It’s been a busy morning here at The Western Word with the last 24 hours being quite interesting in the political world.  Have no fear, I’ve got you covered!

Today on The Western Word we take a look at several parts of the President’s State of the Union address.  I give you an overview of the speech, I let you know my favorite part, I share my tweets about it, I share a link for key quotes from the speech, I find the Montana Congressional Delegation’s response to the speech, and I write about Gabby Giffords attending the event.

But that’s not all – I also write about a new calculator that lets you see Romney’s wealth compared to your wealth, I write about a man named Bond entering Montana politics, plus I write about a constitutional amendment that is supported by Montana’s senators.

Please read on…

State of the Union (The Overview):

If you missed the big speech, you can read it HERE or watch it HERE.  I normally watch the State of the Union on C-SPAN so I won’t be distracted by information placed on the screen by the television stations covering it and giving it their own spin.

After most State of the Union (SOTU) speeches, I turn off the TV or switch to something else – I don’t need some commentator telling me what I heard or hearing from a surrogate.  I also don’t listen to the other party’s response to the SOTU (which I feel is silly to have a response to begin with).

Overall, the President and his folks did a good job with this speech.  The delivery was fine.  Of course there were things mentioned that people will agree with and disagree with.

Although the elected officials seemed happy and friendly last night, politics is the name of the game and now we are in full-blown election season now until November.

State of the Union (My Favorite Part):

My favorite line from the speech was:

Those of us who’ve been sent here to serve can learn a thing or two from the service of our troops.

That’s very true.  Many of the folks elected to office (and most of the folks working for them) do not understand what it is like to sign their name on that line and give their lives to their country.

The President went on to say:

When you put on that uniform, it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white; Asian, Latino, Native American; conservative, liberal; rich, poor; gay, straight.  When you’re marching into battle, you look out for the person next to you, or the mission fails.  When you’re in the thick of the fight, you rise or fall as one unit, serving one nation, leaving no one behind.

We could sure use some teamwork in Washington these days.

State of the Union (My Tweets):

In case you were not following me on Twitter (@TheWesternWord), my fingers were busy!  You should check them out!  Here are a few of my Tweets:

–Bright clothes. Aisle seat. Getting on TV shaking the President’s hand…#SOTU

–Coming in 10 minutes: Lifestyle of the rich and famous – #SOTU

–FLOTUS looks lovely tonight. #SOTU

–All most of us need is a chance – a fair shot. #SOTU

–It’s past many senators and reps bedtime…the sandman is making the rounds. #SOTU

–Many unemployed have fallen off the radar and don’t count any more. That’s a fact from Jack! #SOTU

–#Teachers are underpaid and underappreciated. #SOTU 

–Has anyone seen if Sen Tester brought his suitcase full of MT beef to the #SOTU for a snack?

–If we could harness the hot air in this room tonight…#SOTU

–Please remember viewers – the senate is like a nursing home; dinner was five hours ago…#SOTU

–Sen Baucus has volunteered for three bipartisan committees since the #SOTU started.

–Thank you Mr. President. Fine speech. #SOTU. Check TheWesternWord.com for analysis Wed morning.

State of the Union (Key Quotes):

Reuters has a story posted with key quotes from the speech with no editorial comments!  You can read them HERE.

State of the Union (Giffords):

It was especially nice to see Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords attend the event.  She resigns from Congress today to concentrate on her recovery from the gunshot wound she received about a year ago while meeting constituents in her Arizona district.

The Associated Press has the story HERE.

I wish Congresswoman Giffords all the best.

State of the Union (Montana Delegation Response):

-You can catch Congressman Denny Rehberg’s *response to the State of the Union address HERE.

*Rehberg includes The Western Word on his media e-mail list and if you are a politician, candidate, or group, you should send your press releases to Western_Word@Yahoo.com, too.

-You can catch Senator Jon Tester’s response to the State of the Union address HERE.

-I could not find Senator Max Baucus’ response on his website, but can read a sentence or two that he sent to the main stream media in THIS ARTICLE.

Mitt’s Income vs. Your Income:

Mitt Romney is filthy rich and Slate.com has a handy dandy calculator “to find out how long it would have taken Mitt Romney to earn the same amount of money” that you made.  You just enter the amount you made and it tells you how long it would take Romney to earn that amount.

For some people, it will take less than one day.  Others (especially those who have jobs) it will take longer.  You can see for yourself HERE.

Bond. Chris Bond:

I happened to catch a story from Roll Call (a Capitol Hill newspaper) the other day and found out that current Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Denny Rehberg had hired a communications director for his campaign.

Roll Call reported “Chris Bond left his position as NRSC press secretary last month to join Rep. Denny Rehberg’s (R-Mont.) Senate campaign as communications director.”

For you non-political folks, NRSC is the National Republican Senatorial Committee.  Readers may remember that the NRSC is one of my “favorite” political organizations from way back.  Back in November 2009 I wrote, “I just hope that if Rehberg decides to run, he will keep some of the idiots from the NRSC at a distance…”

Whoops…

Constitutional Amendment:

Lee Newspapers is reporting that Senators Max Baucus and Jon Tester are “are backing proposed constitutional amendments to reverse a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision on campaign finance laws.”

You can read the story HERE.

That won’t help with the November 2012 election season.  It also won’t help the economy, jobs, high cost of energy, etc., right now, either…

The New York Times editorial board wrote “Montana Takes on Citizens United” on Monday.  You can read it HERE.

Follow Jack on Twitter @TheWesternWord.