I watched President Trump's first State of the Union address. Here are six observations.
1. Many focused on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi 's stone faced (myself included), but when House Speaker Paul Ryan said he was proud to "present" President Trump he nearly said "prevent." A near Freudian slip of national proportions.
2. Trump isn't the first President to take credit for things that had nothing to do with him and won't be the last. But wages aren't growing at an all time high, he hasn't presided over the largest tax cut in history, is not responsible for Apple or Fiat Chrysler bringing jobs to the United States nor has he cut more regulations than any other President. A lot of sound and fury, but little significance.
3. For more of the speech, Trump played nice. But this was not the case where it concerns illegal immigration. He made every effort to equate illegal immigrants with MS13, drugs and murders. He's done this from the day he launched his presidential campaign and shows no signs of stopping. Demagoguery 101.
4. With regard to the opioid crisis, Trump pledged to get tough with pushers and drug dealers. But many Americans became addicted by way of their family medicine cabinet. Is Trump going to go after doctors who prescribe prescription drugs or pharmacies that distribute them? Trump prefers easy answers.
5. Trump will keep Gitmo open. This will, of course, offend Democrats. Yet for all of President Obama's talk about closing Gitmo, he never closed it. Obama was content to talk about closing Gitmo during his SOTU addresses while releasing dangerous terrorists.
6. When it came to North Korea, Trump was at his most eloquent when he spoke of the tragic death of Otto Warmbier following his release from captivity and the bravery of North Korean dissident Ji Seong-ho who was in attendance. I wish Trump would display this kind of eloquence where it concerns dissidents in Russia and Turkey and refrain from praising despots in those countries as well as the butchers of Tiananmen Square.
7. Trump did an effective job of highlighting civilian and military heroes, patriotic children and families of murder victims (so long as the murders were committed by illegal immigrants). It made for a great visual image. His declaration that we should stand for the Star Spangled Banner will also resonate with most Americans even those not necessarily inclined to support him. Words and images like this will make him difficult to defeat in 2020 even with a thousand ugly tweets in between.
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