Arkady's Thoughts

I watched the address to congress today and have walked away with some initial impressions, the beauty of reacting to the speech right away and putting it on paper (or blog) is that my mind is not persuaded by TV pundits. First of all, I think Obama should have most definitely talked up the economy and like I mentioned previously to instill confidence into a nation that he has in the past month scared stiff. Unfortunately other than a cliche of "America eventually rebuilding and recovering", words like crisis were mentioned again. The speech was used to outline the major platforms of the administration and that is primarily to revamp health care, education and our reliance on foreign oil. Fondly talking about the stimulus bill that just passed and what impact it will have on our economy was a must, even if it is largely unsubstantiated. Mentioning Recovery.gov a site not even worth mentioning is just another example of deception considering how little value it truly provides.

Tonight if the Presidential address to Congress, a speech typically delivered within the first year of the term. However as you may have guessed, the speech essentially becomes a state of the union address as all of America will invariably be watching. What our President has to accomplish today is quite simple really and that is to instill confidence in the economy, something he has failed to do so far. In fact arguably he has done the opposite citing our current condition as a crisis on the precipice of a catastrophe. Since his election our stock market has sold off sharply shaving about 2,000 points on the DOW alone - most astute investors will tell you that the market sold off equally sharply with the anticipation of Obama's inevitable victory. Although similarities between Obama and FDR are numerous, one distinct difference that jumps out at me is FDR's ability to inspire and provide confidence in the most trying of times, he was called the great communicator for a reason