President Obama delivered his 2014 State of the Union address and while we expected to be well informed of the issues in America that he wants to tackle during his second term, we were met with a number of heart-warming, funny and just plain weird moments.
Must Read: History Of The State Of The Union
Check out five of our favorite moments from the 2014 State of the Union address:
1. Joe Biden’s Weird Hand Gestures
Joe Biden is the definition of–When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong. At one point during President Obama’s State of the Union speech, Biden suddenly lost his focus, a big smirk spread across his face and he began a conversation with someone in the audience with hand signals. It only lasted a moment, but what a moment it was!
2. The “Mad Men” Reference
While President Obama’s speech wasn’t chock full of jokes, he did manage to pull out a few chuckles from the crowd when addressing equal pay for women. One of the biggest laughs came after his “Mad Men” reference:
Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. A woman deserves equal pay for equal work. She deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too. It’s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a “Mad Men” episode. This year, let’s all come together – Congress, the White House, and businesses from Wall Street to Main Street – to give every woman the opportunity she deserves. Because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds.
3. Affordable Care Act-Call Your Mom
It wouldn’t be a 2014 State of the Union speech if Obamacare aka the Affordable Care Act didn’t make the cut. President Obama urged America to get signed up for health insurance by March 31st, which is the deadline to obtain health insurance in order to avoid a penalty under ObamaCare.
“Tonight, I ask every American who knows someone without health insurance to help them get covered by March 31st. Moms, get on your kids to sign up. Kids, call your mom and walk her through the application. It will give her some peace of mind – plus, she’ll appreciate hearing from you.”
4. 50 Shades Of Boehner
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Let me just start by saying that House Speaker, John Boehner was not here for President Obama’s speech. He barely clapped, stood only a handful of times and couldn’t shake the shade from his face. I’m not sure which is worse–Boehner’s tan or the shade he throws at President Obama.”We have a Constitution. We abide by it. If he tries to ignore it, he’s going to run into a brick wall,” reportedly Boehner warned President Obama before his State of the Union speech. Boehner couldn’t keep quiet and continued, flapping his gums against Obama and criticized the lift in minimum wage, “Let’s understand something: this affects not one current contract, it only affects future contracts with the federal government. And so I think the question is, how many people, Mr. President will this executive action actually help? I suspect the answer is somewhere close to zero.”
Check out some of the Boehner tan shade:
5. Cory Remsburg
President Obama recognized Sgt. First Class Cory Remsburg, who has been fighting to recover after a roadside bomb nearly killed him in Afghanistan. First deployed in 2003 (and nine more after that), Cory spent 39 months in combat as an elite infantryman. In 2009, a roadside bomb blast left Remsburg nearly dead, face down in a canal with shrapnel lodged in his brain. The explosion left him in a coma for three months, barely able to speak or move, with a traumatic brain injury. Remsburg lost sight in his right eye and his left arm became paralyzed, according to the Army Times.
During President Obama’s speech, we were all left in tears as he detailed Cory’s resilience and determination to survive. “Day by day, he’s learned to speak again and stand again and walk again – and he’s working toward the day when he can serve his country again,” the president said. “My fellow Americans, men and women like Cory remind us that America has never come easy.”
The president continued:
My fellow Americans, men and women like Cory remind us that America has never come easy. Our freedom, our democracy, has never been easy. Sometimes we stumble; we make mistakes; we get frustrated or discouraged. But for more than two hundred years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the wheel of progress – to create and build and expand the possibilities of individual achievement; to free other nations from tyranny and fear; to promote justice, and fairness, and equality under the law, so that the words set to paper by our founders are made real for every citizen. The America we want for our kids – a rising America where honest work is plentiful and communities are strong; where prosperity is widely shared and opportunity for all lets us go as far as our dreams and toil will take us – none of it is easy. But if we work together; if we summon what is best in us, with our feet planted firmly in today but our eyes cast towards tomorrow – I know it’s within our reach. Believe it.
What was your favorite part of the 2014 State of the Union speech?
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