January 27, 2010 – Washington, DC – Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director, released the following statement regarding President Obama’s State of the Union speech tonight:

America elected Barack Obama because voters wanted “change.” Tonight’s State of the Union speech makes it clear that it is Barack Obama who now needs to “change.” It is his failed political philosophy and tone deafness to the desires of the American people regarding jobs and the economy that needs to “change.”

In all of those staged campaign “town meetings,” the President dismissed foreign affairs as just a matter of being friendly and talking with the most violent dictators in Iran, Venezuela and China.  He tried the smiling and backslapping, and it got us nowhere with international criminals like Ahmadinejad, Castro and Chavez.

The President wore out a dozen teleprompters with speeches about his stimulus program.  His theory was to give money to banks and get them to give it to their customers, but he didn’t bother to tell the banks that. “Raises and bonuses for everybody!” cheered the bankers, as they opened their “stimulus” checks written with taxpayer funds.

In short, President Obama needs to “change” immediately and start leading and acting to aid an economic recovery and to protect America from terrorists who have been emboldened by his groveling and “apology tours.”

Forget blaming Bush and limply invoking Reagan.  Obama needs to demonstrate that he has a vision for the future of America, and it doesn’t require the government to take over industry – it requires the government to get out of the way of private enterprise.

The State of the Union is not so good, Mr. President, and it is time that you “change” your big-spending solutions to something real that will allow job-creation and economic expansion to occur, and take steps to convince thugs who seek to bully America that they are mistaken. In spite of our confused political leadership, Americans are strong and determined to carry on the legacy of generations of patriots.