I’m fighting off some really nasty upper-respiratory tract stuff at the moment, but I’ll be watching the SOTU with interest. There’s been some developments in the health care battle today, with Ben Nelson flipping on reconciliation, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities releasing a very interesting paper on the history of reconciliation (PDF), and sources in the House reporting that Pelosi has the votes to pass reform if the Senate steps up. Obama can rally his party with poll data showing that passing reform in general, and the public option in particular, are the way to win reelection.
Two-thirds of the speech will be on the economy and jobs creation. I expect Obama will refer to his discretionary spending freeze and perhaps a couple of programs that don’t work and ought to end (abstinence education, for example). But when he discusses green jobs and climate change, I wish the president would become the first SOTU-deliverer with an overhead projector:
Someone should challenge the denialists: are NASA satellites in on Teh Evil Plan™ too? How about the astronauts in the ISS taking pictures of the melting polar ice?
