President Barack Obama gestures while delivering his State of the Union address on Captitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010.
President Barack Obama spent too much of his first year playing rope-a-dope with Republicans and delegating crucial legislation to Democrats.
To succeed in his second year, the president must aggressively stand up to friends and enemies. In Wednesday night’s State of the Union address, there were some signs – although not enough – that he is ready to do so.
A newly aggressive Obama means confronting Senate Democrats when they gum up legislation, such as the sweet deal granted to U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska on health care reform. It means countering Republicans when they block every piece of legislation and engage in fear mongering – saying that health care reform will threaten people’s “liberty.”
Obama started on a note of conciliation with Congress in his speech, which was politically astute. The American public is more frustrated and angry with politicians than it’s been in decades. If Democrats and Republicans don’t make an attempt to work together on health care, clean energy, immigration policy and other neglected priorities, voters this year will vent their rage on all incumbents, regardless of party.
The president said that jobs are his No. 1 priority, but there were few specifics, suggesting he may again delegate this task to Congress. He can’t. He needs to take his agenda directly to disgruntled Americans, and make them partners in advancing it.
Some may ask: What has Obama done to serve the interests of average citizens? It is a legitimate question. In his speech, Obama noted how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has saved jobs – by his count, 2 million of them. Tax cuts and unemployment benefits have helped millions, and the much-maligned bank bailout, he noted, helped prevented a more devastating financial collapse.
Still, Obama missed a chance Wednesday to more fully articulate how health reform legislation – now on life support – could help Americans, and not just those who lack medical insurance. Without reform, he noted, premiums will continue to rise, small businesses will drop coverage and the federal deficit will balloon. But he devoted just a few minutes to health care reform, and it came midway through his speech. That left the impression that, once again, prospects for real health care reform have slipped away.
On the plus side, Obama elicited real empathy for the plight of average Americans, many of whom have lost jobs and homes in the last two years, or are on the verge of doing so. Others live in regions that have lost their manufacturing base. They see America as losing its standing and competitiveness.
Obama spoke to them when he said, “I do not accept second place for the United States of America,” and called for systemic long-term investments in education, clean energy and tax policies to help home-grown businesses.
In his second year, the president’s challenge is to help the public separate fact from fiction. Fears of “socialism” and “government-run health care” are the creations of Obama’s enemies, and they are holding back this country from Change We Can Believe In. If the president doesn’t get serious about countering that campaign, his agenda may go nowhere, adding to frustration and anger building in the electorate.