Barry’s Smokin’ Speech

President Barack Obama  gave a big speech last night.  It was the State of the Union speech, an annual tradition which, as a general rule, I dislike.  It’s like the Golden Globes without Ricky Gervais, the Miss America pageant without any good looking women, a particularly boring high school assembly.  I hate the whole fraud of bi-partisanship, which they really played up to the hilt with the mixed seating arrangements, which didn’t work out so well, but that’s another story.

I much prefer the British Parliamentary tradition of question time, with constant shouts of  SHAME! SHAME!  Also,  Obama has proven again and again that, although he gives a rousing good speech, that’s about all us liberals are going to get out of him.  Anyway, at least there’s that.

Based on a survey of 4,000 viewers who were asked to describe the president's speech in 3 words

As expected, it was a pretty good speech.  But, the pundits (particularly National Public Radio) are saying that the only thing people are going to remember is the salmon joke.  Here it is:

There are twelve different agencies that deal with exports. There are at least five different entities that deal with housing policy. Then there’s my favorite example: the Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in when they’re in saltwater. And I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked.

Kind of a clever line.  He’s not going to talk about marijuana, much less suggest legalizing it, even though he, like Clinton before him and pretty much everybody from here on out who’s old enough to become president, unless they’re really strange, has smoked the stuff.  At least he’s got a sense of humor and can deliver his lines without fucking them up.  That’s something.

And he was making a good point about simplifying government, even though he’s not going to actually do anything about it.  One other interesting point was that 92% of people who watched the speech said they liked it.

That doesn’t really prove anything, though.  All the teabaggers were watching Jersey Shore or NCIS Los Angeles.