Yesterday, Yahoo! conducted a poll asking the public what topics they wanted to have addressed in the President's State of the Union. Not surprisingly, education and the current job situation were mentioned the most, followed by national security, energy, and spending. These topics are personal to many of the Americans watching the address, as was the State of the Union address itself. President Obama encouraged the Republicans and Democrats to work together in order the further the nation in every aspect and push it into the future. In his address the President covered all the aforementioned topics, even detailing some the many mentioned above. However, some topics were merely skimmed, and I'm sure that given the time, the President could've covered more. So, let's talk about it here. The State of the Union is just that: a statement of where the nation is right now and some of the steps the President hopes to take in the future to build on the current standings. Although the President did give a fair amount of attention to job creation, I feel as if the details of this were lacking, compared to the specificity of education (where the President hopes to have a new "Race to the Top" and replace NCLB with more focused legislation). Obama's address was thorough, but I'm sure others might've been hoping for something different.
Did you think President Obama was thorough in addressing of the nation's current issues? Is there something that you would've liked him to speak about? Why do you think that's important?
5 comments:
I agree that the President was specific in how he believes the education of Americans should be handled. I also thought that his budget plan sounded pretty reasonable. However, I thought that he could have gone into more detail on what he meant by freezing domestic spending for 5 years. I wasn't sure if that meant stop spending on more projects that don't have to do with education over the next 5 years or more deeply cut the programs we have now in order to get out of our budget deficit.
I think it's a bit funny that instead of telling us about the CURRENT "state of the union," Obama used his speech to predominantly look towards the future. It seemed like a speech about goals rather than about our present situation. Is that how other presidents have used it in the past?
I must say that I personally was not impressed by Obama's State of the Union address. Not only did Obama make his speech short, he also failed to truly go in depth to discuss plans of action related to certain issues which he raised. Although I understand that Obama was trying to "play it safe" and seem "bipartisan" I still think that if he had expressed his ideas in a more direct and partisan manner then he would have seemed less iffy. All in all, GOP 2012 (Go Jeb Bush!)
I think the State of the Union has to be a mixture of admitting past mistakes but more about rallying us together as one nation and move forward to better goals and more appropriate goals. it is better to move on and forward towards success rather than dwell on the past which is what all the opposing party always wants...they want drama and call the President out for not talking about the drama, however the speech is to get all of America on the same page with renewed hope...
Tim makes an excellent point. Obama was very vague in his address, but it was good that he emphasized education and bipartisanship. However I don't think I've seen a State of the Union address that has gone into any detail. Oh well, I suppose we'll just have to see how he does in the future.
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