Andrew Sullivan’s excellent live-blog of the State Of The Union 2014 speech delivered by President Obama. My own thoughts and reaction to follow.
10.22 pm. The metaphor of the soldier slowly, relentlessly, grindingly putting his life back together was a powerful one for America – and Obama pulled off that analogy with what seemed to me like real passion. One aspect of his personality and his presidency is sometimes overlooked – and that is persistence. He’s been hailed as a hero and dismissed as irrelevant many times. But when you take a step back and assess what he has done – from ending wars to rescuing the economy to cementing a civil rights revolution to shifting the entire landscape on healthcare – you can see why he believes in persistence. Because it works. It may not win every news cycle; but it keeps coming back.
If he persists on healthcare and persists on Iran and persists on grappling, as best we can, with the forces creating such large disparities in wealth, he will…
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Semi-Partisan Politics 
I enjoyed parts of the SOTU speech, but I just have to wonder if Obama will follow through on his promises. He hasn’t done a particularly good job of it thus far, in my opinion. Looking forward to your thoughts on this.
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My hunch is that because so little of what Obama announced requires legislation or any action from Congress, achieving the relatively smaller goals that he has set should be relatively easy. Given his approach to the presidency so far and his frustration at Republican intransigence on almost any issue, I get the sense that Obama will be willing to push the red button on any number of issues to help fire up the Democratic base ahead of the midterms.
I quite agree with your assessment of President Obama’s track record of keeping campaign promises and promises made in his SOTU speeches – it is a weak record in many ways. From Guantanamo to civil liberties to discrimination, it has often been a case of two steps forward, one step back – or in some cases, the other way around.
Given the fact that 2016 appears to be a non-starter in terms of legislative priorities it will be very interesting to see if Obama swings for the fences in 2017 as he tries to ensure and shape his legacy – though of course, this will depend a lot on the makeup of the Congress that he faces after the midterms.
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Interesting point. I’m ashamed to admit that I had not even thought of it, but you are quite right.
It’s just been disappointing. I really hoped Obama was going to be the president that stepped in and finally did a good job. Good presidents have been hard to find lately, though.
What is your opinion on Obamacare? I was just blasted on my blog for criticizing it, and I honestly didn’t see it coming.
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