The President's State of the Union Address: Update - Improved Poll Numbers

Dennis Prager recommends that important speeches be read rather than watched, in order to get a better idea what was really said. The transcript of President Obama's speech is here. Many considered the speech to be a success. It was better than some recent speeches.

If you like, you can analyze the text to see if it promotes "The Obama Code" discovered in President Obama's early speeches by a professor at Berkeley. It is fascinating to me how President Obama's speeches retain their ability to impress people. Many of the things he says in his big, prepared speeches are so vague and general that they can be interpreted in a number of conflicting ways.

Update: Charles Krauthammer thinks that President Obama did quite well in his "Question Time" with House Republicans on January 29, two days after the SOTU. Krauthammer would like to see similar sessions twice a year in place of the State of the Union Address. He reminds us that, prior to Woodrow Wilson, the State of the Union report was submitted by the President to the Congress in writing. I like that idea. Written facts about the State of the Union followed by give-and-take with Congress, instead of a quasi-"throne speech".

The President got a nice bump in his approval ratings from his speech and the "Question Time" with Republicans, with his Rasmussen rolling approval rating average peaking on February 1, shortly after the "Question Time". His poll numbers went down again as people learned what was in his new budget. Watch what Obama does, not what he says.

On the day the POTUS gave the State of the Union Address, he was at an overall approval/ disapproval disadvantage (46-53%) and the approval index (based on strong approval/disapproval) was at a -15. Within a day or two of his speech the President's numbers took a huge bounce. By this past Monday, his overall approval /disapproval numbers were almost even and his approval index reached its highest number since mid October: -4.

This past Sunday reports about the President's budget began to leak out. On Monday, the budget was officially released, and voters saw that all of the pretty fiduciary responsibility talk within the SOTU was just that, talk. With that Obama's approval numbers dived faster than a congressman rushing to spend our last dollar. Each one of his approval numbers are now worse than they were the day of the State Of the Union.

The feisty, pugnacious Mark Levin plays clips of Democrats speaking about health care to friendly audiences, 2009 and earlier: Politicians on the Left are good at making promises to the general public. They tell the truth only to their friends. Sometimes.