Obama Address Does Not Impress

A day after President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, it is has become evident the Commander in Chief will have a tough political season, especially in Redlands and Loma Linda.

“This is what the prez said, ‘blah, blah, blah, blah…,’” wrote Stephen Kemp, an engineer and educator who is active in Occupy Redlands.

“There has been too much talk and no accountability,” added Craig Lawrey, of Redlands.

Several local residents across party lines agreed with Kemp and Lawrey for variety of reasons.

On Tuesday night, the president delivered what is widely regarded as the first campaign speech in his re-election campaign.

The president spoke of the end of the war in Iraq and the death of Osama Bin Laden, the growing number of jobs and the need to invest in education for all, even the undocumented.

“In 2008, the house of cards collapsed,” the president said during his speech. “We learned that mortgages had been sold to people who couldn't afford or understand them. Banks had made huge bets and bonuses with other people's money. Regulators had looked the other way, or didn't have the authority to stop the bad behavior.”

“It was wrong. It was irresponsible. And it plunged our economy into a crisis that put millions out of work, saddled us with more debt, and left innocent, hard-working Americans holding the bag. In the six months before I took office, we lost nearly four million jobs. And we lost another four million before our policies were in full effect.”

The rhetoric sounded familiar to Kristie Burchit, of Rancho Cucamonga, also an active with the Redlands occupy movement.

“There was an attempt to speak the occupy language,” Burchit wrote. “There is no doubt that (Occupy Wall Street) has had influence in many political spheres. The problem this administration has is we as a whole are not dumb and we haven't forgotten his promises and his actions or his lies. We get that candidate Obama was giving lip service to us last night.”

“Oftentimes he spoke out of both sides of his mouth: Poor immigrant family whose young kids came here illegally through no fault of their own and in the next breath secure our borders. What was the most telling point for me was when he stated ‘Anyone who tells you America is in decline or that its influence has waned, doesn't know what they’re talking about.’ That's why OWS came to being in America. He sounded very much like a GOPer in that statement, this foolish belief that we are the moral authority of the world, that we are that city on a hill that all the other countries should look to and admire and work to become.”

Below are more local voices weighing in on Tuesday’s speech:

“It’s what I expected,” said John Berry, member of the Redlands Tea Party Patriots. “It was a lot of class warfare socialism. I got what I expected. I had a visceral military reaction. All it was, was a campaign speech under the guise of being a state of the union is all it was. As far as speeches go state of the unions tend to be a laundry list anyway of political expectations. What set this one apart is that it was just a political attack speech.

The speech, he added, was not very memorable.

“There was really nothing new in it,” Berry said. “What I thought was really amazing was that he didn’t even mention Obama-Care except for on glancing one brief (mention). That was supposed to be his signature achievement.”

“I was pleased to hear the president addressing issues that have been brought into mainstream discussion by the Occupy Movement,” said Sean McDuffee, committee member with Occupy Redlands. “I am, however, still skeptical as to how effectively President Obama will address these issues through policy and legislative actions. While it is nice to hear the dialog in Washington D.C. changing, until we see actual policy changes addressing those issues there will remain a need for activist voices to be heard.”

“I always feel like I’m being talked down to and lectured when he speaks,” said Annie Rumary, with the Redlands Tea Party Patriots. “To be frank, the state of our union is a horrible mess. To imply anything otherwise to the American people in a speech is – at best – misleading.”

“Since both major parties are essentially the same, I propose we retire their logos and replace them with the generic political logo, a pair of flip-flops,” said David Rempel, active in the occupy movement. “Maybe start rating them individually by the congruence of their words and actions, on a scale of one to five pairs of flip-flops. Romney is a five, Obama a four, Paul a one--because there is no zero.”

“It amazes me that words from any politician STILL make people all warm inside. All I can say is.... ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS,” Craig Lawrey said in addition to his previous statement. "Politicians’ words mean NOTHING to me. My personal opinion regarding talking to any politician is, ‘Shut up and show me!’ ”