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Jan 29, 2014 11:30 am | Jacob Heilbrunn
President
Obama delivered the State of the Union address, but it wasn't really
about the union's state. Instead, it was about the state of his
presidency, which was not good going into last night and isn't really
much better coming out of it. The aloof, austere Obama was gone, at
least for the moment. He spoke with passion and authority, but the
discrepancy between his rhetoric and actual aspirations was patent. He
isn't in danger of a shrinking presidency. It's already shrunk.What little Obama had to say about foreign affairs was sensible. Obama wants to engage in withdrawal--withdrawal from Afghanistan as well as Congress. It was good to hear Obama say that he wants to get America off of a "permanent war footing" and that he would veto a foolhardy congressional attempt to up sanctions on Iran. Not that this deterred a reliable source of nonsense, Senator Lindsey Graham. Graham, a champion of new sanctions, responded that Obama got it all wrong: the world is "literally about to blow up" and that "I would say that trying to free people from the bonds of al Qaeda is a good thing. That going into Afghanistan is a good thing. Taking Saddam Hussein out is a good thing. Trying to get people get on their feet and elect their government is a good thing." (Seeing Graham go down in his next election attempt would be a good thing too. Let's hope that the people of South Carolina get on their feet and vote this dud out of office.)
read morehttp://nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-heilbrunn/the-state-barack-obamas-presidency-9787
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