State of the Union Analysis

President Obama gave an hour-long State of the Union Address. I provide my Sports Techie Analysis in this blog. It is exciting to be able to use my hard-earned Political Science degree from Whittier College, along with my passions for both sports and technology in order to dissect the Presidents compelling words.

The Address

The first point I will make is that the President is a tremendous public speaker. He is a Master user of Buzz words. Core political words such as Deficit, Budget and Free Enterprise come forth as easily from him as cutting-edge terms like Information Technology, Clean Energy and Google, or was it Facebook, lol. No Microsoft though? We all would like to think President Obama is an expert about everything, including technology, however, in fact he is not. The point is, his choice of words in today’s address were full of Innovation, exactly the kind of language Sports Techie speaks and understands. Cheers Mr. President!

Impressive was his Educational goal of 100,000 new teachers who will take over for retiring Baby Boomers. This made me step back and think for a second. Did he just say Technology in the same breath as Science and Math? Sports Techie rejoice because Technology is now a Profession of the future that has arrived today.

Yes, we need to improve our educational system and raise Math and Science scores yesterday. Technology will help make that so.

Wish he would have addressed Physical Education in schools in the same way he used the Super Bowl as a means of communicating that we should also be as excited about celebrating winning the Science Fair award or achieving high-test scores as we are about loving our favorite teams and players. Obesity is our health care reforms number one enemy. Winning is actually a concept I actually challenge the President on in his speech, more on that later.

Equally enjoyable to hear about was the goal of 1 million electric cars on the beat up roads of America by 2015. Yes, the President addressed our poor Infrastructure and commented about how other countries are spending now to fix old roads and bridges. Additionally, he mentioned a high-speed rail system for 90% of Americans to be able to use for quicker transportation so we can move people, goods and info at higher-speed rates.

This led to his other pledge to have high-speed Internet access for at least 90% of our citizens. This has been called a Universal right by many. We’ll see if this indeed really happens using our Free Enterprise method.

Finally, if you have not seen this coming where have you been? The Space race and private business have shown our Government that out past model where the Gov. creates Science and Technological advancements is outdated. Private business is now being asked to shoulder the country’s pioneering load. The catch is the Administration wants to fund Super think-tanks of companies who will gather the brightest minds and focus that brain power on the next innovations for renewable energy, patents and job creation.

Re-Invent

Re-Invent is our new mission in America. Better online connections, computer chips and GPS was discussed. An awesome moment was his call out to the the company founder who figured out a way to re-purpose their mining drills so they could save the Chilean miners. Outstanding shoutout!

I am no expert about the budget. What I am an expert on though is competing and winning. After four decades of this mentality, it is simply not the way. Winning is not everything. How you play the game, how you treat your teammates and how you train is the real game. The US does not have to win all the time. We don’t have to beat China and India at creating advancements. Rather, we should work virtually side-by-side with our fellow citizens of Earth to fix problems and create these innovations for the future together.

So what if people come here to educate and go back to their homelands to help define the future. Their win is our win too. The only competition we should have amongst countries is the Olympic Games.

Remember my point about Universal rights? Here is where the United States defeats the Chinese regime if that is indeed our destiny, and win. We let the Chinese see that America can give FREE high-speed Internet to 90% of Americans as promised. That will show China and it’s people that freedom of information is the number one privilege that a citizen can have.

Race To The Top

To further this win-at-all-cost mentality, a new program coined, “Race To The Top” is being implemented to create this mindset with our kids. Last time I checked in a race of kids around a field or track, only one of the 30 is that kid who ‘Rises to the Top’ but what about the other 29?

Overall, I rate this speech an A-. There was less two-handed clapping (needs more one-handed claps if you know what I mean) and political rhetoric than past addresses. This address was not about specifics, it was about the Big Picture. All the progressive discussion about Technology made my Sports Techie day!

Challenge

Now Mr. President, when are you ready to play me a game of one-on-one basketball so I can show you how winning is not everything? It’s how you play the game that counts the most. Of course, we will have to record it on video like a good Sports Techie does for post-game analyses inside the White House eh!