Quote Us, POTUS! (please)

"Oh please, oh please!" to quote the dog in the Far Side cartoon hoping to lure the cat into the clothes dryer with the crudely painted sign: "Cat Fud!"

Likewise I'm working on my crude sign for tonight as I hope to lure POTUS into a mood with "Big Idea!" But I know that he knows more than I know (channeling Rumsfeld?) about the whole situation and hopefully he's gonna go with what makes sense, given that intel, to him and not to his advisers.

I realize that no matter what he says and suggests, he's going to be criticized unmercifully; if not by a caucus, then by a candidate or a news outlet--the man truly cannot win.

BUT he can surprise. And maybe that's all he needs to do--other than write out an executive order demanding 15 million jobs...and yesterday at that. Seriously, if he manages to make his case make sense to the people--in other words if he says what we're feeling--and if he does so in a way that is "inspiring" with details upon which we had not planned, then he may well talk himself out of a tough spot and some folks out of the unemployment lines.

I do want him at the helm throughout this fiscal folly of ours, and I need for him to be strong-willed and confident. Problem for him is we all want something slightly different from the man. We say we want strength and if he gives it he'll be chastised for incitement. We say we want calm and if he gives it he'll be called "uninspired". We say we want compromise and if he gives it, though his efforts may well be rewarded with approval from Congress, he'll be called a sell-out.

If I were him I wouldn't know what to do which is why we are all glad that I am not him. And I think most of us wish him well tonight, would like him to have a victory for US.

I guess the safest quarters for President would involve the adjectives "strong" and "sincere", though throwing in "determined" and "effective" couldn't hurt. We want ideas/plans that will work and they will only work if they can get through the least effective Congress on record. Yeah folks, that's all we're asking of the man.

Let's hope he threads the imperceivable needle with tonight's address. Let's hope he gets at least as much advice from the people he's met in his travels as he does from the well-intending but often misguided desk jockeys in the West Wing. Let's hope a lot of those in need today get some change for their pockets after tonight.

I think my sign will read the same as it does when I wave it in front of Santa: "...AND, lots of surprises!"

P.S. Full, half-wit review here following speech. Come back and read it at half-time. You "half" to!