Like many Americans, I watched the State of the Union address last night with the usual amount of curiosity. I purposely did not read any newspaper accounts this morning, nor did I listen to any analysis last night by the media. And I didn't listen to my usual round of talk radio this morning. I watched the speech again this morning since I DVR'd it and took some notes. I don't know what you saw but here is my take on it.

Limbaugh, Hannity, and Levin are probably saying it was an "I" speech. What I did, what I will do and they are probably saying he is just campaigning as usual. I will leave that kind of rhetoric to them.

What I would like to know is who produces these meetings? Who gives instructions to attendees? Who decides who sits where? Surely there has to be a person in charge of the orchestration of the evening events. Who stage manages it? Who decides who sits in the front row? Or the back row? How does a Junior Senator from Minnesota get a seat in the fourth row? I am sure the Justices get the same seats all the time but what about the rest. Is it all political protocol? Or is it payback time? Who gets camera time and who doesn't? It would be interesting to know.

I am almost certain that the instructions Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John Boehner both gave to fellow Democrats and Republicans respectively went something like this. "If I applaud, you applaud; if I stand up and applaud, you stand up and applaud." Keep your eyes on me most of the time. To the Democrats, Nancy Pelosi probably said, "Don't ever shake your head left to right." Likewise Boehner said, "Whenever you feel like it, shake your head left and right." And someone probably advised Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice-President Joe Biden to both wear purple as their sign that they are not red or blue tonight.

That aside, here is what I heard. We will more than likely, maybe, possibly, have a spending freeze of non-essential services in 2011. What you didn't hear was, "So don't cut any budgets in 2010, spend until you are blue in the face because next year we may be held accountable and try not to spend more than 2010. We don't have the courage to call for an immediate spending freeze or even some cuts."

We are going to setup a Bi-Partisan Fiscal Commission to see if we can help us from spending more of your grandchildren and great grandchildren's money. Have you ever seen a government committee work?

Talk about the Supreme Court decision last week to open the political market to a free for all from a guy who spent almost $1 billion to get elected president is beyond the definition of "chutzpah."

Earmark reform. Words, just words. Want to see how many earmark requests get posted online? So do I!

President Obama's statement about Republicans just saying "No" to everything is, in his words, "not leadership". Leadership is not letting Republicans in on closed-door meetings, that is his style of leadership. What about letting C-span in on all meetings or at least have meetings open to the public.

President Obama stated that he will "continue fixing the immigration system." When did he start?

He stated, "We are working with Muslim communities around the world to promote science, education and innovation." Why is he singling out reaching to Muslims? What about Christians, or Jews, or Protestants? It was the only mention of any religious group in the entire speech. His Muslim up bringing always shines through.

He also stated, "Each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people's doubts grow." Someone should give him a mirror on that one. As a matter of fact, they should give mirrors to each and every politician in the audience.

And the last comment about the speech was when the cameras cutaway to show brief cuts of the audience, the amount of head shaking, discontent and disgust, even on some Democrats was obvious. John Dingell looked like he was up way past his bedtime and bored. The Levins looked their usual and Senator Stabenow didn't look too excited either.

Oh, I could go on about his comments concerning nuclear energy, solar power, clean coal power, energy independence but it was just words. Nothing speaks louder than actions but they don't do actions in Washington, D.C.

I didn't watch the Republican response, I should have.