{"id":241114,"date":"2010-01-28T07:55:01","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T12:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.szone.us\/f95\/view-inside-chamber-best-seat-house-38709\/"},"modified":"2010-01-28T07:55:01","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T12:55:01","slug":"a-view-from-inside-the-chamber-the-best-seat-in-the-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/241114","title":{"rendered":"A View From Inside The Chamber: The Best Seat In The House"},"content":{"rendered":"
On 01.27.10 09:40 PM posted by Mike Gonzalez<\/p>\n

I knew the state of the American people was all right even before President Obama walked into the well of the House of Representatives to give what turned out to be an at time hectoring, at other times gloomy, State of the Union speech.*You see, I was very fortunate to get a seat at the speech tonight. A rather good seat. And Providence struck again when John sat next to me a good 45 minutes before the event.<\/p>\n

John is a veteran who made it to the U.S. Capitol from Walter Reed Hospital in Maryland. It was also his first time at such an occasion, and we chatted about our good fortune at this once in a life-time opportunity.*I had noticed John amble in, his dignity intact but his leg not functioning well just yet (hopefully just yet). I had paid no attention at first, as I continued picking out worthies out of the crowd (\u0093Hey, there\u0092s Joe Biden!\u0094) until he told me where he was living these days. Then I noticed the Purple Heart. \u0093Which war?\u0094 I asked. \u0093Afghanistan,\u0094 he answered simply.<\/p>\n

He told me about how it happened, how sudden it had been, and how he\u0092d never forget that day in Kandahar back in July. He told me the past six months had been a blur as the doctors continued working on him. I thanked him for his sacrifice, and for keeping our country free, and told him my children prayed for the soldiers and the whole country did.*\u0093Heck, no sacrifice,\u0094 he said. \u0093I\u0092d give a part of my leg again. I\u0092d do it, no problem, for this,\u0094 he said, spreading his arms wide at the Congressmen below. \u0093Democracy is worth keeping safe and the country is worth keeping safe. We know we\u0092re fighting for democracy. We didn\u0092t have to do this. We enlisted because we believe in our country.\u0094<\/p>\n

Can we win in Afghanistan, I asked. He didn\u0092t pause a second. \u0093Yeah, if we have the resolve of the country behind us. We need the country,\u0094 he said.<\/p>\n

He was the real McCoy, I reckoned, and given our surroundings I had to ask him if he ever thought of running for office. He chuckled. \u0093Nah. I\u0092m too rough around the edges for this town. I speak the truth and too plainly.\u0094<\/p>\n

I was getting misty-eyed at that point and began telling John that no, Washington needed more people like that, when the sergeant-at-arms pronounced the words that had delighted me for decades of watching these speeches on TV, \u0093Madame Speaker, the President of the United States.\u0094<\/p>\n

The speech for the next hour fell flat, I thought. The President was scolding for much of the night, not an uplifter. He chided Republicans, or Washington, for all his ills. \u0093No wonder there\u0092s so much cynicism out there,\u0094 he carped at one point. \u0093No wonder there\u0092s so much disappointment.\u0094<\/p>\n

In fact, there was so much hand wringing that I wondered at one point if I wasn\u0092t indeed witnessing a truly historical moment\u0097Obama\u0092s Malaise Speech. I think that epiphany came when he talked about the deficit. Not the budget deficit, \u0093but the deficit of trust.\u0094 He complained, in fact, that \u0093deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years.\u0094<\/p>\n

But the President did not blame his actions for any of this. No. In fact, the best parts were when he showed incredible moxy, as when he railed against earmarks after signing a stimulus bill that included about a gazillion of these pet projects. Or, when the same man who last week hired his campaign guru David Plouffe to help him fix his political problems, nagged his opposition that not every day is \u0093election day\u0085 we cannot wage a perpetual campaign!\u0094<\/p>\n

At the end, though, what struck me the most was how little sway the President of the United States held. Republicans laughed at him and he could only glare, or complain futilely about their mocking. \u0093That\u0092s how Washington works,\u0094 he said at one point, showing frustration. When he threatened, \u0093I want to see a jobs bill on my desk without delay,\u0094 he sounded more like a long-forgotten college professor demanding that a homework assignment be turned in on time.<\/p>\n

He rightly took a half hour before he started talking about health care, picking just about the time when the highest number of congressmen were looking at their blackberries, and he plead with those in front of him to \u0093take a second look\u0094 at the bill the American people had already rejected.<\/p>\n

After it was over, John and I chatted some more. I asked him what he thought of the speech. \u0093I thought it was great,\u0094 he said. \u0093I liked seeing how the two sides reacted differently to the same parts of the speech. I think it\u0092s that split that makes democracy and our country work.\u0094<\/p>\n

Which was why after such a gloomy speech I left the chamber with renewed hope in our country.
\n<\/b>
\n(Heritage Vice President of Communications Mike Gonzalez <\/i>was in the chamber for tonight’s speech. For more on the State of the Union, visit Heritage on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a> and <\/i>Twitter<\/a> and read*reaction from Heritage analysts and experts here<\/a><\/i>.<\/i>)<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.heritage.org\/2010\/01\/28\/…-in-the-house\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 01.27.10 09:40 PM posted by Mike Gonzalez I knew the state of the American people was all right even before President Obama walked into the well of the House of Representatives to give what turned out to be an at time hectoring, at other times gloomy, State of the Union speech.*You see, I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}