Maybe I’m a political nerd, but I really get excited about State of the Union speeches. One thing I don’t do is watch the so-called experts talk about the speech on cable news afterwards. I briefly checked in on the “Republican response” and then I watched other channels.

I think I watched about 30 minutes of “Smokey and the Bandit,” for some reason, which was probably better than all three responses from the right.

I almost always go back the next day and read the President’s State of the Union speech to see what I missed. With the cameras panning around and the graphics flashing on the screen, plus sending and reading Tweets, parts of the speech can be missed.

The speech was about 6,923 words, and it lasted a little over one hour and five minutes. (SOURCE)

The President started his speech with “Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades.”

Since I am married to a teacher and know how hard teachers work and how much extra time they put in to help children, I was happy to see him lead off his speech praising them.

A few minutes into the speech I tweeted, “Maybe Obama should have started his speech with “we all pretty much suck at running this country.” I think many of us are tired of Washington. Even the President said, “…there are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments.”

When the President said he was going to have Vice President Biden “lead an across-the-board reform of America’s training programs.” After hearing he assigned the VP additional duties, I was worried the President would say, “I’m also asking the Vice President to take over the job of running our land-based nuclear forces.”

This morning after hearing what the Republicans said about the speech, I think about the only way the GOP would have hated the President’s speech more would have been if Queen Latifah had showed up and married a bunch of people.

Even several Democrats who are running for election or re-election found things to show the voters they have disagreements with the President. With the President having a 43% approval rating, we’ll see this more and more leading up to November 2014.

The President did touch on ObamaCare saying, “So again, if you have specific plans to cut costs, cover more people, and increase choice – tell America what you’d do differently. Let’s see if the numbers add up. But let’s not have another forty-something votes to repeal a law that’s already helping millions of Americans…”

I think Obamacare can be improved and wish they would work together to improve it.

The best part for me was when the President acknowledged Army Ranger Cory Remsburg, who was injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. It was a very emotional moment. I salute Cory for his service and sacrifice. It was one of the few times during the speech when both Republicans and Democrats stood together and applauded.

Many years ago during a speech, President Ronald Reagan acknowledged some military personnel for their sacrifices. When I heard him say nice things about military personnel, it changed my mind about serving in the military. It was one of the reasons I decided to enlist. One of the reasons I liked Reagan as President was because he put spirit and pride back in being an American.

Few Presidents can compete with Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan in delivering speeches.

With the State of the Union in the rearview mirror, that means spring will soon be here!

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