The Big Question: What do you think about Obama’s speech?

Some of the nation’s top political commentators, legislators and
intellectuals offer insight into the biggest question burning up the
blogosphere today.

Today’s question:

What
is your reaction to last night’s State of the Union address from
President Barack Obama? What did you think of the Republican response?

John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, said:

Overall, I was impressed by the President’s speech last night.
It’s time for policymakers to work together on a bipartisan basis to solve the
challenges facing our nation. Even with our economy on an upward trajectory,
there remain multiple economic and social problems to be tackled, all without
simple – or partisan – solutions. 

The President’s top priorities are and should be jobs and the
economy. Our path to recovery will be slow and difficult with employment
lagging behind other indicators. Therefore, pro-growth policies are a must to
sustain this recovery.

A critical pathway to economic growth and job creation is
increased engagement in international markets, so we’re encouraged by the
President’s attention to this issue last night. He called for strengthening
trade with Colombia, Panama and South Korea; we agree. Congress needs to pass
the pro-job FTAs with these nations immediately to help American companies and
workers expand their exports and grow the economy.

We also welcome President Obama’s attention to the deficit. His proposed
freeze on discretionary spending is a small but symbolic first step on this
issue. Taming the deficit will not be easy, but the choices facing our nation
will only get more difficult the longer this issue gets pushed off. 

Last night’s speech was a positive start to a year riddled with
complex challenges. Policymakers can now choose the difficult and
counter-productive path of excessive partisanship, or the path the American
people have repeatedly laid out for them – bipartisanship and effective leadership.
Now is the time to translate the President’s encouraging words into positive
action for American workers and companies.

Michelle Bernard, president of the Independent Women’s Forum, said:

The 2010 State of the Union Address:  Comme Ci, Comme Ca
 
State of the Union addresses tend to always be utterly boring and disappointing affairs.  Last night’s address by the President was in many aspects a pleasant surprise and in other ways, somewhat disappointing.  The President clearly needed to show the American public that he understands our frustrations both with the bad economy and with what’s been happening in Washington.  Rhetorically he did what needed to be done and did so much better than most in his position could ever contemplate doing.  His statements regarding his personal dislike of the bank bailout bill and not accepting second place for the United States resurrected the Obama that we have missed.  When the president remarked that “We are strong, we are resilient, we are American, and we don’t quit,” I was ready to sing the Star-Bangled Banner in a show of solidarity.  This is the Barack Obama the country overwhelmingly voted for and believe in.  However, this rhetoric is a far cry from pursuing and enacting policy measures that meet the President’s stated aspirations for our beloved country. 
 
The President’s focus on jobs, restoring “pay as you go”, freezing nonmilitary discretionary spending for three years, and education as the best anti-poverty program are all excellent starts.  The President offered some modest business tax relief proposals, which, depending on the details, might be useful.  Yet he also he committed to raising taxes on investment income and on top earners, many of which are actually small businesses. That hardly seems like good news for the economy. 
 
He saved health care until relatively late in the speech.  No doubt part of his “pivot” to jobs as his top priority, but he was still unclear about whether he wants to sell the current health care proposals which the American people have thoroughly rejected or whether he ready to start over. He says he’s open to new ideas; all of us hope that’s true of the Congress.   
 
If the State of the Union is always a disappointment, the opposition party’s response is even more so.  One would have expected more from the opposition related to the President’s request for a comprehensive clean energy bill and the effectiveness of the Recovery Act.  However, echoing the same message that brought him into office, Governor McDonnell effectively called for a jobs creation plan premised upon lower taxes and a smaller government—a message that resonates with Americans, who have become tired of subsidizing their neighbors’ bad choices and irresponsibility. Overall, Gov. Bob McDonnell did a fine job, in what is always a tough and unenviable position.
 
The bottom line:  The American public deserves better from both Democrats and Republics.  Let’s translate that beautiful rhetoric to policies that make sense. 

A.B. Stoddard, Associate Editor of The Hill, said:

President Obama threw out many GOP ideas last night in his first State of the Union address, offering support for nuclear power and offshore drilling, and he paid great homage to small business throughout. But his speech really didn’t represent a pivot or retreat many were expecting from a politically wounded president. Instead of changing course, Obama doubled down on his agenda — urging the passage of health care reform and financial services reform and pledging to work with the Senate to pass a climate change bill, something every Republican and most Democrats will concede is DOA. Because he wasn’t proposing much of anything new Obama should probably have spent more time articulating his “new foundation” for the economy, just why his agenda can rebuild our dessimated economy and how his controversial, ambitious proposals connect. Finally, the message was also supposed to re-inspire and energize a frightened and discouraged Democratic party but it didn’t seem to succeed. On health care reform Obama made a perfunctory case but didn’t appear to insist on it, on a spending freeze already unpopular in his party he issued his first veto threat and on energy he was talking again about leading on a bill he knows is nearly impossible to garner 60 votes and is promising once again to get involved in congressional deliberations though he never actually does. I imagine Democrats were left wanting more.
 
Gov. Bob McDonnell was a terrific choice for the GOP and the setting of the Virginia statehouse was quite effective. Previous SOTU responses done by members of the opposing party are traditionally done by the person alone in  a room and when badly done look like someone making a basement video for YouTube. McDonnell surrounded himself with energetic supporters and presented Republican principles in a smart, calm and affable manner. He won Virginia, a state Obama won by a wide margin, in a landslide in November without attacking Obama. And he is a comer in the Republican party for sure.

Craig Newmark, creator of Craigslist and a Pundits Blog contributor, said:

The President focused on helping get the country back on the right track,
placing country above politics. I’d like to see the opposition emulate
that.

Bruce E. Gronbeck, professor of Political Communication at the University of Iowa, said:

For me, the most fascinating aspect of the 2010 State of the Union address was its near-constant change of tone.  President Obama at times celebrated, confessed, lectured, disarmed with frankness, joked, reached out, hectored, surprised, inspired.  He was a moving target, with each of the speech’s topics treated in its own way.  My favorite section was his treatment of energy initiatives.  Who would have assumed he’d start with nuclear power, off-shore drilling, and clean coal?  Obviously not the Republicans in their response, which assumed he would be rejecting off-shore exploration. 

Evident as well was his start of the 2010 bye-election themes he will emphasize:  his crafting of a populist political persona, his attack on a “just say no” opposition, his increased use of executive authority to pursue initiatives in the face of gridlock in the Senate.  The Massachusetts election results obviously concerned him as much as it has energized the Republicans. 

The Republicans were right:  this was not a review of “the state of the union,” which for me is typified by Ronald Reagan’s 1981 economic analysis or Bill Clinton’s 1997 call for  needed bridges to the 21st century.  It harked back rather to 19th-century calls for change in tones that sometimes approached Andrew Jackson’s.  Indeed, the storms that have swirled around Obama in 2009 are reminiscent of those that engulfed Old Hickory.  Both worked populist themes, with mixed results.  And so the speech showed much more about the state of man than that of the union.

John F. McManus, president of The John Birch Society, said:

In
the face of rising opposition (even antipathy) to his agenda, President
Obama did not back away from what he wants to do to America in his
State of the Union speech.  His focus on the need for jobs was welcome.
 But his contention that government can and should create the jobs is
completely wrong. We can only hope that the swell of opposition to his
many plans (healthcare, more environmental controls, mere minuscule
spending cuts) will continue to grow and continue to block his agenda.
 
As for the Republican response delivered by Virginia Governor
McDonnell, it was generally good but what was most needed wasn’t an
urging that Mr. Obama and Congress “enact policies that promote
entrepreneurship.”  What is most needed is a call for terminating
numerous government agencies that cost billions and impede the creation
of real jobs by American businessmen.
 
Less government, not better or more efficient government, is the answer to America’s unemployment and numerous other ills.

Peter Navarro, professor of Economics and Public
Policy at U.C. Irvine, said:

On the economy, the president had all of the right goals but mostly wrong policies.  Case in point: promoting exports.  The most direct way to reduce our trade imbalance and boost exports would be to brand China a currency manipulator and force them to revalue the yuan – or face appropriate duties.  Nary a word of this or any of China’s unfair trade practices. 
 
The best jobs program for America is trade reform with China – they grow at 10% a year, our unemployment rate is at 10%.  Do the math.

Dean Baker,  co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said:

This would have been a great speech if the unemployment rate was 5.0 percent. As it is, he has proposed nothing that addresses the severity of the problem and the spending freeze suggests that he is more concerned about the politics than about getting unemployment down.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit said:

Obama’s churlishness has backfired, however, as Justice Alito’s murmured “No, not true,” was picked up by the cameras.  Through his failure to act Presidential, he has managed to upstage himself.  It is time for Obama to develop a ittle respect for the office that he now holds — and to demonstrate the degree of self-discipline that the office requires of its holders, at least the successful ones.