After watching the state of the union, my first reaction was how less defensive the president sounded than last year. Last year he was selling the ideas of the Health Care Act and the Stimulus Package. I think he needed to fight of the critics to get those passed. Now, he realizes he can't be so brash as to propose a big liberal bill. He must sell less ambitious, more bipartisan ideas or else he will be asking for it when he can't follow though. Sure there were a couple of times he attacked the republicans, like when he brought up the health care bill. And he did set some ambitious goals as far as renewable energy, but those years are so far off nobody will hold him accountable. But mostly he was setting an agenda that seemed more reasonable than before given the republican lead house. His main point seemed to be working with the innovative businesses of the U.S. to get us prosperous within our borders and on the world stage.
The president is indeed going public with the state of the union. With the coverage overlapping whatever new reality show was scheduled for Tuesday night, the president had an audience that might not necessarily follow politics year round. Therefore, these people's opinions are mostly influenced by sound bites, and the tea party rhetoric seems to make for really interesting sound bites. All of the politicians in the room most likely already knew where Obama is firm in his agenda and where he has leeway. The SOTU is where he encapsulates it to the American people.
With personalized stories he is trying to strike a cord with the American people. While there are no big elections within the year, he must continue to gain the support of the voters for his 2012 election. Besides the PR, he must set the tone for what will be a difficult year between him and the house. He tried to come across as willing to negotiate and make tough decisions when it comes to budget reduction. At the same time he was proposing transportation measures that the GOP will probably not go along with. I do not believe he will have success on such issues because I don't see the American people wanting speed rails in such times. But where he has the most power to influence are such as inevitable issues as deficit reduction. He came down with his stance that more is needed than budget slashing. He is really trying to influence Americans because he wants them to pressure their legislators into not taking away money from such staples as medicare and social security. This is probably where he can have his biggest success from the SOTU.
Though I fear our country is so partisan that the only people receptive to his message are those liberals.
I completely agree with you about the "end dates" for renewable energy goals being too far off for people to hold Obama accountable for their implementation (or inadequacies). However, I disagree with the notion that this is a less ambitious agenda than previous years. It is inevitable that our country's leaders must juggle a multitude of problems simultaneously, but the way in which Obama wants to approach these problems has some flaws. The ideas of promoting innovation and education are closely related since we need education to successfully create innovative projects, but cutting spending in areas that are not immediately necessary for the government to spend money on seems counterproductive. Government spending helps fund libraries and various community centers that help impoverished children with their education, but obviously these programs are not directly "necessary" for the government to operate and will probably be cut off from funding.
ReplyDeleteApart from that disagreement, I like two other slightly less relevant points you made. I was put off by the development of high speed rails in Obama's speech but forgot to mention it in my blog so I'm glad you brought it up--who needs monorails when we're struggling with finding non-engineering/computer related jobs after college (among other more pressing issues)?? Also, good observation about the public positioning of the SOTU in the media--the fact that it runs over other programs/occurs during prime television viewing time is a majorly good PR move in accessing a wide variety of viewers.
Kyle, I totally agree with your point about President Obama seeming to be a lot more comfortable and less defensive, as you put it, than last year. Obviously that comes with the territory of not needing to necessarily sell any landmark legislation, but also I believe it had a lot to do with some confidence gained through a pretty hefty list of legislative accomplishments.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the idea that he was trying quite hard to reach out a hand to Republicans in Congress and show a willingness to work together with them. How do you think he did on that front? Do you think he seemed genuine enough to influence the opinions of any people in Congress or any viewing at home?
One point of disagreement I have with your post however, is that his agenda is somehow less ambitious than previous years. Yes, his proposals were less partisan, but I in now way believe that they were any less ambitious. 80% of our electricity coming from clean energy sources, revamping our nation's educational system, passing the DREAM Act and getting a comprehensive immigration bill, as well as the various other proposals the President laid out all in my mind are, yes, bipartisan, but also quite ambitious.
Nonetheless, great post!
Good point about the defensiveness of last year and being more receptive to a bipartisan solution and amendable to further changes with this years address.
ReplyDeleteAs Logan said, I believe his speech was particularly beyond ambitious considering many subjects included a clean energy act that would make a "considerable effective difference in the year 2035" and for a high speed rail that really does not pertain to our generation whatsoever.
I liked how you imply all of the PR and Going Public tactics Obama set the tone for.
Good Post!