Did Obama Lay Out a Winning Agenda for 2012 in His State of the Union Address? >
State of the Union Was Typical for Election Year
Obama's speech was directed at the voting public, not a lawmaking Congress
January 25, 2012
About Donna R. Hoffman:
Donna R. Hoffman is department head and associate professor of political science at University of Northern Iowa. She wrote and co-wrote a number of books, including Addressing the State of the Union: The Evolution and Impact of the President's Big Speech.
There are two kinds of agendas a president can put forward in an election year State of the Union address: a legislative agenda for Congress, and an agenda for his re-election that is aimed at the public. President Obama laid out an agenda for his campaign. Whether it is a winning one or not remains to be seen, but the themes emphasized (particularly fair play and shared responsibility) are ones that will be repeated over the coming months. Obama's legislative agenda, however, is unlikely to get very far in the halls of Congress. This speech will not break the gridlock that has become endemic in that institution. Republicans have been determined to deny the president any legislative victories, even before the election year began, and this speech is not going to change that calculation. Obama knows this; four times in the speech he referred to the improbability of getting anything done in Congress in this election year. In doing so, he both tried to tamp down expectations as well as set up a potential election theme where he can campaign against a do-nothing Congress, as Harry Truman did in 1948. At the same time, he emphasized several things his administration was doing and would do unilaterally. Furthermore, Obama both subtly and not so subtly countered many of the criticisms that have been leveled at his administration by the Republicans seeking their party's presidential nomination. Obama's speech was a typical election-year State of the Union address where the president claims credit for his accomplishments, presents a legislative agenda for Congress, and uses the themes from those legislative requests to frame the upcoming campaign.
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- Other Arguments
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#1499
No — Presidents have at best only a marginal ability to shape their own political context
DAVID CROCKETT, Author of 'Running Against the Grain: How Opposition Candidates Win Presidential Elections'
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#2268
No — Obama didn't take any blame for America's problems
LARA BROWN, Professor at Villanova University
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#3269
No — President may call his speech a "blueprint," but the design rests on a flawed foundation
FORD O'CONNELL, Republican Strategist, Conservative Activist, and Political Analyst
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#3269
No — If Republicans come up with a compelling counter-narrative, Obama's agenda will not prevail
STEPHANIE SLADE, Project Director at The Winston Group
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#5186
No — This State of the Union speech will likely be forgotten by the beginning of next week
RON BONJEAN, Former Chief of Staff for the Senate Republican Conference
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#71415
Yes — Even knowing the president's case for re-election is a defensive one, it could still work
MATT SCHLAPP, Founder of Cove Strategies
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#81822
Yes — Democrats, Republicans, and independents all gave the speech high marks
KRYSTAL BALL, MSNBC Contributor and Former Democratic Nominee for Congress in the First District of Virginia
Reader Comments Read all comments (1)
Leah Beale of OK 10:18PM January 25, 2012