At times serious, at times joking with the Republicans who control the Congress, Obama focused on the successes of his presidency and what he said should be an optimism about the future rather than the gloomy portraits of the country in GOP campaigns.
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The President said all the talk about political decline is hot air, as were suggestions that our enemies were getting stronger and the USA weaker.
Obama recited what he said were his accomplishments improving the quality of life for Americans at home and boosting the United States’s standing around the globe. “Period. It’s not even close”, he boasted.
He rebutted critics, naysayers and the Republican White House hopefuls, but also acknowledged his own failure to transform the country’s bitter politics and unite the nation.
With a year left in office, he presented that task as more urgent than ever and pleaded with voters to turn away from harsh voices and come together.
“Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise; or when even basic facts are contested”, Obama said.
Specific problem areas identified by Obama: reducing barriers to voting, limiting the influence of money in politics, ending the drawing of congressional districts to benefit politicians’ interests.
Obama is eager for a Democrat to win the White House to preserve his legacy, but anger over his policies and fears about security threats have helped push non-traditional candidates to the fore in the Republican and, to a lesser extent, the Democratic races to succeed him.
He defended his record – and implicitly urged the public to elect another Democratic president to build on it.
With Republicans excoriating his fight against the Islamic State group, Mr Obama condemned the jihadists as “killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down and destroyed”. “That may work as a TV sound bite, but it doesn’t pass muster on the world stage”. Rand Paul – skipped the speech.
Rubio back-slapped with GOP colleagues such as South Carolina Sen.
“The State Of The Union speech was one of the most boring, rambling and non-substantive I have heard in a long time”, Trump said in a tweet late last night. Republicans stood and clapped but began filing out nearly before Obama finished.
SC governor Nikki Haley, who provided the Republican response, also suggested that the volume should be turned down on the divisive political rhetoric so people could do some more listening.
“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices”, Haley said. We must resist that temptation. Both of them took side swipes at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Obama has largely given up on a Congress that has little desire to work with him as the 2016 election approaches.
“Our founders distributed power between states and branches of government, and expected us to argue, just as they did, over the size and shape of government, over commerce and foreign relations, over the meaning of liberty and imperatives of security”, the text of speech says.
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Predicted those who dispute the science of climate change will end up “pretty lonely”. Obama alluded to Biden’s own loss of his son to cancer this past year in tasking the vice-president to lead a new national effort to conquer the disease. He spoke about the things he was able to get done and, what he hopes the next president will accomplish.
