State of the Union a Success for the President

Tuesday night, President Barack Obama gave his second State of the Union address. Many members of Congress had decided ahead of time to sit with members of the opposing party rather than on their respective sides of the aisle. This was done as a symbolic gesture to the American people that demonstrated a new commitment to bipartisanship in the wake of the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the President's call for both parties to tone down the rhetoric. A seat on the House floor was also left empty as a solemn reminder of Giffords' absence.

The President began his remarks by congratulating the men and women of the 112th Congress and the new Speaker of the House. He then referred to the empty chair that was left for Giffords. This, coupled with the new seating arrangement, set a subdued tone for the rest of the night.

The specific language in the speech seemed specifically designed to not rock the boat. The President deliberately spoke in broad strokes most of the night without going into deep specifics on polices. It seemed as if he wanted to create an environment where he would not derail whatever new found spirit of cooperation the two parties had discovered, but instead he would give it a chance to flourish by not saying anything too controversial.

Most of his address was spent on concepts of how best to move America forward and "win the future," as he put it. In order to accomplish this goal, he said, "We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world," in his estimation. He likened our current economic and industrial state to watching the Soviets launch a satellite into space for the first time, calling this our "Sputnik moment."

President Obama stressed the importance of clean energy, setting a new goal to have 80 percent of all America's energy be clean by 2035 and 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015. He wants No Child Left Behind to be replaced by Race to the Top, an educational plan that rewards schools for higher teacher and student achievements with additional funding for the school. The President also urged us to invest in our infrastructure, including high speed trains that will actually be faster than taking an airplane.

Overall, the President gave a safe speech that was peppered with humor and charm at times. There was almost nothing to complain about except maybe the lack of true substance and policy in the speech. This was obviously the plan, however, and the President's job approval rating is likely to stay over 50 percent.

Strangely, the pundits on the conservative Fox News and left-leaning MSNBC had about the same reaction to the President's speech. Both seemed to agree (in general) that he gave a fairly safe speech that was more about the overall tone than any specific policies. If anything, MSNBC seemed more disappointed in the State of the Union for being too reserved and down the center.

In an instant CBS News poll following the address, 92 percent of people who watched the State of the Union approved of the President's proposals while only 8 percent said they disapproved. This is an overwhelmingly positive response to his remarks and a good indicator that he reached the political center of the country.

Sources:
http://stateoftheunionaddress.org/2011-barack-obama
http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7284062n