I don't really think Anyone could have unified America after Globalization and Internet business killed 63,000 factories in America and decimated the middle Class of the U.S. since 2001.
Obama regrets not unifying America and 4 other State of the Union takeaways
| CNN | - |
(CNN)
President Barack Obama issued a final passionate plea to voters on
Tuesday to bridge the divide in American politics after he leaves
office.
Obama regrets not unifying America and 4 other State of the Union takeaways
Story highlights
- Obama expressed regret over his own role in Washington's dysfunction
- He urged Washington to consider reforms to the political system
(CNN)President
Barack Obama issued a final passionate plea to voters on Tuesday to
bridge the divide in American politics after he leaves office.
In
his last State of the Union address delivered to a Congress that has
often hobbled his ambitions, Obama expressed regret over his own role in
Washington's political dysfunction, and lambasted Republican
presidential candidates who he said are adding to the trouble.
He
also offered his pitch to fix it -- including structural reforms to a
political system he said even those in Washington don't like.
Here are five takeaways from Obama's speech:
Obama's lament
He
was the candidate of transformational change -- and then the president
who led during an era of shutdowns, dysfunction and the erosion of the
political center.
Obama admitted his disappointment.
What does Obama regret about his presidency? 01:29
"It's one of the few regrets of my presidency -- that the rancor and
suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better," Obama
said. "There's no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or
Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I'll
keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office."
He offered a prescription, saying it's about the process, not the people who are elected.
Obama
pitched the removal of legislatures from redistricting; a reduction of
the influence of money in politics; and laws that make it easier to
vote.
Obama: 'It should be easier to vote, not harder' 01:04
He
also admitted that accomplishing those reforms is harder than the
idealism that put him on the national political map might suggest.
"What
I'm asking for is hard. It's easier to be cynical; to accept that
change isn't possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our
voices and actions don't matter," Obama said.
He
added: "As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall
back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don't look like us,
or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background. We
can't afford to go down that path. It won't deliver the economy we want,
or the security we want, but most of all, it contradicts everything
that makes us the envy of the world."
On this topic, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who rebutted Obama's address. offered some support for the President.
"Often
the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is
quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying," she said.
"And that can make a world of difference."
Obama's Trump rebuttal
Obama
denounced "political hot air." He said politicians who say the economy
is sagging are "peddling fiction." He declared the United States "the
most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It's not even close."
And if there was any remaining doubt he was talking about Donald Trump, Obama got even more specific.
Obama slams political rhetoric targeting Muslims 01:15
"We
need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or
religion," Obama said in a not-very-veiled reference to Trump's proposal
to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
"This
isn't a matter of political correctness. It's a matter of understanding
what makes us strong," Obama said. "The world respects us not just for
our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the
way we respect every faith."
Obama wasn't the only one who bashed Trump, though.
Haley
-- tapped by House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell unloaded on the man who's leading the polls in her state's
crucial Republican presidential primary.
"During
anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the
angriest voices," Haley said. "We must resist that temptation. No one
who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions
should ever feel unwelcome in this country."
Obama
took a swing at other GOP candidates, too -- particularly Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz, who has said he wants to carpet bomb ISIS to "see if sand
glows in the dark."
Obama said: "The
world will look to us to help solve these problems, and our answer needs
to be more than tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians. That may
work as a TV sound bite, but it doesn't pass muster on the world stage."
Obama the preacher
The
moments Obama's supporters will most remember long after he's left
office have been aspirational: His "red states" and "blue states" speech
at the 2004 Democratic National Convention; his singing of "Amazing
Grace" after the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
Obama
offered another on Tuesday night, harnessing his oratorical skills to
call on Americans to put to use what Martin Luther King, Jr. called
"voices of unarmed truth and unconditional love."
"I
see it in the American who served his time, and dreams of starting
over -- and the business owner who gives him that second chance. The
protester determined to prove that justice matters, and the young cop
walking the beat, treating everybody with respect, doing the brave,
quiet work of keeping us safe," Obama said.
"I
see it in the soldier who gives almost everything to save his brothers,
the nurse who tends to him 'til he can run a marathon, and the
community that lines up to cheer him on.
"It's
the son who finds the courage to come out as who he is, and the father
whose love for that son overrides everything he's been taught.
"I
see it in the elderly woman who will wait in line to cast her vote as
long as she has to; the new citizen who casts his for the first time;
the volunteers at the polls who believe every vote should count, because
each of them in different ways know how much that precious right is
worth."
Moonshot Joe
When
he announced he wouldn't run for president, Vice President Joe Biden
said he wants to see a "moonshot" to cure cancer in the United States.
Obama
said he wants to give it to Biden -- whose son Beau, Delaware's
attorney general, died of brain cancer last year -- and put his vice
president "in charge of mission control."
'Let's make America the country that cures cancer' 02:39
"Last
year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can
cure cancer. Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists
at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they've
had in over a decade," Obama said.
"Tonight,
I'm announcing a new national effort to get it done," he said. "And
because he's gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the
past forty years, I'm putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the
loved ones we've all lost, for the family we can still save, let's make
America the country that cures cancer once and for all."
It was perhaps the only Obama policy pitch that drew strong applause from both sides of the aisle.
The
cheers and smiles from Republican senators underscored the vice
president's popularity on Capitol Hill, where he spent most of his adult
life. It demonstrated why Biden has been able to do what Obama
couldn't, playing an instrumental role in negotiating legislative deals
with Congress to avert shutdowns and fund the government.
Ryan's stoicism
Americans
accustomed to now-retired Speaker John Boehner's easy shows of emotion
-- with tears flowing on many occasions -- might have been surprised to
see the stone-cold expression on new Speaker Paul Ryan's face throughout
Obama's speech.
Most of Ryan's words
and gestures were toward Vice President Joe Biden, the man he debated on
national television in 2012 when Ryan was Mitt Romney's choice as the
Republican vice presidential candidate.
But he didn't react to Obama's policy talk -- nearly all of which was at odds with Ryan's priorities.
Obama: System shouldn't be 'rigged' for the wealthy 01:46
Obama
did include an olive branch of sorts to Ryan, who recently apologized
after characterizing the United States as full of "makers" and "takers."
Ryan has said he hopes to address the issue of poverty while speaker.
"I
also know Speaker Ryan has talked about his interest in tackling
poverty. America is about giving everybody willing to work a hand up,
and I'd welcome a serious discussion about strategies we can all
support, like expanding tax cuts for low-income workers without kids,"
Obama said.
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