Playing catch up with President Obama's SOTU speech

Below is the beginning of today's column in The Times Herald. I want to use it as a jumping off point for a discussion here. Did we get a State Of The Union address from the president, or did he use up free network air time to campaign for re-election?

State of the Union address, or campaign speech.

You make the call.
I know I already did.

President Obama spent a lot of time telling us everything he would like to do, without actually uttering the words, if I’m re-elected.

Some of the things he said he was going to do kind of puzzled me, though.

So let’s take a look back at the speech and try to determine the stump talk from the state talk.

He said he was going to have Attorney General Eric Holder look into what happened with the lending crisis. The Fannie Mae hit the fan back in 2008. Why didn’t he have the attorney general looking into what happened when it happened?

Could it be because Democrat Barney Frank, head of the House Banking Committee, chose to ignore the Government Accountability Office’s call for more oversight?

“Send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress and I’ll sign it,” Obama declared.

Isn’t insider trading illegal?
I know members of Congress, on both sides of the aisle, are able to skirt a lot of the rules that apply to most of us mortals, but I’m pretty sure insider trading is one of those pesky little crimes that even the likes of Martha Stewart isn’t above.

My Storify on Joe Paterno

Incorrect reports of Joe Paterno's death Saturday night were followed up Sunday morning when the Paterno family announced that he had passed away.

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Joe Paterno will be remembered as one of greatest coaches of all time...with as asterisk.

1. “

   Watching espn sports center, everyone is saying JoePa died of a broken heart, for what happened at Penn State, he just gave up the will to live !!, so sad, not only one of the greatest coaches ever, but also a great man for what he did for penn state U, and for all the kids who go there, not to mention all the money he gave to the school. He will be missed !!!

   Keith Turnquist

   28 minutes ago
2. 

   

   instagram

   an hour ago
3. “

   RIP JoePa. Greatest football coach ever.

   Jimbo Swan

   28 minutes ago
4. “

   #joepa what a legacy you leave behind. As an alum, I am grateful for the influence u had on #pennstate and in return my life! #RIP

   ingridowen

   27 minutes ago

   ReplyRetweet
5. “

   RIP JoePa. You will be missed.

   Dennis Gage

   27 minutes ago
6. While the overwhelming majority of comments are respectful of the man, there are those who seem to not be able to forgive him for not doing more when it was reported that one of his former coaches, Jerry Sandusky, had molested young boys.
7. “

   People are saying its too soon for JoePa jokes. I guess I should wait a decade to say anything, just like JoePa did

   Tucker Max

   an hour ago

   ReplyRetweet
8. “

   I hope when JoePa is standing at the pearly gates, God tells him he did just the bare minimum required to save him, and it turned out to not be enough, sorry.

   Joey Ordway

   28 minutes ago
9. And still others are coming to the former coach's defense.
10. “

    @SternNationChic That's not nice. He may have made a bad choice, but he made millions of excellent ones! #JoePa #madeadifference

    David Marcy

    19 minutes ago

    ReplyRetweet
11. “

    Decide how you want to remember JoePa, but 1 thing he does not deserve is a Twitter play by play of his death.

    darren rovell

    16 hours ago

    ReplyRetweet

The Popular Vote gets my vote

I don't know about you, but I am becoming more and more disillusioned with the whole primary process. Why in the world do we still do things the way we did more than 200 years ago? Do we not have the technology to eliminate straw polls? For that matter, do we not have the technology, or the common sense, to do away with the Electoral College?
My vote is for the popular vote.
And, I'm talking about for the primaries as well as the general election.
And, do it all on the same day for the primaries. That way every state is relevant, not just states that aren't relevant any other time of the year.
We have the technology folks. In fact, I'm guessing the company that invented this blogger app could count all the votes themselves, and they could get it done before CNN declares the wrong victor.