In his last State of the Union address, President Obama broke from
tradition and focused more on larger scale issues than specific
policies.
USA Today provides six take-aways from the President’s speech.
The first observation is that Obama did not focus on detailing lists of
policy items which likely wouldn’t go very far in his final year as
president, especially with a Republican-led Congress.
Obama said he regretted not being able to bridge party lines better.
"It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency — that the rancor and
suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better,” he
said, and then went on to say that if politics are to get better, the
system will need to change.
Obama also targeted Republican presidential frontrunners Donald Trump
and Ted Cruz. Without actually mentioning either of the candidates,
Obama criticized their stance on dealing with the Islamic State and
immigration.
Trump, for his part, tweeted that the speech was “really boring, slow, lethargic--very hard to watch!”
In keeping with his focus on large-scale issues, Obama mentioned the
issue of climate change, as well as Vice President Biden’s initiative to
find a cure for cancer.
Obama also attempted to assuage the nation’s fears that attacks like
the Paris terrorist attacks and the San Bernardino shooting were the
beginning of a major world conflict. Although he acknowledged that the
Islamic State posed a serious threat, he attempted to dispel the
heightened fears of further attacks.
The President did not mention the special guests in the first lady’s
box, or the first lady herself. In a break from tradition, Obama did not
introduce any of the guests, which included a Syrian refugee, an
American soldier who stopped a gunman from attacking a passenger train
in Europe, and one of the first women to complete the Army’s Ranger
School.
Lastly, Obama surprisingly mentioned guns only once, and that only in
passing. Although he recently gave a speech about gun violence, the
subject was largely absent from his State of the Union address.
Publication date: January 13, 2016
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