Barack Obama: ‘I Don’t Quit!’

Barack Obama recaptured his rhetorical fire for his first State of the Union address on [Jan. 27]. Everyone who is anyone in Washington was at the Capital for the speech. From the beginning, the president drew from the well of American history, invoking the 1929 stock market crash and the D-Day landings of 1944, to remind his audience that the United States had experienced moments of “doubt” in the past, but ultimately overcame them. So right off the bat, the 44th president admitted that, at the end of his first year in the White House, the state of the union is not so perfect. For many Americans, “change has not come fast enough. Some are frustrated; some are angry,” he conceded, acknowledging that the Democratic party has taken some political hits recently. Last [month’s] election in Massachusetts seriously shook up the president’s team. But he said all of this so that he could immediately reassure his audience that he himself was as ready as ever to fight it out. “I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight,” Obama reassured his people, with even more enthusiasm because that sentence is still hard to believe.

Obama may not have abandoned his hope of “changing America,” but he’s had to revise his political agenda these last few weeks. Most notably, the defeat in Massachusetts meant that Obama lost his “supermajority” in the Senate. The top priority is no longer to get health insurance reform passed, as it was before Christmas. Wednesday evening’s speech clearly showed that. Now, the priority is to fight unemployment and restore the economy to health. “Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010,” the president declared, calling on Congress to pass a new jobs-creation bill “without delay.” Obama proposed that $30 billion in bailout money already paid back by Wall Street banks could support loans to small businesses, which would also benefit from a new tax cut.

As he spoke of health insurance reform, his marquee project just a few weeks ago, Obama urged Congress, “Don’t walk away from reform.” He reminded his audience that “after nearly a century of trying … we are closer than ever to bringing more security to the lives of so many Americans,” but he didn’t say how he plans to rescue the legislation. He simply urged, “Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people.” In Congress, Democratic leaders are acting as if “there is no rush” in passing healthcare reform, and [last month] Obama did not reveal how he was going to shake them out of their torpor. Likewise, the president reminded Congress that he’s still waiting for them to pass a financial reform bill, as well as a climate change bill. In the absence of legislation, Congress supplied an enthusiastic cheering section. As is the custom for the State of the Union address, the president was interrupted time after time by standing ovations from members of his party.

Also, as expected at this event, the president did a quick review of every issue, at the risk of promising everything imaginable. He announced a three-year spending freeze, starting in 2011, to reduce the United States’ unfathomably deep deficit. But he also promised a whole series of educational initiatives and tax cuts, particularly for lower-income students. Homosexuals, who have felt forgotten during the first year of Obama’s administration, were also reminded that he promised to abolish the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” policy, which forces them to hide their sexual orientation if they serve in the armed forces.

Foreign policy, relegated to the end of the speech, was disposed of quickly. The main point was that it is not necessarily the time to reach out to U.S. enemies through dialogue. North Korea (one of the few countries that had the honor of being mentioned by name) “faces increased isolation and stronger sanctions.” Iran is not yet threatened with sanctions, but with “growing consequences” if its leaders “continue to ignore their obligations.”

Lastly, Obama acknowledged another obvious point: that so far he has hardly succeeded in changing Washington’s political culture. But he made yet another promise: to keep trying. For instance, he said he would like to meet monthly not only with Congressional Democrats, but also with their Republican counterparts. “I know you can’t wait,” he shot at the members of the [Grand Old Party] in one of those flashes of humor that livened up the address. Judging from a CNN poll, the president’s rhetorical skills still work wonders. 48 percent of Americans who watched the speech had a “very positive” opinion of it, another 10 percent found it “somewhat positive,” while only 21 percent had a negative opinion.

As often, however, there were probably many Obama supporters in the audience, and the anti-Obama crowd found better things to do than sit in front of the television only to get annoyed.