After watching the State of the Union address given by President Obama the other night, a few things are quite clear.  First of all, Obama’s ploy to put himself in the middle of the two parties is a smart political move but is a very empty statement.  He said he was not interested in re-litigating the past two year but he would listen to any ideas that the Republican heavy Congress has to improve his health care bill, which is arguably his greatest accomplishment in his first two years.  I think Obama is just saying that he wants to work with the Republican Party to fix his health care bill to make it look like he’s the voice of reason to the American people.  Of course he will listen to any “good ideas” the Republican Party has relating to his policies but who isn’t going to listen to a good idea?  Plus the “good ideas” coming from the Republicans will not be seen as “good ideas” to the Democrats and Obama.  The Republicans and Democrats can’t even agree what time of day it is let alone health care systems.  The other major thing that is quite apparent is the Republican Party is in desperate need of a singular image and a strong leader to unify them and lead them in the post-Bush era.  It appears the leader of the future for the Republicans is Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan who delivered the official Republican response to the State of the Union address.   The Tea Party response, although it did build on the official response given by Paul Ryan, showed a party divided.  The Republicans will always have the decided Republican vote but by separating into the Tea Party and the non-Tea Party Republicans, the undecided voters don’t know what they’re getting when they vote Republican.  Ultimately I would say the State of the Union address was a success for Obama and the Democrats because it was essentially a rallying cry for the United States to “win the future”.