Tonight, the President will stand before the assembled houses of Congress and give his State of the Union address.  He’ll smile for the cameras.  He’ll speak bold words and pause for the cheers and applause.  He’ll look out over the assembled mass of legislators, paiges, lobbyists and hangers-on and breathe in the freshness of being the center of attention for the entire world.

And it will all mean nothing.  The words will have been calculated to make his speech the most energetic, most impressive thing his speech writers could dream up.  He’ll obfuscate his worst errors, claim his lesser mistakes as minor successes, claim his successes (no matter how distasteful to the American people) as grande changes in the American political landscape and once again talk about how important it is to create jobs, grow the economy and ensure America remains the strongest nation on Earth.

And it will all be a sham.

The President knows that his Administration has been a disaster for the DNC, that his salient legislative victories are among the most controversial and disliked legislation of the last 30 years.  He has shown his weaknesses in dealing with foreign policy matters again and again and has directly insulted some of our closest allies and coddled some of our worst enemies.

The Stimulus is an utter failure.  Hundreds of billions of dollars spent, entirely through deficits, and millions of jobs were still lost.  The Cash-for-Clunkers program just poured money into car dealerships without an actual increase in demand for autos.  Health Care “Reform” has been shown for the lobbyist-contrived, choice-killing government takeover that it is.  Yet the President will likely spend at least ten minutes extolling the virtues of these bills.

I’ve seen media reports that the President will ask for a 5-year spending freeze on discretionary non-military spending, as a “down payment” on deficit reduction.  This hypocritcal act will only serve to underscore how expensive and wsteful the legislation he has signed is, and besides “non-discretionary” spending is the biggest part of the budget.  No way does the President ask for actual cuts.  It’s not part of his world-view.  He can’t see a world where Government doesn’t come up with the solution to people’s ills and “The Rich” aren’t taxed into oblivion to pay for it.

So I’m not watching.  I’m not listening.  I’m not going to spend my time on it.  It’s a Dog-and-Pony show, and that’s true whether it’s a Republican, a Democrat or anyone else.  The State of the Union address no longer holds any meaning, but rather has become a calculated campaign speech for every incumbent president to direct the political discourse for that week.

Maybe the smart people really are the ones watching Jersey Shore and The Bachelor.  Maybe they’ve learned that politicians lie, and so there’s no reason to pay attention.  The politicos will just do whatever they want, lie about how bad it is, and to Hell with the American people.