A foreign perspective on the SOTU

I'm quite slow when it comes to politics but as public affairs student this might not be a good thing to say out loud. So since everyone is commenting on the State of the Union address, I better show that I still got a pulse and put in my two cents.

As a non-American, here are my thoughts on the President Obama's address. It had the usual ingredients of the last two (that I mildly paid attention to). The standard "It's been a challenging year, we have done A, we still plan to do B, here are the problems and if we reach across the aisle/party lines we can do great things".
This time though, the president hit the re-set button to make the economy his top priority, the economy is supposed to get better in 2010 - and that's a promise (yay!). When president Obama took office a year ago, most of America admit that he inherited a mess but over the year people have gotten antsy because 'change' did not come fast enough. Most of my American friends tell me the president took on too many 'projects'- non of which seemed priority to the American people(jobs!). Therefore a year into his term, people are still wondering what happened to the 'change' he promised. Hence the president's need to hit the re-set button. The coming year promises to be different. So Americans are eagerly looking forward to 2010!

A couple of points the president touched on that got me doing the standing ovation thing was the equal pay laws for women and gay rights in the military. Being allergic to discrimination of any kind, I think it's about time America (the land of the free) address such issues more aggressively. I also liked his message of hope. Though most people do not feel assuaged by this, the message of hope represents something people can at least try to live for because we still have to continue to live somehow right?

Therefore in the words of Mr. President;
....We don't quit, I don't quit (living life)!