At times during the speech, it sounded as though Obama was speaking directly to the name-calling, vitriolic rhetoric of candidates like Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and others, though he cited none by name.
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“The point I’m trying to make is I care about fixing our politics”, he said.
President Barack Obama will return to Springfield Wednesday to speak to the Illinois General Assembly on the ninth anniversary of the day he first announced his candidacy for president.
Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder is among dignitaries at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport to greet President Barack Obama.
He urged an end to “the corrosive influence of money in our politics”.
The budget faces heavy fire from Republicans, but the President believes it will help lead to prosperity for many years to come.
► Change the way congressional districts are drawn to prevent either side from seeking advantage through “gerrymandering” districts that look like “earmuffs or spaghetti”. Whether the democratic controlled legislature and the republican governor would even have been talking is anyone’s guess.
He wants to “make voting easier”, by allowing same-day registration and weekend voting hours for working people.
Joining us with more on the president’s appeal to improve America’s politics is “Chicago Tonight” Springfield reporter Amanda Vinicky.
► Insist on civility from politicians and fellow citizens.
“He talked about voter participation, which I think is at the root of our democracy”, Gabel said. He said the current political environment turns people off, discourages them and makes them cynical. “But getting the job done in IL is hard because of the speaker of the house”.
Sullivan, who served with Obama in the state Senate. “This shouldn’t be controversial, guys. I think you changed a lot of minds, but you didn’t change any votes'”.
‘The tone of our politics hasn’t gotten better since I was inaugurated.
President Obama, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D – IL), and other officials arrived via Air Force One just after 11:00 a.m. We will provide more information as it becomes available. “The problem isn’t politics”.
He remarked in the State of the Union Address last month that “It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency – that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better”.
Obama returned to Springfield with several of the architects of his successful first presidential campaign, including then-chief strategist David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, who remains a senior White House adviser. “Just to stand in that magnificent chamber was enough to fill me up with a heightened sense of goal”, Obama said, but adding that he needed a dose of reality.
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Before his address Wednesday afternoon, Obama stopped by the Feed Store to pick up some barley soup and take selfies with customers.
