John Kerry Sen. (D-Mass.) :
Tonight's address promised a seismic shift in the climate and energy debate.
President Obama reaffirmed that comprehensive climate and energy independence legislation is a top priority for his White House and threw the weight of his presidency behind a principled compromise that prices carbon to reduce pollution, invests in new energy, and also embraces nuclear, clean coal, and even drilling.
These are core elements of the plan Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman and I are working on every day. The inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom that this issue has stalled is dead wrong. This is not and never has been a partisan issue, and Senators Graham, Lieberman, and I will continue building consensus on both sides of the aisle with all those willing to engage to create jobs, advance our security interests, reduce pollution, and make America more competitive. We’ve made more progress in the past year than we have in the past decade on this issue, and we can cross the finish line. We can surprise a lot of people as we work towards 60 votes in the Senate. Comprehensive legislation will not only speed economic recovery but will also put our country on the path to sustainable long-term economic growth/
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James J. Zogby President, Arab American Institute :
What the President didn't talk about.
When I read the President's remarks about his frustrations with Arab-Israeli peace-making in his interview with Time Magazine's Joe Klein, I was concerned. When he didn't mention this effort at all in tonight's speech, I felt even greater distress. I hope he's not getting ready to walk away from the process. This would be a huge mistake. In the Time Magazine interview the President suggests that he underestimated the difficulties in moving Israelis and Palestinians forward. Harder than health care? Harder than energy reform? Than banking reforms? While the President correctly indicates that he's ready set down markers and meet these challenges head on, he should demonstrate the same resolve and fighting spirit in the effort to move Israelis and Palestinians to a solution that he has acknowledged is in our national security interests.
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Rory Cooper Dir., Strategic Communications, Heritage Foundation :
Tonight, President Obama did what he does best. He stared into two pieces of glass and delivered an emotional campaign stump speech that has no hope of solving our economic or national security dilemmas. But different from previous speeches, this one seemed to have dozens of authors as it contradicted itself and his policies often and emphatically. He said he didn't want to re-litigate the past, when the primary focus of the address was exactly that. He said he didn't want to penalize bankers, right after he gloriously announced his punitive tax on bankers who have paid back the U.S. Treasury in full with interest.
He said he wanted to control spending, and then rattled off a laundry list of liberal investments (free money!). He asked for alternatives to health care reform, ignoring that conservatives have been offering them up by the dozens all year. He said he hadn't raised taxes, which simply is not true. He envisioned government subsidized railroads, jobs and industry. And he intimidated and scolded the Supreme Court who sat there by duty taking it. That was not a very presidential moment, nor calculated very wisely.Reduce...
He spent maybe ten sentences on terrorism 40 minutes into his speech after a year where Fort Hood and an airliner over Detroit were attacked. Terrorism simply is not a priority for this president still, and it shows. His continued need to treat terrorists as constitutionally protected Americans strains credibility and is indefensible.
I’m sad to say the state of our union is not strong. The people are strong, and vocal, engaged and informed. But the government is not responding to their strength in equal measure. Instead of looking for a message to pivot, the President needs a fresh set of ideas, domestic and foreign. And fresh ideas do not include an inconsequential spending freeze that was rightly laughed at. The President didn't even mention entitlement reform, the 800lb gorilla in the room, which is the only responsible path towards a sound fiscal future and a true health care reform.
According the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, America is now less free than Canada economically, and for the first time in the history of the Index, the U.S. has fallen out of the “free” category. This is a big deal that is accelerated by the President’s policies he discussed tonight. Instead of creating jobs and economic growth, the President continues to foster liberal ideas that stifle investment and cause great uncertainty.
The American public is getting used to seeing the President deliver a speech from a teleprompter. Even thirty or so school kids were recently forced into this position when he visited a small classroom last week. He really brought a teleprompter! The President needs to look past the glass and start a conversation with America on how we can get back on track. Tonight, he did not accomplish such a feat.
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Richard Albert Professor of Law, Boston College :
It was utterly shocking to hear the President decry the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which lifted restrictions on corporate and union expenditures in political campaigns. By emphatically urging Congress to pass a bill reversing what he views as the Supreme Court's misguided judgment--"a bill that helps to right this wrong," in the President's own words--the President undermined two sacred institutions in American constitutional government: the separation of powers and judicial independence.
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Scott Stanzel Pres., Stanzel Communications, former Dpty. WH Press Secretary :
Tonight in a lengthy speech, President Obama gave lip service to market-based approaches to strengthening the economy (like trade and tax relief, which he and his party vehemently oppose in practice). He inappropriately condemned the justices of the Supreme Court sitting in front of him by criticizing their recent judgment reaffirming free speech. His remarks, while well-crafted, will be remembered for being forgettable. There were no bold proposals or signature lines. He may be a prisoner of his speaking prowess, as a well-delivered speech which lacks provocative thinking and doesn’t shatter high expectations is quickly discarded.
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David Mark Moderator :
Aaron David Miller
Public Policy Scholar
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Judging by the substance of the president's State of the Union address, Barack Obama's first year has been a teachable moment -- for him.
Despite the self-justifying kudos for his own policy and his commitment to health care, energy, and climate change, the white flag is up. And the president has surrendered to the reality that moments for transformative change in America are truly rare, and this isn't one of them.
The "we can do everything and i am the agent of change to remake America approach" has given way to a welcome focus on the economy, the middle class, and jobs. That focus on jobs is right, necessary and critical if the president wants to keep his. And the downsizing that was evident in the president's very practical suggestions to address unemployment and growth may well prove over time to be a victory for the president (and for us). A year in, Barack Obama is learning that campaigning and politics is often about what people want; governance in America -- if done right -- is about what they can actually get. and now more than ever that means putting Americans back to work, keeping them in their homes and secure.
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Karen Kerrigan President, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council :
I was disappointed. For a President who needs bipartisanship to get meaningful legislation through the Congress to help our economy, the speech had a divisive edge. Too much sarcasm and too many jabs despite his opening line thats Americans deserve a government that matches their decency. It was totally inappropriate and tasteless to scold the Supreme Court -- some of the Justices bristled at this move. The President got it wrong on what went wrong with his health care bill -- the more he "explained" it, as I recall, the less popular it became. This was not the speech I was expecting -- I thought for sure it would be more humble, more bipartisan and offer market oriented ideas and incentives for creating jobs and getting our economy going again. Small businesses will have a mixed reaction to his proposals. If enacted, some of the measures may help some, but his insistence on moving forward with the massive health care bill (roundly rejected by the voters of Mass.), cap-and-trade legislation and tax increases on small business owners will keep them hunkered down. So much for creating jobs.
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Craig Shirley Reagan biographer and president, Shirley and Banister Public Affairs :
Jimmy Obama
This so-called speech by President Obama tonight will go down in as one of the worst in American history. Attacking the American citizenry while championing government bureaucrats was Jimmy Carteresque. Shameless.
You may call this State of the Union, "Malaise II."
Please permit the use of a personal pronoun, but I have never in my life ever heard the Congress actually laugh in derision at a president as they did tonight when he tried to lecture then about budgets, nor has anyone ever heard such a partisan attack on the opposition party, nor such a galling and puerile attack on the members of the US Supreme Court.
With his excessive self-absorption and whining about what he claims he inherited from George Bush, the US Constitution affords Obama a choice to leave office. All he need do is send a letter to the Secretary of State.
But I wouldn't recommend it.
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Bradley A. Smith Professor, election law and campaign finance :
This was a very partisan, unpresidential SOTU, but there is one particular on which I will comment. The President said: Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities.
Here the President is referring to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v .Federal Election Commission, the case in which the government claimed the authority to ban books. The President's statement is false.
Foreign nationals, which is specifically defined to include foreign corporations, are prohibited from making "a contribution or donation of money or ather thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or donation, in connection with a Federal, State or local election." They are also prohibited from making any contribution or donation to any committee of any political party, and they prohibited from making any "expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement for an electioneering communication... ." 2 United States Code Section 441e. This is demogoguery of the worst kind by our President.
