Thomas Jefferson was an American patriot and our country’s third president, but, like all of us, he had his personal faults. However, Jefferson lived in a period of time where people were more easily able to separate their personal failings from their ability to lead in public.

Jefferson was the one who discontinued the policy of personally appearing before Congress to present his State of the Union address, saying that such a presidential appearance reminded him too much of the monarchy his countrymen not many years before had strived so hard to overthrow.

The practice of appearing in person for the annual national address was revived by Woodrow Wilson.

Since that time, the State of the Union has evolved from giving the American people an honest look at the real condition of their country to a long, boring, rambling speech that’s used simply to endorse the president’s own policies.

Franklin Roosevelt became a master of that kind of address, and it seems our current president has become a master at not telling the American people the truth about the state of their union but choosing rather to jam his own personal agenda down their throats.

The president started his speech last week by telling us that the state of the union was great, but he didn’t specify for whom.

Let’s recap what much of the country sees: Our economy remains stagnant, the national debt continues to grow, racial tensions across the country and locally are high, our military is likely to be gutted, we have a government that’s at a stalemate and banks still aren’t lending money. And to solve all of these problems, the only solution being proposed is to squeeze some of the so called “rich” for even more tax money while 49 percent of the nation pays no federal taxes.

Forgive us, but that doesn’t seem so great. In fact, our forefathers revolted against a government that seems to have had less control than our own government does today.

If President Obama really wants to be a leader and truly wants to set the ship that is our state on an even keel, he should begin focusing on what the middle majority of the country wants instead of governing with an ever more leftist mindset and agenda.

No, Mr. President, the state of the union is not good, but you can begin to govern fairly and use your noble office to ensure that in the near future our state of the union gets on the fair and just road to recovery.