So in about 10 minutes, President Obama will be giving his address before Congress.  I don't want to exhaust the likely over-asked "What should he talk about?" question, but there is one thing I'd like to hear some opinions about.

You've probably heard Bill Clinton's remark that Obama should sound more "hopeful"--though he did praise Obama for not "coming in and giving us a bunch of happy talk".  I agree with this, but most right-wingers are going berzerk because Obama seems too pessimistic.  And I admit myself to rolling my eyes now every time he says this is "the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression".  Apparently, FOX News and other conservative talking heads are buying into the Phil Gramm theory--that this is a "mental" recession and that talking ourselves out of it (along with the typical GOP solution of tax cuts for the wealthy) will do the trick.

But didn't we try this before?  Isn't this why it took so long for Bush to actually do something? And don't Americans want honesty, which is why Obama and more congressional Democrats got elected?

The same can be said of Eric Holder's recent comments on race:

Eric Holder, who showed precious little bravery in standing up to Clinton on a pardon for the scoundrel Marc Rich, is wrong. We have just inaugurated a black president who installed a black attorney general.

Right, so racism's completly gone and black people and white people are literally dancing in the streets.

I guess the point of this post is to ask--what happened to honesty?  It's refreshing to have a President tell us what's really going on and isn't using gimmicks to make things (such as the deficit) seem better than they are.  It's great that the topic of race relations is back in the arena--maybe we can make some progress rather than hiding behind the actual problem.  Maybe if people actually know the facts, we as Americans can recognize all our problems and make this country better...right?

I'm sure the President will have many words of optimism for us all tonight.  But I'm tired of the mainstream media and politicians feeding me Prozac so I can bounce around without a care.  I'd like to spend the next 4 years off my metaphorical meds--maybe then I can know the truth.