U.S. President Barack Obama delivered his seventh and final State of the Union address last night to a joint session of Congress in a chamber filled with guests.
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“All the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air”, Obama said.
The temptation, however, to see the president now as a lame duck counting down the 372 days left to him, would be a mistake.
He also suggested that Haley was a hypocrite saying “Over the years, she’s asked me for a hell of a lot of money in campaign contributions”. “And, you know, it was interesting to me really you saw a Congress that was listening much more than in effect demonstrating by ovation”. And there’s new hope for reform of the criminal justice system because of bipartisan agreement on the need to reduce prison costs and stop the abuses that, too often, put innocent people behind bars. They now view him more warily as a threat to Obama’s achievements over the past seven years. “We don’t need to build them up to show that we’re serious, nor do we need to push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that the Islamic state is representative of one of the world’s largest religions”, he said, referring to Islamic State by an acronym.
If we have a strong educational foundation, supported by the federal government, then we can continue to grow and innovate in the future and ensure the continued growth of the economy. “In today’s world, we’re threatened less by evil empires and more by failing states”. One of them being the politics of America turning more resentful and divided just after his message on healing and unity.
Meanwhile, by devoting three-fourths of Tuesday’s speech to domestic affairs, Obama acknowledged that his role in history, beyond his election as the country’s first president of colour, hinges on the long-term impact of a domestic record that journalist Michael Grunwald wrote recently in Politico “has produced much more sweeping change than most of his supporters or detractors realise”.
The president seemed to referencing the instances in which Cruz has said that if elected presidenet, he would “carpet bomb” ISIS. “Especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change?” He countered the negativity of Donald Trump, who promises to keep out Muslims and “Make America Great Again”, and Texas Sen.
“One year from now State of the Union will be very different from this State of the Union”, he said. The president pointed out and referenced Speaker Paul Ryan’s commitment to combat poverty.
Obama said America is experiencing “extraordinary change, and that’s always a little bit unsettling”.
“I think we’ve got to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around”. “I think the country is heading in the wrong direction, and as a result of that, I think we have an obligation of showing people how we would do things differently, and that’s what we intend on making 2016 about”.
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Alluding to the fierce campaign to succeed him that’s taking place in neighboring Iowa, Obama told a crowd of 11,000 at the University of Nebraska-Omaha that “I like talking about hope and all the good stuff that’s going on”.
