Another could-have-been-worse day. Boy, am I taking heat for my comments that I expect nothing good to come from the speech tonight. But that's truly a misread of what I am saying.
I think that EVERYONE thinks nothing good will come of it when it comes either to job creation or to market reaction because:
1. The president is too ideological about how business works and he views it as a partnership between capital and labor, or at least that's what it should be. Unfortunately, as anyone who has worked for a business, it isn't a partnership at all. Which means, if you are Obama, that it often isn't worth supporting.
2. The Republicans don't want anything good to happen. They still think that's their ticket to the White House.
3. The Tea Party, the swing vote, wants to shut down the government, which, alas, is NOT good for business. They've been quiet of late, as I said, so maybe there is some hope here.
But with that cast of characters, I think it's pretty obvious that you can't expect much good coming from Washington, not just the president. In fact, two out of three of the blockages above are from the GOP.
So the blame, if not equal, lies more on the side of the Republicans.
