Economy was the focal point of President Obama’s first State of the Union Address but he also touched on various other issues including health care and foreign policy. You can find the full text of his speech here.
Did you watch the State of the Union Address? What are your thoughts on President Obama’s address? How do you think he did in his first year in office? What are your biggest concerns?
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13 Responses to State Of The Union
Here’s a tag cloud of Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address:
Thanks, Rob, that is very interesting and enlightening.
I didn’t watch. I feel guilty about that. I got home kind of late and it just didn’t seem to be what I wanted to tackle by the time they re-played it.
I’ll get caught up tomorrow.
I already heard from my liberal aunt that she (and MSNBC) have proclaimed the speech the best thing ever.
I like and admire Obama and while he has faults, I do feel he is in a difficult (almost no-win) position due to a variety of factors.
I wish there were more voices coming from the center and the pragmatic side. I kind of feel honest analysis and reasoning is sometimes lost. We have three main groups as I see it: a) those will oppose Obama no matter what he does or says; b) those who will continue to support him no matter what and c) those (extreme liberals) who somehow thought Obama was going to sweep into office and make major changes within a number of months. They are disappointed (cue violins). They are living in a fantasy world IMO.
I can’t really identify with any of these groups.
He’s a very gifted speaker, but so far he hasn’t done what he says he’ll do. I hope that the legislators stop playing now and get to work!!
The most inspiring part to me, and I’ll have to paraphrase, is when he said it was time to move past the days when “both sides” could pretend they had accomplished something when legislation was passed, when nothing much was accomplished. I think he is sincere in wanting to work together, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, and that goes along well with my own “Why can’t we all get along” philosophy.
He also sounded serious about the budget freeze (2011, I think) for non-essential programs.
Since many people of different political beliefs think health care reform is necessary, I’m concerned there will not be a satisfactory middle ground (that brings significant good changes without making our debt skyrocket) reached.
The people spoke and the President was not listening! The results of the election in Mass. were very telling. Over 67% of the State voted for Scott Brown and only 12% of the State are Republicans. 60,000 more people voted for Brown than the amount of people who voted for Jon McCain in the Presidential Election in the whole Country. They voted this way because they “did not want the Health Care Bill shoved down their throats”, they didn’t trust the President or the Congress, they were frustrated by a lack of jobs, they didn’t like the “lack of transparency” and the “backroom deals” and they did not want the Terrorists to be treated as if they were U.S. citizens! Everyone voted for a variety of reasons, but these were at the top of the list.
When the President spoke last night I personally felt he was very disingenuous. He acted as if he was speaking as a “third party” looking in on the Congress without taking responsibility for his part. He spoke of the “freeze on some government spending: in 2011 and what a savings that would be” when according to Fact Check My Way and many other Fact Check sites: “The anticipated savings from this proposal would amount to less than 1 percent of the deficit-and that’s if the President can get the Congress to go along”.
The President spoke of how “I am calling on Congress to continue down the path of earmark reform…restoring the public trust”, this is the same man who approved almost 9000 earmarks in the Stimulus Bill!
He spoke about how wrong the Supreme Court decision was to allow Corporations to contribute to political campaigns and how he didn’t think it was right for a “corporation” to have such great influence over an election, never mentioning the Unions, especially the SEIU who received favors from the President for their support. How is it fair that these union members won’t have to pay the 40% tax on their “Cadillac Health Care Plans” but members of other Unions will?
He called for the White House and Congress to “do our work openly, and give our people the government they deserve”. Wasn’t his campaign promise to have the Health Care negotiations on C-Span and the Bill on the Internet! Even though he is still trying to pass a Health Care Bill that most Americans don’t want, no one even knows what will be in the Bill because they will “pass it any way they can” and “fix it later”!
Yes, the President is a good speaker, but he is not a good listener!
I watched the speech and thought the President is very much listening to the people. He knows the people want jobs and robust economy and he is keeping his eye on what it takes to make that happen – even if it is not popular in the short run.
He did a good job with the State of the Union but now he needs to follow through on everything he spoke about and make it happen. Actions speak louder than words and he needs to get bills passed and laws enacted if he wants to make a real difference.
Why bother with those cumbersome presidential elections, then? Massachusetts doesn’t speak for me, personally.
I think the President has been listening. There are a lot of voices clamoring in the health care debate, including health insurance companies screaming at the top of their lungs. Are people opposing health care reform from an educated viewpoint, or are they acting out of the fear that special interests are trying to generate?
How can the insurance companies insist that the system isn’t broken when those of us who pay for health insurance have to shoulder the burden of paying the massive amounts of money spent on emergency/critical care for people who don’t have/can’t afford health insurance, and therefore don’t receive more economical preventive care?
P.S. I agree with Anya’s aunt.
I didn’t see the speech and don’t feel guilty about it. I watched reruns of 30 Rock from Netflix. That tag cloud is about all I want to think about regarding the speech. I haven’t watched a SOTU speech since George Bush told us all to volunteer more before 9/11.
It is unusual that I have taken so little interest in politics lately, but I was seriously burned out after that last presidential election.
Why bother with those cumbersome presidential elections, then?
I don’t know what this has to do with my post! Nowhere in my response did I say that President Obama was not my President and that I didn’t want him to succeed. I just was stating my concerns with the reality of what is actually going on rather than what he is said in his speech. I agree there needs to be Health Care Reform. If the Congress had conviction in the Plan that was being proposed they would have passed it already. For a year they had the majority and did not need one Republican to vote for it. What people were mad about is that it took “bribery” of Senators, like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu, to get the 60 votes they needed. Now because of the outcry of their constituents both those Senators are taking back their vote. Even with the millions of dollars they got for their states, the people still did not want to have that Health Care Bill forced on them.
What I want is the Health Insurance Plan that the Congress has. Why is there an exemption in the Bill that they can keep their Cadillac Plan when the average citizen is being mandated to accept a plan that is inferior to their own. If the plan is that good than each member of Congress and the President should have the same plan. I hate that they think the Public is so stupid and that they “know better”!
Because you said this:
It’s the same mistake that political commentators made on this, imo. Taking this single event and saying “the people spoke“. It’s very convenient for political commentators to say that, because it gives them the raw meat they need to feed on for their “sky is falling” journalistic drama. I’m just expressing my own personal skepticism over the idea that one senatorial election should dictate to the President that he should turn a 180 on his own political philosophy and on the results of the presidential election that was held only a little over a year ago.
I thought the President demonstrated pretty good listening skills at the discussion he participated in with Republican lawmakers today.
Holly if the President will give us the same Health care plan that he and the congress have!! Then maybe we can talk!! The Elderly are the one’s who are really hurting. Just makes me angry, that we can promise millions to other Countries, when we need to take care of our own first. It breaks my heart to see our Elderly out working to cover their Medical Insurance rates. Makes me sick to have an elderly woman lay down in front of her stove with no fuel and freeze to death. Makes me angry that the elderly SS benefits are cut and are so low, they can’t afford to buy themselves fruit.
This bail out money to these high class crooks!!! Then not make them accountable!!
Cutting thousands of jobs, people loosing their homes, their jobs, their dignity.
Yes the people are speaking!! Obama was voted in because we wanted a change.
Thousands, upon, thousands of illegals working, and not paying taxes. Russians, Mexicans, Haitians. Then not only that!! Slap us in the face again and give them all the free medical they want.
All the money the Government spends to improve roads, parks, government buildings, and who knows what else? I say stop the wasteful spending and for the next ten years. Take care of our people first!!!
I agree that the President did a good job speaking with the Republicans yesterday. I think it was a very healthy discussion. The truth will be if he lets the Republicans in on the actual policy making.
The election in Mass was the latest event in a chain of events. The change of Parties in the Governors race in N.J. and VA and this Senate race in Mass. is a trend that cannot be ignored. These are not Red States they are true Blue States and to ignore the trend is ignorant. Even the President and his Party have stated over and over that Mass. was a big deal.
I agree with Mary, give us the Health Insurance that the Congress has and everyone will be in favor of it. She is also correct that in the “newest version” of the Health Care Bill the people who will be hurt the most will be the elderly. They will cut Medicare Benefits by almost one third to help pay for the new Bill.
I want the President to succeed, he is my President, but he will only succeed by listening to the majority of the Country, not the far Left or Right. I hope my state, CA follows the trend of Mass. and votes out the politicians who have been running this State forever, they do not represent me, and are killing the State!
I liked it more at the beginning than at the end. First off, too many damn standing ovations. That is really polarizing and makes things drag out too long and gives this impression that he’s such a celebrity people are wacky about him. I think they ought to limit applause to five or ten times per speech although that is not HIS fault.
I always am impressed by how well he speaks and how heart felt it seems, and I agree with his stand on many issues. We can’t give Bush 8 years to dig us into a hole then expect Obama to get us out in one year, either. However, he did seem to embody exactly what people are saying in the more conservative papers – the Wall Street Journal for instance – that he tries to do too MUCH, cover to omuch ground. He needed to hit the high points and stick on those, jobs, ending the war, getting some kind of improvements in health coverage and insurance – instead, he went off all over creation with gays in the military and childhood obesity and this, that and the other.
As we said in the Clinton era, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Let’s just focus on that and maybe one or two other hot topics like the wars and health care instead of setting expectations that you are going to solve world hunger and hang nails and everything in between, because if you focus on everything you can’t do anything. That is the issue I would have – you can’t please all the people all the time and trying to do so means taking your eye off the ball. In America people will be much happier and more forgiving and generous on other topics, if they have jobs and can put food on the table.