Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

I watched all three speeches yesterday evening: the president’s State of the Union Address; Paul Ryan’s Republican Response; and Michele Bachmann’s Tea Party Response. The president sounded almost reasonable, as he often did during the presidential campaign. He has not governed as he campaigned. It’s pretty clear that his strategy was to ram as much progressive legislation through Congress as he could during his first two years in office, after which he would shift into campaign mode (i.e., move to the center) for 2012. The strategy worked the first time; we’ll see whether it works again. The American people were fooled in 2008, largely because the media failed to do their job of investigating Obama; if the American people elect Obama again, it will not be because they were fooled. It will be because they want big, intrusive government. By the way, I loved the responses by Ryan and Bachmann. I would be happy with either of them in the White House.