Dignity not enough to show in speech

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January 23, 2012

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Mon Jan 23, 2012, 02:25 AM EST

After weeks of watching the often unseemly, if not downright humorous, antics of the Republican candidates for his job, President Barack Obama should have little trouble providing at least one thing Tuesday night in his State of the Union address.

Dignity.

For a country already tiring of name-calling, attack ads, mistresses and other assorted non-sequiturs involving the care and feeding of what Winston Churchill called the Great Republic, Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress will be a welcome respite.

For one thing, the president will have an enormous home-floor advantage, even though the event will occur in the chamber of the House of Representatives, ruled by Republican Speaker John Boehner.

Just after 9 p.m., the floor services chief will loudly proclaim, "Mr. Speaker!" This is followed by the sergeant at arms announcing, "The president of the United States!"

As Obama enters, there will be a cacophony of cheers and applause. They will be louder from the Democratic side than the Republican, but protocol dictates clapping from the opposing party members for the office if not the man.

After a leisurely stroll, interrupted by shaking hands with legislators and others on his way to the podium, the president will hand copies of his speech to Vice President Joe Biden and Boehner.

Then, after the applause dies down, Boehner will proclaim: "Members of Congress, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States."

This is followed by more sustained applause and cheering before Obama says even one word.

Pretty impressive, especially compared to the recent televised Republican debate bloodlettings.

Assuming there will not be a repeat of the infamous shouting by South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of "You lie!" during Obama's 2010 address, the night will almost certainly put Obama on a somewhat higher dignity plane than his GOP opponents.

Of course, what's important isn't so much the theatrics as what the president will say in the hour or so address.

With his approval ratings still below 50 percent, the public frustrated by gridlock in Washington, and unemployment still way too high, this will be a crucial moment.

While he most certainly will run out a laundry list of proposals despite knowing that not much will get done by Congress in an election year, Obama will also try to paint himself as "one of us" when it comes to appealing to the middle class.

That said, he must be bold and give the country an idea of what a second Obama administration would accomplish.

It's his last State of the Union before he goes before the voters. Dignity will only go so far.