27 January 2011
Obama’s SOTU
The State of the Union address has become nothing more than a pep talk to the partisans of the President in the Congress, outlining the programs that he will advocate in order to assure his and their reelections. The crossing of the aisle by those partisans for the 2011 SOTU could symbolize a transformation of that function from advocacy of victory by the President’s party over its anticipated opponents to advocacy of victory by incumbents regardless of their party.
That is what made President Obama’s speech so apparently wish-washy. He accurately captured the impatience of the country with the partisan bickering of the past, and seemed to try to lay out a small bore approach in government actions in the future that would be more in keeping with what is the appropriate federal role in assuring the competitiveness and success of America. It is ironic that Daniel Henninger in the January 27, 2011, Wall Street Journal, bemoans the lack of sufficient hype in the SOTU address. The WSJ commonly calls for the federal government to get out of the way of the private sector. By failing to set inspirational goals, perhaps that is what Mr. Obama is trying to do.
The State of the Union address has become nothing more than a pep talk to the partisans of the President in the Congress, outlining the programs that he will advocate in order to assure his and their reelections. The crossing of the aisle by those partisans for the 2011 SOTU could symbolize a transformation of that function from advocacy of victory by the President’s party over its anticipated opponents to advocacy of victory by incumbents regardless of their party.
That is what made President Obama’s speech so apparently wish-washy. He accurately captured the impatience of the country with the partisan bickering of the past, and seemed to try to lay out a small bore approach in government actions in the future that would be more in keeping with what is the appropriate federal role in assuring the competitiveness and success of America. It is ironic that Daniel Henninger in the January 27, 2011, Wall Street Journal, bemoans the lack of sufficient hype in the SOTU address. The WSJ commonly calls for the federal government to get out of the way of the private sector. By failing to set inspirational goals, perhaps that is what Mr. Obama is trying to do.
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