“My first thought was it sounded like he was running for a third term.”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by The Hill, on President Obama saying during his State of the Union address: “I have no more campaigns to run. I know because I won both of them.”
GOP pollster Neil Newhouse translates President Obama’s State of the Union address:
“You won nothing in November. The 2014 election had no consequences for my Administration whatsoever. You may have beaten my party and members of my team in the mid-term elections, but you’ve never beaten me. And, now you never will. All this talk about compromise and working together means you do what I want, because I’m not meeting you halfway on anything. My veto pen is ready and inked up. I will fight you and your agenda til the movers come on January 20th, 2017. I am still the President.”
First Read: “Maybe the best way to view President Obama’s confident and ambitious State of the Union address last night was him handing the political baton back to his party — and likely Hillary Clinton — essentially telling them: ‘Here are the issues worth fighting for in the coming years.’ Paid sick/maternity leave. Free tuition for qualified community college students. More investment in America’s infrastructure. Tax cuts for the middle class. And, of course, higher taxes for the wealthy to pay for all of these things.”
“Unlike in past State of the Union addresses and other speeches, Obama didn’t call on congressional Republicans to meet him halfway on certain issues. He didn’t latch on to certain GOP proposals. And he certainly didn’t acknowledge his party’s big defeat in last November’s midterm election. Instead, he focused on the future — the future campaigns and the future legislative fights; it felt like the leader of a party laying out a platform. The chief reason why: As we’ve seen over the past four years, there isn’t much hope in divided government being able to accomplish big things, let alone the little ones. But it was still jarring, because his State of the Union sounded more like one a president gives in a campaign year, not one right after an election (especially an election your party just lost).”
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Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) “focused on the GOP’s policy priorities for the new Congress, rather than making a direct response to President Obama’s proposals, in her party’s official response Tuesday night,” The Hill reports.
“Ernst, a freshman senator who just won election in November, delivered a polished speech shortly after Obama’s address. The Iowa Republican worked in plenty of smiles and more than a few folksy references to her modest middle-class upbringing throughout her remarks.”
Des Moines Register: “Ernst delivered her address with polish and a toothy smile, avoiding the pitfalls that have befallen some of her predecessors who have given the GOP response.”
President Obama claimed credit “for an improving economy and defiantly told his Republican adversaries in Congress to ‘turn the page’ by supporting an expensive domestic agenda aimed at improving the fortunes of the middle class,” the New York Times reports.
“Released from the political constraints of a sagging economy, overseas wars and elections, Mr. Obama vowed in his sixth State of the Union address to use his final two years in office fighting for programs that have taken a back seat. He called on Congress to make community college free for most students, enhance tax credits for education and child care and impose new taxes and fees on high-income earners and large financial institutions.”
Wall Street Journal: “The president’s vision, however, faced a deeply uncertain path in a Congress that for the first time in his presidency is fully controlled by Republicans, as it hinges on raising taxes on high-income Americans to fund initiatives to benefit those at lower income levels.”
Rick Klein: “The ‘spoilers’ strategy may sap what’s left of the drama of anticipation around Tuesday night’s State of the Union. But that drama has been dissipating naturally anyway – and that’s why the White House has to be pleased with the way it’s gotten items off the laundry list and into display cases. The community-college proposal, the president’s tax plan, the new paid-leave policy – these are all in the political bloodstream now. If we first learned of them Tuesday night, maybe one or two plans total would be expected to get traction. Maybe none of these things end up happening.”
“But the White House has found new ways to cut through the clutter and get presidential ideas front of mind, despite full Republican control of Congress. So yes, the trailers have given away some of the best stuff in this movie. But a State of the Union in the seventh year of a presidency is rarely going to be a blockbuster anyway. If the takeaway is just that the president has a solid script, that might be enough to be counted as a success.”
“Key elements of the economic proposals President Obama will outline in his State of the Union address Tuesday appear to be aimed at driving the debate in the 2016 election on income inequality and middle-class economic issues, rather than setting a realistic agenda for Congress,” the AP reports.
The Hill: “The GOP hoped Obama would be humbled by the midterm elections that saw Democrats swept from power in the Senate. Instead, when Obama delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress completely controlled by the GOP on Tuesday, Republicans will see a confident Obama who is bullish about his own approval ratings and no longer worried about anyone else’s reelection.”
“The Obama administration has revamped its digital communications strategy in an attempt to reach new audiences for the State of the Union speech — a classic old-media event — and sidestep the skeptical filter often applied by White House reporters,” the New York Times reports.
“One of the White House’s goals as President Obama puts the final touches on his upcoming State of the Union address is shortening the speech, people familiar with the process say,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
First Read suggests having pity on Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) for being picked to give the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union address. Why? Because of the curse of the State of the Union responders. Here are the last eight:
2007: Jim Webb (out of politics, although he’s making a quixotic presidential bid)
2008: Kathleen Sebelius (Obamacare rollout!)
2009: Bobby Jindal (uncomfortably awkward intro, his star has fallen)
2010: Bob McDonnell (felony conviction)
2011: Paul Ryan (losing VP nominee, though he still a top GOP voice)
2012: Mitch Daniels (out of politics)
2013: Marco Rubio (the great water incident, maybe running for the White House)
2014: Cathy McMorris Rodgers (safe – so far)
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) will be delivering the Republican response to the State of the Union Address, the Weekly Standard reports.
“The State of the Union is scheduled for next week. Ernst was elected in November and has only been a U.S. senator for a couple weeks.”
President Obama “will spend the days before his Jan. 20 State of the Union address pitching Americans on the economic policies he intends to propose,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Obama plans to roll out legislative proposals and executive actions over the week on issues including housing, manufacturing and higher education… He will do so while traveling the country highlighting progress in the economy.”
“The strategy is a shift from previous years when the White House has kept a tight lid on proposals Mr. Obama would announce in his State of the Union address. Mr. Obama’s aides hope the approach builds on momentum from the lame-duck congressional session, which resulted in an agreement to fund the government through September.”
“President Obama is heading back to Washington on Saturday after a two-week holiday visit to Hawaii, but he won’t stick around for long,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“Eager to stay on the offensive as new Republican majorities are seated in Congress, the president plans to take a more bullish economic message on the road next week in something of an early test drive of his State of the Union message. During stops in Michigan, Arizona and Tennessee, Obama plans to draw a connection between actions his administration took early in his presidency and increasingly positive economic trends in sectors such as manufacturing and housing.”
“The more the president talks about his ideas, the more unpopular he becomes. Why would I want to deprive him of that opportunity?”
— Speaker John Boehner, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, on reports that Republican might not invite President Obama to deliver his State of the Union address.
Congressional Republicans are weighing a variety of tactics to “address” their anger over President Obama’s executive actions on immigration and are reportedly considering the idea of “refusing to invite the president to give his State of the Union address,” Politico reports.
As Steve Benen notes, Republicans considered but rejected the same idea in January 1999 after they had impeached President Clinton.
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Perhaps Republicans could have Mitt Romney give the speech and pretend Barack Obama isn’t even president. [/speech_bubble]
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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