I have gone out of my way to avoid practically every presidential inaugural address or State of the Union since Bush’s Axis of Evil newspeak. To the wide dismay of high school swim coaches in 2009, I even purposefully practiced overtime the day of Obama’s inauguration to stay clear of anywhere that might mention hope for change I couldn’t believe in. But this year, I will watch every minute of our messiah’s sermon on the count, and pay close attention for the following:
Let’s expect Barack Obama to:
- whitewash the NSA scandal.
- whitewash his healthcare law, if not ignore the fallout altogether.
- politicize marriage again.
- possibly offer American exile Edward Snowden a plea deal Attorney General Eric Holder has hinted at (which the NSA whistleblower will absolutely refuse), or otherwise not touch with a ten foot skeet shooter.
- ramp up his war on guns in light of the tragedy in Baltimore he ‘won’t let go to waste.’
- ignore the IRS scandal, Benghazi, ATF gun-walker, and executive spying on the Associated Press.
- blame Republicans (especially libertarian ones he will NOT mention by name) for gridlocking his agenda in the House and Senate.
- blame Republicans (however much Ted Cruz actually deserves it) over stonewalling immigration reform, despite the fact deportations are up under his presidency.
- at least mention, if not emphasize, Chris Christie’s Bridgegate scandal.
- take credit for a ‘growing economy,’ like he has his entire presidency, while ignoring the stark reality otherwise.
- aside from usual ‘Thank A Veteran’ jingo (if he even goes that far), ignore the war in Afghanistan, as well as last summer’s foreign policy fiasco over Syria.
- sidestep drone policy, despite a death toll of more innocents than the 9/11 attacks under his.
- acknowledge “aid short of war” to the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government in their civil war against Sunni insurgents.
- lightly signal to Feds to back off marijuana prohibition enforcement, despite the rise in medical dispensary raids since taking office.
- lay out some grand, vague, uninspiring, utopian vision we haven’t heard before. (Think Bush Sr.’s ‘Thousand Points of Light/New World Order’)
Absent some cataclysmic, ground-shaking event in American politics, expect this administration to remain a lame duck presidency throughout.