Barack Obama's State of the Union speech was a generally egotistical and self-congratulatory speech, extremely odd in a circumstance in which he should have eaten humble pie. His policies have not inspired hope, but intense fear and anxiety. Shockingly, no president's ratings have ever fallen so far in the first year of his term. Clearly, as the three major Republican victories have indicated, the people no longer support him or feel confidence in him. Instead of putting brakes on his foolish economic policies, he demonstrated intentions of going full-speed ahead (on stimulus spending, raising taxes on banks) except for a modest freezes on discretionary spending. President Obama seems to demonstrate ignorance about basic economics. He clearly ignores the warning: "Pride goes before a fall."