxes.  I see the need for more federally funded programs and in the past few years have voted Democratic.  I think Obama is an inspiring, intelligent person and a good leader. 

So what does a person like me think about when watching the State of the Union address?  I should remind you that I think too much about things before I get into it.

First, I did a lot of wondering about how many people were involved with preparing the speech.  How long had they been preparing?  How did they get the information?  Did they poll people to learn what they wanted to hear?  Second, I wondered what the President’s role in writing the speech was?  Did he write the outline and then let others fill in the detail?  I think as a leader and manager, I find myself watching other leaders wondering what their approach to leadership is and how they do their job.  Some other non-political things I wondered about was the clothing choices of all of the people in the room.  What was up with the handful of ladies wearing canary-colored suits?  What compels one to wear something that bright to the State of the Union address? 

Also, are the Supreme Court justices capable of smiling?  And did the one female justice in the front row look like she was about to hunch over and die or what?  I really should know which justice she is, but I am an NPR listener so I hear their names all of the time but rarely see them on television. 

Man, am I dreading the next campaign season after the decision they made last week.  There are going to be one million ads put out by psychotic special interests telling us how So-and-So’s opponent makes their children watch while he drowns little puppies in the kiddie pool in the backyard.  I despise those ridiculous, negative ads. 

From a speech perspective, my feedback is Obama shared a lot of great ideas but it seems unlikely that even a third of them are possible given the pace that legislation is made in this country.  I guess, Obama’s job is to set the vision for the country and not make it all happen himself.  Maybe he figures that if the throws 1000 ideas out Congress will actually pass less than ten percent of them.  I compare him to the leaders in my company and quickly realize what a different role political leaders have compared to unelected leaders and how HARD it would be.  In a corporation, if your subordinates don’t fall in line, they are fired.  In politics, you can bash your leader all you want as long as you are not too disrespectful.  It seems strange to me that the leader of the free world probably receives more negative feedback than anyone else in the world…yet at the same time he is one of the most accomplished, powerful and respected people.

Okay, at this point I think I am just rambling.  One final thought.  Today seems like just some other day to us right now, but I look at this picture of Belén with Obama in the background and I wonder if it will ever be a picture that Belén will be proud to display.  Is Obama going to be one of those truly great presidents we all think back to in worse times or will his popularity fizzle out like so many others with his incredibly difficult job?  Maybe Belén will be a political persona someday and this picture will exemplify that she was passionate about politics from a young age.  Or maybe, it is just number 21,349 of the cute pictures of our daugther.

I do feel very fortunate to live in this great country where we can listen to our leaders thoughts and freely discuss, analyze and even criticize him.  Even though I get VERY tired of partisan politics, it is great to have freedom of speech and the right to vote.  I hope this is something I always remember to cherish and try not to take for granted.

Now I will turn it to you…what did you think of the State of the Union address?

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