More on the SOTU

• It really surprises me that most folks believe that Barack Obama is a liberal. He's a liberal in the Bill Clinton/Jack Kennedy mode, which means not very liberal.
  His attitudes and policies on topics ranging from nuclear energy to war to the role of business are remarkably centrist, remarkably because commentators on the left and right were leading us to believe that we were electing Eldridge Cleaver. 
What distinguishes Obama from Kennedy and Clinton is personal integrity. He knows how to keep it holstered.
• I wish that Obama had named names, wish that he'd spoken directly to
  
  
  
  • Harry Reid, that the secrecy surrounding the health care negotiations was unacceptable.
    
  • John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, that  the pattern of obstructionist whining might work for a bunch of fourth-graders, but not to adults in the government.
  • the senators who are holding judgeships and cabinet appointments hostage, such as Jim Bunning (who'll never be forgiven for pitching a no-hitter  against the Red Sox in 1958) because Canada has a law against candy-flavored cigarettes, and Kit Bond, who is holding up an appointee because he's waiting for approval of a federal office building in Kansas City. (Slow Pace of Confirmation Strands Many Obama Nominees - NYTimes.com)
  
  
  
  
• Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell gave the Republican response. It reminded me of several pretty good high school valedictorian speeches. The Democrats should be really ashamed that they lost to this guy.