So, did you tune out an hour or two of your regular TV viewing to catch the State of the Union (SOTU) Address last night? Chances are, unless you are a die-hard political junkie, a zealously committed Democrat, or an African American fighting the good fight to give POTUS the respect and support you believe lots of Americans decline to provide him, probably not. In fact I know individuals who fall into one, two, and in a few cases, all three of those categories, who opted out.
Many feel the soaring rhetoric never equates to practical application, execution, and follow-through; moreover, they believe they can catch one of the myriad recapitulations and get as much from the digest form as they would have gleaned from the roughly 90-minute investment of the processional, the speech, and the recessing. And then of course, there was the matter of the Republican rebuttal. Forgive me, I mean Response. And this year, one would also have needed to factor in the (GOP) Tea Party Response, which as Representative Bachmann, Minnesota, insisted, was not meant to compete with the GOP Response, which was delivered by Representative Paul Ryan, Wisconsin.
Since I did watch all three, in fact, the SOTU Address became today’s subject by default. I have included a link to the Transcript below; in the event you want to review some portion of it, or in case you missed it altogether, but hanker for your own personal copy. I have also provided a link to Representative Ryan’s Response, as well as one for that of Representative Bachmann. Feel free to thrill and amaze your friends with impromptu, pointed, comparative analyses of the three addresses. That is not what I will be doing. In fact, I will not mention the Responses again.
Having included a link for the SOTU Address, I will attempt to summarize a few major points, in a much more concise fashion than usual. President Obama proclaimed, “The future is ours to win!” He then spent the next hour detailing just how to go about prevailing. In answer to the question, “How do we get there,” he declared, the roadmap is, “Out innovate, out educate, and out build our competitors.”
In a metaphor that a number of news analysts have had fun with, President Obama referenced a period, near the end of the first decade of the Cold War Era, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the earth. In his bold response to that challenge, President Kennedy announced that we would be the first nation to land on the moon. Eight years later, July 20, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11, Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins orbited the noon. Armstrong and Aldrin landed, while Collins remained in orbit. President Obama suggested that we view our current position as the equivalent of a Sputnik Moment; saying, in effect, we may be behind, but the race is not over…and when it is, we will win.
As you may be aware, Mr. Obama and his Party endured what he personally called, “a shellacking,” in the November Elections. The GOP-T Party added 63 seats in the House of Representatives, a turnabout of historic proportions. They also significantly closed the margin in the Senate. Since November, the President has spent a great deal of time and energy re-casting himself, and to an extent the Democratic Party. As analysts note, he has pivoted to the Center. In doing so, he has managed to engender a substantial rebound in poll numbers, moving from a low Approval Rating of 41% to a current number of 55%.
His speech last night continued his repositioning. He argued repeatedly that in order to move the Country forward, Democrats and Republicans must work together. In the wake of recent events, including the tragic shootings in Tucson, Arizona that killed six, and wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords, and others, the President and Congress have largely promoted toning down the decibel level, and the derisiveness of the rhetoric. In an effort to promote movement in this direction, many Senators and Representatives eschewed their normal pattern of seating, divided by Party, and intentionally sat next to a member(s) of the opposing Party. For his part, the President did not raise the issue of the shooting as a talking point.
In citing examples of what he proposed, or would do in the coming year, President Obama called for a 5-Year freeze on domestic spending, and continued by recommending that we:
• Eliminate oil subsidies
• Use the savings to invest in clean energy
• Win the race to educate our kids (currently 9th in proportion of young people w/college degrees)
• Replace No Child Left Behind with Race to the Top
• Encourage Youth to become teachers; your Country needs you
• Make higher education available to every American
• Stop expelling talented young people who could help rebuild America
• Invest in high speed rail
• Simplify the tax code
• Eliminate regulations that unfairly burden business
• Let’s make government live within its means, but not on the backs of those most vulnerable
• Insisted we cannot make permanent the tax cuts for the wealthy
• Make government not just more affordable, but more competent; more efficient
• Draft a bill to merge, consolidate, & reorganize the Federal Government
• Proposed transparency & openness in government, Congress, & the White House
• Promised to veto bills with earmarks
In closing, the President maintained our destiny is our choice, & said we will win the future by doing big things. CNN, which often conducts snap polling after the President speaks, did so last night, and reported several numbers.
Of Americans who watched the speech:
• 77% said they were more optimistic
• 19% said they were more pessimistic
• 52% had a very positive response
• 32% had a somewhat positive response
• 15% had a negative response
• 68% said President Obama will succeed in improving the economy
• 61% said President Obama will reduce the deficit
• 57% said President Obama will succeed in creating jobs
• 61% thought President Obama would move the Country in the right direction before the speech
• 77% thought President Obama moved the Country in the right direction after the speech
• 61% said President Obama will succeed in increasing cooperation between the Parties
• 70% said President Obama’s speech was about right
• 23% said President Obama’s speech was too liberal
• 5% said President Obama’s speech was not liberal enough
• 90% said it was a good idea for Democrats and Republicans to sit together
• 7% said it was a bad idea for Democrats and Republicans to sit together
I identified likely viewers at the outset, but for those who prefer a more sober, analytical depiction, the survey included a sample of 475 viewers; 39% of whom were Democrats, 19% Republicans. As such, the sample was nine to ten points more Democratic than the population as a whole. A similar CNN Poll assessing last year's SOTU Address was comprised by 38% Democrats and 25% Republicans. The poll does not purport to be scientific; rather, merely a reflection of the opinions of those who viewed the speech. This skewing is a common occurrence, depending upon the President's Party. President Bush’s SOTU Addresses produced similar relatively high favorable responses for the same reason; a higher percentage of Republican viewers.
There you have it; the play-by-play, and the numbers behind the SOTU Address. President Obama has declared, “The Future is Ours to Win!” My closest Republican confidante has conceded the speech was “A++, but like most grand plans, the Devil is in the details.” I agreed; what do you think?
I’m done; holla back!
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