Technically, it’s not a State of the Union address, because Barack Obama hasn’t been president for a full year yet. I know plenty of Bleeding Heartland readers will be among the millions of people watching, so please use this thread to share your thoughts and reactions.
Here are a few links to get the discussion going. Chris Bowers puts forward a hypothesis about why so many people care about the State of the Union, which is just one of many speeches the president gives during the year.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility say the cap-and-trade approach to tackling global warming, which Obama supports, won’t work.
Obama seems to be “losing the right, consolidating the middle and left.”
A majority of Americans would rather see Obama stick to the policies he campaigned on rather than take a bipartisan approach:
Which do you think should be a higher priority for Barack Obama right now – working in a bipartisan way with Republicans in Congress or sticking to the policies he promised he would during the campaign:
Working bipartisan way: 39%
Sticking to policies: 56%
[…]Which do you think should be a higher priority for Republicans in Congress right now – working in a bipartisan way with Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress or sticking to Republican policies?
Working bipartisan way: 79%
Sticking to policies: 17%
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele (the guy who was supposedly more “big tent” oriented) is open to cutting of RNC funding to the three Republican senators who voted for Obama’s economic stimulus bill.
1 Comment
The best way to watch
I had the TV on but was on the computer around the corner so had the audio but no visual of who was standing, who was applauding, and who was being petulant (tried hard to make no assumptions, either).
I thought it was a good speech. I like the order of the priorities. It’s a hard row to hoe, as my dad used to say, but I’m encouraged by how the president seems to be pulling the centrists into his corner.
To my mind, what Obama seems to understand innately is that an election doesn’t give you permission to do whatever you please. It gives you an opportunity to bring new Americans into your coalition. It’s not immediate and it’s not easy. But it might be worth the effort in the long run.
We’ll see.
urbandaleforobama Tue 24 Feb 10:25 PM