That would have been the easiest SONA to write. Just put in a lot of figures or statistics there and the piece is done.
As to the result, ask ordinary people on the street, if there was any answer there on how will food and other basic goods become available at cheaper prices and they would not be able to give a coherent answer.
It was good in having stitched unrelated facts or figures arriving at nothing that will credibly give some hope for a better tomorrow. Everything there was just a lot of motherhood statements with no practical methods on how to get there, to an economically sunny future.
It achieved what former US President Ford assured his aides about his plan to just mumble his way through reporters who will end up not having understood anything he said.
Yes, at the end of the SONA, the conclusion was it was just a lot of mumbo jumbo. Or a lot of bola bola.
Nothing to stir the soul. Nothing to make anybody get up and go and do something, or to take risks as better times are afoot. What did he say that was not said before? What plan did he hatch that would deliver the goods or the promise of a better life this time around? He just delivered what were said over and over again, over the decades, but were never achieved.
Where was the practical road map with “do-able” specifics? We did not hear any.
Nothing there to stir the soul. In the first place, it had no soul. Nothing to get us going with faces full of hope.
A day or two after the speech, a lot more are grim faced with pessimism.
What are leaders for? To arouse hope and optimism that get translated into action.**