Anil Dash, who's a lot smarter than me, blogs about stuff like the relative importance of the iPad versus the State of the Union address. Regarding the latter, he has a pretty impressive list regarding things getting better, like:
- The last U.S. Marines are leaving Iraq.
- Credit card companies can no longer charge interest on fees, and can't retroactively raise your interest rate on existing balances.
- We know who visits the White House, and who they're affiliated with.
- We responded, imperfectly but with heart and sincere effort, to the disaster in Haiti. Just as we wish we had after Katrina. Leadership matters most in emergencies.
- Our current President readily admits when he's made mistakes, respects the validity of arguments that he disagrees with, and has members of the opposing party in his cabinet.
- The Department of Homeland Security now allocates its security spending according to threats, not by spending the same amount of money on Montana as it does on New York.
- My 401k is up 30% since the current President took office
I've been talking to a lot of rank and file people, here's a little I'd add:
- This Administration is telling us where the money went, instead of hiding that.
- They've encourage gov't workers to fix they way they work, instead of telling workers that what they do doesn't matter.
- They're trying to root out corruption, rather than the opposite.
- Back pay for stop-lossed veterans; serious about medical and educational benefits, which is to say they actually support the troops, rather than the opposite.
That works for me, as a libertarian pragmatist.