I voted for Obama, and while I don't agree with everything he's done, I generally think he's on a more right than wrong track. Certainly, he seems better than the alternative we had in 2008, and the ones we have this year.

That said, there were some things in his State of the Union address that seemed... odd.

I said out loud, "What?!" when he said that the actions of our troops abroad had made us more respected internationally. I've been to Europe, and there seem to be more Europeans here on this site than Americans, and the impression I get is this: Even among our allies, America is a lot of things, but respected generally isn't one of them, especially in regards to our dealings with the Middle East.

As for his desire for education reform, I was puzzled by his intention to pull funding from universities that are unable to lower their tuition. Having gotten my degree in California in the mid 2000's, I hear nothing but insanity in that statement. California was going bankrupt at the time, and cutting funding to its universities. Tuition at my school skyrocketed, even as classes were being cancelled that were required for certain degree programs, which meant that some students suddenly found their program lengthened by a year or more while they were midway through getting their degree. Maybe I'm missing something, but I fail to see how cutting funding to a school that already has high tuition will help matters.

I'm also wondering how he plans to enforce the mandatory high school attendance till graduation or age 18, or how understanding such a law will be towards students with unusual circumstances, but there's a whole other thread dedicated to that.

Those were the ones that most stood out.

Generally, it seems as the years go on that the State of the Union is starting to be the purest form of the ambitious, feature-packed design doc for which planned features are dropped nearly as soon as developers discover the challenges involved in implementing them. I heard a great many instances of "Let's do this!", but very few of "Here's how we're going to do this!", and those that were detailed seemed like they might not be particularly effective.

Also, I really worry about what he did and didn't say about the freedom of media on the internet. If not for his veto promise, you would almost think he was a firm supporter of SOPA.

Oh sure, things got said that needed to be said, especially with regards to the obstructionism on display in Congress, but I was hoping for more, and at the end of it all, the address seemed so lacking in real content that I was left with a nearly tactile sensation of insubstantiality.

I hope I'm wrong, but don't expect to be corrected.

That said, I'm very interested to hear Obama's answers to the questions on their youtube channel on the 30th. More than half of them concerned SOPA/ACTA/PIPA, a quarter concerned the NDAA, and the remainder were questions about his views on Chris Dodd's indiscretion, the extradition of the UK "pirate", and other issues that beg explanation of wtf the government thinks it's doing lately.

May the questions not be cherry-picked, as the channel assures us they won't.

What were your impressions from the address?

I'll put it this way. Obama didn't change my mind.

Sure, I agreed with some of what he said, but when the time comes, I doubt, short of a miracle of God, I'll be voting for him.

CM156:
I'll put it this way. Obama didn't change my mind.

Sure, I agreed with some of what he said, but when the time comes, I doubt, short of a miracle of God, I'll be voting for him.

You know, every time you post something and I read it, I hear it in your avatar's voice.

It kinda fits. I mean that in a good way, as I liked Sand.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure this speech would not have persuaded anyone of anything.

CM156:
I'll put it this way. Obama didn't change my mind.

Sure, I agreed with some of what he said, but when the time comes, I doubt, short of a miracle of God, I'll be voting for him.

And if Gingrich is his opponent?

The State of the Union has become a laughing stock really. Been that way since before Clinton.

But the thing about the college stuff Obama said? Colleges and Universities will get their government paychecks, but it should be seen in the %/% split. When the college gets 70% of their income from the government, 30% will be supplemented by tuitions. But if colleges raise that tuition, then government will give less. Therefore changing it to something along the lines of 60/40, 50/50, 25/75 if that happens. It also works the other way, the lower the tuition, the higher the government paychecks to the college.

Now what made me shake my head was the Response by the Republicans. The bullshit spoken by the guy was so high, that I literally wanted to reach through the T.V. to break his jaw. Especially the regulation/government control stuff. It was like they heard Obama say a completely different speech altogether.

But yeah, Obama saying that our military's action gained world respect? A lie, most likely for the military families watching the SotU.

McMullen:

Generally, it seems as the years go on that the State of the Union is starting to be the purest form of the ambitious, feature-packed design doc for which planned features are dropped nearly as soon as developers discover the challenges involved in implementing them. I heard a great many instances of "Let's do this!", but very few of "Here's how we're going to do this!", and those that were detailed seemed like they might not be particularly effective.

According to an historian on last night that's what the SOTU has always been-- it sets the year's agenda for the WH, that's all it does.

Particularly with a tea party controlled House that refuses to compromise with the WH on anything at all, even tax cuts. Only if he gets re-elected with a Democrat House and Senate will there be any progress on any of this stuff.

(And I agree, the stay till you graduate thing was odd, I have no idea how they'd enforce such a thing. He's a fan of The Wire, so if he saw season 4 he should know better. I might see his point about college tuition, though. I went to a private college that had ever spiraling tuition while they spent money on the most asinine things. Can't imagine anyone from my circumstances going there now. The problem is that the education system is, like the tax code, a completely borked institution that isn't going to change from a tinker here or a tinker there, it needs ground-up reform that no GOP-controlled legislature would ever stand for.)

I know my school regularly pisses me off. They continue to raise tuition to build shit like a new gym/pool/fitness...thing, a fountain at the back entrance of a largely unused building (it has a bunch of offices and a bookstore in it, but everyone enters from the other side), and a new entrance with not one, but TWO fucking roundabouts. WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH ROUNDABOUTS ANYWAY?!

I'm excited that they're trying to make cosmetic improvements. At least, I'm excited until I see that instead of offering multiple times for upper level classes, I get shafted and have to take a bunch of weird shit at 8AM and 5PM.

Blablahb:
Many universities quite simply get their priorities wrong. There's money for fat profits for the board of directors, and for fancy buildings, overpaid well-known professors, but not for good education, or education that students can afford.

By pulling funding if they don't change those priorities, those can be forced to choose between staying what they are, or becoming an expensive private university. And because they can't match those on quality, it's in their interest to lower tuition.

I know far more than I would like to about universities focusing on perks for the administrators, executives, and board members instead of education. Our university received some notoriety for that sort of thing in fact, while the aforementioned gutting of degree programs was occurring. California cutting us off didn't seem to alter their priorities at all. We went from a university that sold itself more or less as OK education for a great price to shitty, overpriced, yet still able to give sweet six-figure bonuses to its executives. My former faculty advisor and department head recently told me that the continued existence of the department was uncertain.

So yeah, at that particular school, decreases in funding weren't felt by the fat cats, but by the students and faculty.

Oh, and they also canned all the students working IT for the campus. The ones on minimum wage for less than 20 hours a week. Shortly after a 3-week backlog of support calls due to a worm that infected much of the campus (most of which, funnily enough, came from the very same building that housed all those suit-wearing turds).

Yeah, those fuckers were brilliant.

To this day, every time I imagine a corrupt bureaucrat I picture this one board member or vice president or whatever title this particular money-sponge had, riding past on a golf cart to a heavily staged PR event on the campus. He had the most vacant, self-satisfied, greasy, I-make-more-in-a-year-than-you-will-in-your-life-without-actually-doing-anything face I've ever seen. Never in my life have I seen a man more closely resemble a pig, in every possible negative sense that comparison can imply.