Obama Begins “The Campaign”
Adriana Dueck
The Corsair
Last night in his State of the Union address President Barack Obama made his first public start on the long journey of “The Campaign.” He highlighted his efficiency in foreign policy; the U.S. has ended the war in Iraq and for the first time in 10 years the world no longer must fear Osama Bin Laden.
If one were to choose a word to describe the night, it would be fairness.
“The state of our Union is getting stronger,” the president informed both live viewers and television/online. “As long as I’m president, I will work with anyone in this chamber to build on this momentum. But I intend to fight obstruction with action, and I will oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place.”
His highlights on tax fairness, military unification, squabbles among political parties, and energy proved one thing: the race is just beginning. Aside from the speech material itself, the most prominent thing on display last night was the fact that Obama solidified that he is running for re-election.
His first two years in office were filled with policy making with little attention paid to political messages. As the time to select a president approaches, it is vital that he delivers on his strongest platform: speechmaking. Last night was a strong return to the Obama America voted into office on Nov. 18, 2008.
President Obama spent much of the evening focused on fiscal issues, and showed political savvy by staying away from the touchy subjects of national debt and deficits. He continued to push the Buffet rule (business owners who make substantial amounts of money should not have to pay less taxes than their middle-income workers) and spoke on raising the taxes on those who make over $1 million to 30 percent.
“Do we want to keep these tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans?” he asked. “Or do we want to keep our investments in everything else, like education and medical research; a strong military and care for our veterans? Because if we’re serious about paying down our debt, we can’t do both.”
Whether they tuned in or not last night, American citizens can be sure that there will be many more speeches to come as the race for Presidential Election 2012 begins to heat up.
Photo credit: By National Defense University (110328_POTUS_Libya_NDU_043 (direct link)) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons