If You're Not Blaming the GOP for the Crappy State of the Union, You're Lying

If You're Not Blaming the GOP for the Crappy State of the Union, You're Lying:
So the Rude Pundit was a-listenin' to the NPR yesterday morning because he's smart like that. And he heard DC Grand Dame Cokie Roberts pontificate on the state of President Obama on the day before tonight's importantest speech ever, the State O' the Union. The President's presidency is in trouble, Roberts said. "An ABC/Washington Post poll yesterday, only 37 percent of the respondents said they had confidence in the president to make the right decisions for the country. Now, that's very low. It's better than either the Democrats in Congress at 27 percent or the Republicans at 19 percent. But he's the decider, as George W. Bush used to say, so it's a rough number for him," she explained.

And she gave us the ol' historical background, about how once upon a time in the distant past, 72% of people thought Obama cared about them, but now less than half do. Roberts threw down some knowledge: "[A]ll those numbers are significant because it means it makes it hard to convince people in Congress to go along with you if the American people don't seem to be going along with you, which is part of the reason why the president is taking about executive action - using his pen and his phone and going around the Congress."

As with so much of the pre-State of the Union backseat driving going on in this heady hours leading up to the big moment, the Rude Pundit thought, "Huh. Seems to be leaving out a bit of context here." Because, really, there's a big fucking, well, elephant in the room here: The President has faced what is, factually, by the numbers, unprecedented obstructionism by Republicans to not just his nominees to the judiciary and executive branch, but in his legislative agenda, including the hundreds of bills passed by the House when it was held by Democrats. It needs to be said again and again: We never got to see what an Obama presidency would be like because Republicans decided that there wouldn't be an Obama presidency.

One great experiment of the Obama administration, so far, was to attempt to reel the imperial presidency back in (yeah, we're leaving surveillance off the table here). It was to try to get Congress to do its fucking job. But Republicans changed the rules of the game on Obama. If they had been playing baseball, they'd have said, "Okay, we demand four outs, five strikes, and no foul balls, just for us." And Obama would have said, "Sure. Now can we play?" And they would have said, "And you have to play without shoes and gloves." And Obama would have said, "Sure. Can we start the game?" And they would have said, "And each of us gets to fuck your wife in the ass on the pitcher's mound while you watch." And when Obama said, "No, that's bullshit," they'd've said, "Why don't you want to play baseball?"

The shame is that Obama didn't say, early in his first term, "Fuck off. I'm heading to the batting cages." Now that he's announced he's finally going to use executive authority more broadly, and he's used it less than any president in the last century, the GOP is whining that Obama is doing something unconstitutional. These would be the same Republicans who lapped up President Bush's executive orders and signing statements like jizz-gobblers at a jack-off-a-thon.

Everyone is offering their useless suggestions for "What the President Should Say Tonight." So let the Rude Pundit play Fantasy SOTU. What Obama oughta say to the United States is "Vote these Republican motherfuckers out of here. They have hurt the nation and will continue to do so. You know the deal. You reelected me to get shit done. That ain't gonna happen until these assholes who keep hurting the poor and hungry are fuckin' gone. It's up to you, America. 2014 could be the year you make this a sane country again. You gotta put a hurt on the GOP. Let's hurt them until Ted Cruz is begging to kiss my black ass."