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For the first State of the Union address I watched in this life, Dwight Eisenhower was at the podium during 1953 - and that was on a 16" Black & White where, if you wanted to change the channel, you got up, turned a dial, then started to "fidget' with the contrast, brightness, horizontal, and vertical controls.
Now with that having been said, I can never recall any Address in which rail, be it passenger or freight, got the attention it did last evening. Somehow I was not surprised; apparently the news organizations had advance copies (and "I heard' the whole address was leaked to an internet site) as Chris Matthews (MSNBC) made note of "rail' in his pre-address show.
Likely the best means to locate President Obama's reference to high speed rail within the address is to find a web page with such printed in its entirety (whitehouse gov now has it word for word), then use Mr. Google's search terms feature.
Now the topper; after the address when it is time for the "smooching and schmoozing', I turned over to Fox News (after all, aren't we all told we need "balance' in this life?), the President is leaving and someone said to him "Mr. President, we need High Speed Rail" to which the President responded, 'we're going to get it done'. I'm surprised Prince Rupert did not have his vassals "give it the bleep"; more likely they were getting into a 'transcendental trance" to hear "The Gospel According to Saint Michele". That was, suffice to say, after my bed hour.
Oh well, one more SOTU to be forgotten by the next "news cycle'.
palmland Member # 4344
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I am surprised that the Address devoted so much time to HSR as there has been a lot of backlash from the states that would have to fund continuing operations. I wonder if LaHood briefed the president on the many states that have said 'no thanks'.
There does need to be a way to fund operating all these new routes and it won't happen until someone bites the bullet and calls the gasoline tax a transportation tax. I'd certainly be willing to pay a few pennies more - I doubt if we'd notice with the abrupt gas price changes we have on a daily basis.
While I'm not a fan of Obama, he is definitely shifting towards the center, as most presidents seem to do when faced with the realities of governing. I would certainly like to see more of HSR go to funding route improvements - such as the FEC line in Florida. Even Mica is on board with that.
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