Obama’s State of the Union is crucial balancing act
Scott Wilson, Washington Post
The setting: An election-year State of the Union address before a hostile Congress. Since the last one, the world has changed fundamentally, a war with Iraq has ended, and the nation’s economy is fragile and worrying to a majority of Americans.
“Now to our troubles at home, they are not all economic, but the primary problem is our economy,” the president tells a prime-time audience. “There are certain things a president can do without Congress, and I am going to do them.”
President Obama? No. George H.W. Bush in his 1992 State of the Union address, delivered 10 months before voters made him a one-term president. No other president has been able to claim that dubious, single-term distinction in the last three decades.
That could change this year as Obama, his approval ratings low and joblessness high, can expect a tough fight for another term. His State of the Union address on Tuesday will serve as the highest profile argument for why he should keep his job.
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-state-of-the-union-is-crucial-balancing-act/2012/01/20/gIQAB7fVJQ_singlePage.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
nothing new here! 
I would instead quote this.....
...we have already been repeatedly warned that it will be close due to the economy, and it has been left at that. It is a mantra that too many of us sheepishly agree with. But, come to think of it, wasn’t it the Republican Party who brought upon this nation the worst recession since the Great Depression? Wasn’t it largely Republicans who deregulated our financial institutions, which brought us to our knees? And aren’t they now promising us more of that, and calling it “restoring America”?
Wasn’t it the Republican Party who started an unjustified war via lies trumpeted by our media, and kept the war’s spending off the books for all the years they could, while still to this day proclaiming “cowboy diplomacy” as the only way to go?
Wasn’t it the Republican Party who brought us the tax cuts for the rich, and yet is still proposing tax cuts for the rich as the remedy to the original fiasco? And what about the Medicare drug programs that wasn’t paid for, meant to destroy Medicare by not allowing government drug price negotiations in their legislation?
Wasn’t it Republicans who recently claimed that deficits were their priority concern, deficits that they themselves expanded widely during their eight years of power?
Isn’t it the Republican Party which now vilifies American victims of the great GOP recession, using unemployment benefits as a bludgeon against the jobless, shaming those in need of food stamps, and using outright racial stereotypical slurs in so doing?
Aren’t those Republicans, who, with one hand on their bible, refuse to even consider lending the other hand to their brothers and sisters who happen to be “the lesser” among us?
Isn’t it the Republican Party that assailed our teachers, police and firefighters’ unions and their pensions, as they stay busy laying off many of those same workers at a time of high unemployment?
Wasn’t that a Republicans audience who cheered Americans dying in the streets for lack of health care, and booed our brave soldiers?
Isn’t it the Republican Party that believes that corporations are people, that money is speech, and that hailed the Citizens United decision as justice served?
Isn’t it Republicans who work diligently at separating the United States by race, creed, religion and sexual orientation, while claiming that discussing income inequality is simply envy and a topic best whispered about in quiet, dark rooms?
Yes, that was all brought to us by the Republican Party. And wait, there’s more…
For the past three years, as most in the Democratic Party have attempted to save this country from a financial abyss while being fought tooth and nail by 99.9% of Republicans (plus 20% Republican-lite), we have observed how Democrats have had to argue and fight for benefits paid in and previously guaranteed to the American people. By now, we should see clearly which party is against jobs programs that would benefit the nation during these very difficult times. We really do know who saved the auto industry and all the jobs associated with it.
We understand who got Bin Laden, ended the Iraq War, passed health care and financial reforms, is ready to cut defense spending and has indeed created jobs despite government job cuts at the state level. We have an inkling as to who proposed immigration reform, as well as a logical energy solution, and who opposed all such things.
… and yet, “they” tell us that the election will be “close”?
WTF????
more.... http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2012/01/21/why-2012-will-be-a-close-election/#more-7287
Surely you must know that you'd get a much better reception in GD for the sort of negativity that underlies nearly every article you post, in this group.
Is there some message you're trying to convey? I ask because, I don't remember you posting in the BOG on DU2, so my question is a sincere one.
