By Rachael Bentley
President Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night gave me a new feeling of confidence in his ability to steer this country in the right direction. Even though there were a couple things I was unsure about in his speech, I was very impressed with the overall presentation of the second such address by our nation’s 44th president.
Obama’s charisma never seems to fail him, nor does his sense of humor apparently, with a comment about salt water and fresh water salmon. During his speech, he spoke about the need for Republicans and Democrats to work together to get new policies and bills passed to “keep moving forward, and fixing what needs to be fixed.”
We can’t lose sight of the fact that Democrats and Republicans were asked (perhaps forced) to sit next to each other, rather than the traditional seating arrangements where they are on opposite sides of the center aisle. Obama took hold of the unprecedented circumstance with the comment, “we can sit together tonight, but we must work together tomorrow.”
He made it a strong point in his speech to encourage teachers and students alike to “race to the top to replace no child left behind.” His goals for schools across the nation seemed very down-to-earth and I completely agree with the need to invest more funds in education across the country. Obama’s recognition that we need to teach students more mechanical and science-oriented skills so that we can start competing with countries like China and India was spot on.
One of the most surprising goals he made for 2011 was to freeze annual domestic spending for five years, which would save the country 12 percent of what we annually spend. He went on to say that he would be encouraging cuts all over the countr, to put money back into the country’s savings and get us back on track. “Families sacrifice every day to meet ends meet, governments should do the same,” President Obama said.
He seemed to contradict himself, however, when he talked about upping the ante in American innovation, calling this our “Sputnik moment.” He insisted that our government would help fund Americans who can come up with legitimate ideas for making practical switches to clean energy.
Obama also went on to mention recent discourse around the military’s recently repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. He asserted people in the armed services, gay or otherwise, should be given the right to love whomever they want. This seemed to get some sour looks from military officials in the audience. The statement was a bold move for the President in this setting and he may get a lot of heat for it in the future, especially with his goal to move all of the troops out of the Middle East by July.
All in all, it was a very long and respectable speech. President Obama definitely hit all of the major points right on the head and there was no beating around the bush about his opinion on certain matters. But, you know what they say: anyone can talk the talk, but you must walk the walk.
It’s your move now, Washington.