We can be divided on his health care reform. We can think his plan won’t work. We can even not like the man but… to heckle the President of the United States, at an address to a joint session of Congress, is WRONG! So very disrespectful! As I sat and watched and heard the boos and shout outs, I got mad but he held his own! Regardless of whatever, he is the HPIC! (Head Person In Charge) How dare they! We can debate his ideas, plan and promises all day long, but at the end of that same day, he is still due respect.

I love watching/hearing Obama and I do get nervous when he makes promises. I want him to succeed. Period. I question how some of the fine tuning (as he said) is going to play out but the hutspa (an Oprah word meaning “guts”) he demonstrates is enough to make anyone want to root him on because his success equates to our country’s success.  Last night, he was a different Obama!  He was a man succinctly stating his vision for this country’s future, he stood firm on his beliefs and he didn’t care who liked it or didn’t like it.  There were no wimps present at the microphone last night!  Good job!  If it all doesn’t fall into place as he plans, he’ll try something else.  Has any President had a perfect, fail proof 4 years?  No, and neither will Obama.

Last night’s Capitol Hill show was amazing. Seeing the blatant disrespect and disregard on so many faces shocked me. How did some of these folk get these positions with such ugly attitudes? Kudos for all of those democrats and republicans who disagreed with Obama but were still big enough to applaud when he did say something they agreed with and big enough to maintain their composure when he said something they didn’t agree with.

I want to know, what do you think about the conduct of some of the members of congress who were there last night, and acted out the way they did? Wasn’t it a travesty? Share your thoughts.

Holla Back!

This is America. We don’t do what is easy, we do what is necessary!
–Barack Obama

Was the President wonderful last night or what! He was his usual graceful, inspiring, motivating, encouraging, hopeful self! To me, he left no stone unturned when it came to giving us an understanding of what is really going on and how he plans to make things better and take our country to the next level. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing what he had to say, and although I was sitting down for most of it, I too felt like standing on occasion and applauding! Wasn’t that a long procession of people coming in and visiting with friends and colleagues along the way? Could we find anybody as excited as The Speaker of the House? And didn’t it just pull on your heart strings when he recognized his wife, the First Lady and she mouthed the words, I love you and blew him a kiss? I must admit, I teared up a bit at that moment. All those things were good but what he said/declared/promised was even better!

One of my favorites was, “We will rebuild, We will recover, and the United States will emerge stronger than before”! Whew! That is saying a lot! I tell you, during parts of his speech, I actually became nervous. I do not want him to fail! Not just because I like him so very much but because he is the gentleman that is taking us along with him these four years; so if he fails we fail! I feel as if his openness and honesty, and conscious effort to involve the country, gives us all a piece of the pie but also a share of the responsibility. Did you hear him when he said, he has already found 2 trillion dollars in savings!

Of course his main focus was on energy, healthcare and education. Here are some things he said that resonated with me and made an impact on me and my growing belief in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
• Over the next 2 years this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs, 90% in the private sector
• Healthcare reform will not wait another year, it is weighing down the economy
• He vowed to make college affordable to a million more students and by the year 2020 we will have the highest proportion of college graduates.  He also asked that every American commit to at least one year of higher education
• He vowed to end education programs that don’t work and come up with new incentive for teachers
• He vowed to hold his cabinet accountable for every dollar they spend and launch a website so WE can see what they spend (Wow)
• He vowed to end tax breaks for the top 2% of the rich and for companies that send jobs overseas and give tax breaks to 95% of working families

But even as optimistic as he is, he talked about the hurdles we will have to get over. What he told us was:
• Even if we manage this plan flawlessly, there will be no real recovery unless we clean up the credit crisis that is severely weakening our financial system
• The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation
• Cost of action is great but cost of inaction is even greater

He even scolded us and challenged us by telling Americans:
• What got us here is many people buying houses they couldn’t afford
• When it comes to education, it is the parent’s responsibility. It is not a democrat issue or a republican issue but an American issue
• Not to pass the debt we can’t pay down to our children. (That one statement got one of the biggest stand ovations and Barack jokingly said, “I knew we could get some consensus in here!”)

He elegantly kept it real!  How do you feel about the direction our country is headed and what did you think of his speech? You know what to do…holla back!