How Did the President Do?

While my immediate reaction to President Obama’s Sate of the Union Speech delivered this past Wednesday was that I had heard better speeches, I realized in that same instant that I had not necessarily been witness to better State of the Union speeches.

As we approached the night of the speech, I knew in my own mind that the President had to speak in real specifics about the economy with a sincere and clear focus on the American jobless rate. To that end, he did relatively well. The President presented a jobs program with some specificity and he spent a considerable amount of time on his new plans for a spending freeze—though the two issues sort of contradict one another.

In a bow to the Republicans, he talked at length about tax cuts, but he left no room for misunderstanding by making it clear that it is his intention to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire next year.

The President made a concerted effort to not play the blame game with regards to the American banking system. He refrained from assuming the role of the populist, almost heeding the words of NY Times Columnist David Brooks where he wrote in his piece, The Populist Addiction (NY Times, Jan 25, 2010), “(populism)… it absolves voters of responsibility for their problems. Over the past few years, many investment bankers behaved like idiots, but so did average Americans, racking up unprecedented levels of personal debt. With the populist narrative, you can accuse the former and absolve the latter.” The President said very clearly that “I don’t want to punish banks.” Consequently, for those of us who were rubbing our hands in anticipation of an all out war cry against banks and the greedy executives who manage them—it ain’t never going to happen.

Something else that I wanted to hear very clearly Wednesday night was a clear set of directions for Democratic legislators to follow. He did not disappoint totally. He provided direction—just not a clear direction. I wanted so much to hear President Obama to call on the House to pass the Senate healthcare reform bill immediately, but he failed to do that. Unfortunately, this probably speaks to the bills lack of votes to pass reform in the House more than it speaks to the President’s lack of leadership.

All is not lost however. President Obama did state strongly that he wants Congress to keep working on healthcare reform. His statement “By now it should be fairly obvious that I didn’t take on health care because it was good politics” showed some of the fire and conviction of the campaign trail and I hope and pray that he can embolden legislators from both parties to show real political courage and pass the reform.

As a President who just had his political head handed to him on a platter with gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey and the major loss of a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, I was almost proud of him for speaking to his fellow Democrats directly when he admonished them that now was definitely not the rime to “run for the hills” and I felt that in spite of today’s growing political strength of the Republican Party’s agenda, President Obama had to challenge Republicans and rightfully portray them as the negative nay sayers that they really are, especially in a way that the independents who put him in office and who have now seemingly abandoned him would understand. I thought he succeeded in doing so and that his taunting remarks directed directly at Republican legislators regarding their lack of budgetary understanding hit home. Once again, he challenged Republicans that if they had ideas better than his then they should come forward with ideas. Thus far, right wing reaction to White House and Democratic proposals have been tea parties and a 400% rise in Presidential death threats. Hopefully, cooler heads within the Republican Party such as Senator Voinovich of Ohio will prevail and some honest to goodness work on behalf of the American people, not just Republicans or Democrats can be accomplished.

As with any Presidential State of the Union Address, the key question is: Did the president actually persuade anybody to see things as he does? I think that unfortunately, America is so polarized today, that President Obama moved very few who are and have been diametrically opposed to him. I also suspect that for the more left leaning wing of the Democratic Party, the President failed to bring them back into his corner. Among independents however, I feel the President did at least, make a pretty good start towards winning them back into his way of thinking, particularly as it relates to his continuing commitment to bi-partisanship, regardless of how naïve it seems to some, including I must admit, myself.

Finally, the best part of his speech for me was at the end when after speaking for one hour and 11 minutes, President Obama looked straight into the camera, straight into the eyes of the American people and said, “I don’t quit.” At that moment, I felt the familiar tug at my heart, the familiar wish that things were not only going to change but change for the better. I needed to hear that and it is very difficult for me to accept the fact that millions more didn’t need to hear that as well. Now what he needs is to have is a win in Congress to make those words really mean something.