According to CNN another State of the Union address, another road trip for President Barack Obama to push now-familiar policies that he said he would pursue on his own if Congress won’t cooperate.
Obama heads to Maryland and Pennsylvania for economic-themed events Wednesday after calling for 2014 to be “year of action” in his State of the Union speech.
The next day, Obama goes to Wisconsin and Tennessee, continuing a tradition of selling his policy prescription directly to the public after the ceremonial report to the nation.
In the more than hour-long address Tuesday night, Obama talked a good game of acting on his own if necessary, but his words also showed he knows that true progress depends on cooperation with a divided and recalcitrant Congress.
“Sometimes we stumble; we make mistakes; we get frustrated or discouraged,” he said near the end, seeming to describe 2013 – when his approval ratings dropped.
“But for more than 200 years, we have put those things aside and placed our collective shoulder to the wheel of progress.”
It was vintage Obama, blending hopeful calls for a unified approach with declarations of presidential independence through executive orders.
There were the now familiar calls to recalibrate the tax code, spend more to rebuild roads and bridges, bolster education and avoid war if at all possible. MORE...
