Instead President Obama gave a confident, energized and forward-looking address, crisp and comprehensive, speaking over the heads of Washington to America, to history and to the future.
This is not a view you're likely to read elsewhere, at least not yet. But it is what I saw and heard. Last year President Obama urged Congress to act on a host of proposals that were eminently doable, both practically shovel-ready and politically mainstream. They did nothing, bringing shame on themselves and a cloud of depression on the country.
This year he spoke of successes wrought usually by executive initiative and in partnership with coalitions of state and city governments, educational institutions and corporations, and he announced further initiatives to partner even more widely and deeply. And he invited Congress to come along.
Rhetorically he did not use the word "progressive" but spoke several times of progress. One of his themes was citizenship--individual responsibility for the common good. He spoke of opportunity, equality, justice and freedom--themes repeated from his famous speech after the New Hampshire primary that became mantras in the most famous campaign videos ever.
There are as usual hints of JFK especially in his final emphasis that progress is not easy, it takes time and effort. The media says and will say that he said nothing new--that's right, he's been announcing these principles and goals, and ways to move towards them, while cautioning that it won't be easy and it will take time--from his 2008 campaign and especially his victory speech on election night in Chicago.
The speech transcript is here, the video of it with a second screen of facts and images is here. I won't go through the themes of the speech, but simply reproduce some of the sentences that jumped out at me.
"After five years of grit and determined effort, the United States is better-positioned for the 21st century than any other nation on Earth. The question for everyone in this chamber, running through every decision we make this year, is whether we are going to help or hinder this progress."
"But America does not stand still – and neither will I".
"Opportunity is who we are. And the defining project of our generation is to restore that promise."
"Taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. But we have to act with more urgency – because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods. That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities, and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air. The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did."
"A pre-existing condition used to mean that someone like Amanda Shelley, a physician assistant and single mom from Arizona, couldn’t get health insurance. But on January 1st, she got covered. On January 3rd, she felt a sharp pain. On January 6th, she had emergency surgery. Just one week earlier, Amanda said, that surgery would’ve meant bankruptcy. That’s what health insurance reform is all about – the peace of mind that if misfortune strikes, you don’t have to lose everything."
"After all, that’s the spirit that has always moved this nation forward. It’s the spirit of citizenship – the recognition that through hard work and responsibility, we can pursue our individual dreams, but still come together as one American family to make sure the next generation can pursue its dreams as well."
"We have to remain vigilant. But I strongly believe our leadership and our security cannot depend on our military alone. As Commander-in-Chief, I have used force when needed to protect the American people, and I will never hesitate to do so as long as I hold this office. But I will not send our troops into harm’s way unless it’s truly necessary; nor will I allow our sons and daughters to be mired in open-ended conflicts. We must fight the battles that need to be fought, not those that terrorists prefer from us – large-scale deployments that drain our strength and may ultimately feed extremism. So, even as we aggressively pursue terrorist networks – through more targeted efforts and by building the capacity of our foreign partners – America must move off a permanent war footing."
"... working with this Congress, I will reform our surveillance programs – because the vital work of our intelligence community depends on public confidence, here and abroad, that the privacy of ordinary people is not being violated. And with the Afghan war ending, this needs to be the year Congress lifts the remaining restrictions on detainee transfers and we close the prison at Guantanamo Bay – because we counter terrorism not just through intelligence and military action, but by remaining true to our Constitutional ideals, and setting an example for the rest of the world."
"But these negotiations [with Iran] do not rely on trust; any long-term deal we agree to must be based on verifiable action that convinces us and the international community that Iran is not building a nuclear bomb. If John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan could negotiate with the Soviet Union, then surely a strong and confident America can negotiate with less powerful adversaries today."
"Our freedom, our democracy, has never been easy. Sometimes we stumble; we make mistakes; we get frustrated or discouraged. But for more than two hundred years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the wheel of progress – to create and build and expand the possibilities of individual achievement; to free other nations from tyranny and fear; to promote justice, and fairness, and equality under the law, so that the words set to paper by our founders are made real for every citizen.
The America we want for our kids – a rising America where honest work is plentiful and communities are strong; where prosperity is widely shared and opportunity for all lets us go as far as our dreams and toil will take us – none of it is easy. But if we work together; if we summon what is best in us, with our feet planted firmly in today but our eyes cast towards tomorrow – I know it’s within our reach.
Believe it."
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