Barack Obama's address to the nation this evening was, in a word, dissolute.  Full of enticement and charm, but short on American virtue.

And it most certainly wasn't a State of the Union, it was a campaign speech.  In all fairness, he could not have given a State of the Union tonight.  Because though we are tied together through the bonds of government, spiritually Americans are not in union with each other.  We are a country divided.

Those of us who did not vote for Barack Obama, but will bear the cost of his policies and the strangle-hold of his government, are not in union with the beggars in the Democrat Party who cannot find hope within themselves.  By his own hand, Barack Obama has used the power of his office to concentrate the country into two camps:  the "doers" who must continue to work and pay our own mortgages; and those who are "beggars",  who will take from us what we work for, to pay for their mortgages. 

And so, this evening's speech was meant to lull middle-class Americans like you and I into a drowsy nostalgia.  We'd been told before the speech that it would be "Reagan-esque", so that we would accept without question the flowery prose that Obama read from his teleprompter.

But make no mistake, using some imagery and words that Reagan used does not make Obama a man with a vision of freedom and opportunity. 

It makes him a liar, a cheat and a charlatan.

Obama began his speech by asking us to take responsibility for our future.  Who among you, reading now, has begged the government for a car, a kitchen, a bathroom and a job because you are not able to take care of yourself? 

It is with immense nerve and hypocrisy that Obama lectures us about our individual financial responsibility just days after signing his own newly-minted $1 Trillion deficit.   He is the Thief of Washington, using his office to take money out of your pocket in order to throw it at his voters...ensuring that the only economic future we will all share is one of beggary at the hand of his all-powerful government bureaucracy.

He revealed our collective future of misery during his speech, when he accused the Bush tax cuts of "transfer[ing] wealth to the wealthy".  Mr. President, where do you think wealth originates?  It is not possible for a government to create wealth, only to take it.  And the "poor" don't have wealth...that's why they are called poor.

Swallow your daily dose of socialism by understanding that Obama does not view your money as your own.  He believes that the money in your pocket, no matter how rich or poor you are, is not a result of your hard work.  It rests with you only temporarily, through his grace and mercy.  Because he believes that he is the steward of the common good, while you are but a steward of money that belongs to the common good.  And after demanding trillions of dollars in new government spending, how long do you think it will be before the "common good" comes knocking on your door?

Yet, since the days of the Boston Tea Party, Americans have never believed that their money belonged to any government or tyrant, foreign or domestic.  No American (unless you are Barack Obama, Son of Saul Alinsky and Karl Marx) believes that what you work for today, belongs to the government tomorrow.

As for those of us who recognize in Obama the ambition and desire to change our Founding Principles and bastardize the meaning of fairness, hope and opportunity - we reject the notion that government lays the "foundation for common prosperity".  We reject the notion that we must pay for the folly of others, punish Americans who have succeeded or "force necessary adjustments" in our economy through the heavy hand of government.

Tonight, those of us who make America work, were given a kiss on the cheek and a stab in the back.  Americans usually call that betrayal.  Obama calls that "upholding our values".

And finally, the last rhetorical flourishes of Obama's speech were aimed at Congressional Republicans.  Using words of a unifier, he tried to play on the decency of gentlemen, hoping that this bunch of Republicans acts more like the country club blue-bloods of the 1980s than the Principled Conservatives of the 1990s.  He is counting on the Country Clubbers to compromise with him, thus marginalizing Principled Republicans.

Instead, let Governor Bobby Jindal's idea that, "we look for hope in different places" be the mantra of the Republican Principled Opposition from this day forward.  Jindal's message of self-reliance, especially in troubling times, will not be embraced by all, overnight.  And Republicans have proven in the past to be skittish when faced with powerful Democrat Leadership.

So it is up to Conservatives to continue to be leaders in the Party and in their Communities.  Show your friends and family where to find hope.  Not in Barack Obama.  Not in the government.  Not from a bureaucrat.  Find hope within your own talents and abilities, within your own family and within your own faith.  It is not an easy message to sell, but it's a message that must be heard.  Because it is the only, last, best hope for America and her people.