It’s not surprising that President Obama’s speech was lofty and inspiring as usual. After a powerful introduction, the president got down to business about many of his goals. From coping with the current economic climate to tackling key issues like energy, health care, education, and foreign policy, Obama’s sweeping speech gave important insight into what exactly his plans are and how he plans to carry them out.
Obama laid out many of the points that are typically seen in a State of the Union address. The excited chamber welcomed many of the president’s points, even the Republicans standing to clap at various moments throughout the evening.
Not surprisingly, Obama first touted the merits of his stimulus bill. It seemed appropriate and prudent that he explained what was going to happen with the billions of dollars in new tax cuts and spending. His economic talk was weaved throughout much of his speech, but he specifically focused early on about how the money would be spent efficiently in order to help the United States economy and its people grow and prosper once more.
Obama emphasized the need to get credit flowing again. This seems to be one point that both Democrats and Republicans alike agree on, however, how it gets accomplished is the matter up for debate. Other important initiatives included the need for improving infrastructure and creating jobs in America. This is largely planned through innovations in energy, improvements to keep health care costs low, and investments in education in order to create a competitive workforce for the future.
There was also some time allocated on foreign policy and strengthening U.S. security, specifically abroad. Obama mentioned his closing of Guantanamo Bay and declared that the United States does not torture. These issues might not have been the highlights of the night, but they are definitely important matters that the president spoke about in order to illustrate that he’s able to cope with economic crisis while balancing a myriad of other concerns.
Throughout the speech there was a big emphasis on responsibility needed by both the government and its people. From managing the financial system to improving educational standards, Obama’s tone was one of widespread responsibility by all parties. On the government end, he said that he would go through the budget “line by line” in order to cut out wasteful spending and programs that don’t work well. He mentioned Recovery.gov, for example, to highlight the type of oversight and accountability he plans to have throughout his presidency.
By now the average American cares little about the ideological squabbling over how these goals are achieved. After eight years during which the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, the majority of people want to see goals set and met rather than the arguments over what’s the right way to go about getting it done.
It’s hard to rate a speech, especially one that looks so far ahead at so much work that still has to be done. Overall however, I think Obama’s speech was of an excellent caliber. Everyone might not agree with his rhetoric or the direction he plans to take the country in, but in outlining his vision, he is laying a clear path for what he believes needs to get done in order to put the nation and its citizens back on the right track. Ambition is a good thing, and in these times that’s exactly what people want to see preached as well as practiced.
