Time Magazine's 5 Ways to Judge Obama's State of the Union

According to a Time magazine article, these are 5 questions to ask in judging the success of President Obama's State of the Union Address.

1. How big is the audience? If fewer Americans than usual watch the address on TV, it will suggest that they have tuned out the President.

2. Does the press focus exclusively on process? Obama must get the post-speech coverage to focus on his ideas and proposals rather than his poll ratings or the loss of the MA Senate seat.

3. Did the Republicans clap? Obama has to find some areas of common ground to renew his campaign pledge to reduce the partisan bitterness and lack of cooperation that has come to dominate Washington and the nation's politics.

4. Can he find the right tone? Obama needs to come off: optimistic, confident, resolute, gracious. What he has to avoid seeming: defensive, negative, churlish, sarcastic.

5. Can he balance continuity vs. change? Presidential aides have been talking about going back to the basic themes and programs that helped Obama get elected in the first place. At the same time, the press and many voters expect Obama to demonstrate an awareness that his presidency is somewhat off course.

Item 1 cannot be determined until the numbers come out, and Item 2 will be ongoing tonight and tomorrow. The Republicans definitely clapped on some matters along with the Democrats, but as expected they were silent and seated during others times while Democrats clapped and cheered. I think that Obama accomplished item 4 and 5. He had the right tone going throughout his speech, and also incorporated some humor inducing some laughs from the Republicans on health care reform and having monthly meetings with Republican leaders. Obama said that jobs will be his #1 focus this year, asking for a new jobs bill ASAP from Congress, something that he had touched upon a lot in his speech last year, but spent most of 2009 on health care and he did admit to being at fault for misunderstandings among the public on health care.


What are your guys' reactions to the State of the Union? What aspects of the speech were you impressed by and which did you disagree with?