Resurgent Republic

President Barack Obama delivered his first State of the Union address yesterday.  The prime-time event provided an opportunity for the president to emerge from the self-described "buzz saw" that his Administration walked into during its first year, characterized by increasing opposition to health care reform, growing disapproval of his signature economic initiative, heightened national security concerns, three consecutive statewide political defeats -- and ultimately the loss of Independent voters.  Resurgent Republic Advisory Board Members Governor Haley Barbour, George Allen, Gary Andres, Daron Shaw, Jim Gimpel and Bill Connelly critique President Obama's performance.

The Honorable Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi and Chairman of the Republican Governors Association

“Although President Obama’s speech was all over the map, one would have thought the elections in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts hadn’t happened.  The President is still pushing a government-run healthcare system that would drive up the cost of health insurance premiums, and a cap and trade tax that would drive up energy costs.

Any mention of the war on terror and our nation’s security clearly was an afterthought, made after an hour of his trying to convince viewers that job creation really will be his top priority in the future.

While he sounds reasonable, the more you learn about his proposals the more clearly you see how far left they really are. It’s the same old liberal playbook: Fake to the middle and run hard left.”

The Honorable George Allen, former Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee:

"If the president truly wants to invigorate job opportunities for Americans and make our nation safer, then he should get the Congress to:

1. Stop the pending tax increases.  Indeed, reducing tax burdens will make America more competitive internationally.

2. Cut profligate spending and dangerous debt.

3. Create more jobs and affordable energy to power our country by unleashing the creative and clean use of our plentiful American coal, as well as oil and gas resources.

4. Empower families with personal, portable and quality health care choices rather than dictates, taxes and mandates.

5. Stop costly, counter-productive job-killing regulations emanating from their Environmental Protection Agency bureaucracy.

6. Embrace the principles of personal freedom and opportunity rather than dictates from and dependency on the federal government.

7. Focus on defeating vile terrorists rather than defending them.

Unfortunately for our fellow Americans, it appears that the president and the ruling majority in Congress remain disconnected from the real concerns and aspirations of working American families and business owners.  We will Fight On!"

Gary Andres, Ph.D. Research Fellow, American University, Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies:

“The president's first State of the Union address was a huge missed opportunity and a window on Mr. Obama's mind.  It was a missed opportunity at two levels.  First, it was not very creative.  I didn't hear many new ideas or innovative solutions.  It included a lot of predictable material -- pass health care, cap and trade and send me a jobs bill.  All of these initiatives have been tried and proven either divisive or ineffective.  How about some creative new ways to tackle these problems?

Second, it didn't really address independent voter concerns: His approach to governing has been too partisan.  This would have been an opportunity to insist on a bipartisan approach to at least some of his agenda.  But again, President Obama's speeches really are just words, with no concrete way to implement his ideas. Part of this is due to his lack of experience with the legislative process.

Finally, the State of the Union also provided a window on his governing style.  He said before the speech that he'd rather be a good one term president than a mediocre two term president.  To me that translates to "I'm an ideologue, not a problem solver."  He signaled last night he will continue to forge ahead on controversial policies, like his approach to health care and cap and trade, regardless of what Americans think.  It's becoming very clear that this is a president who deeply believes "he" always knows best.  It's arrogance and narcissism all rolled into one. 

Our polls have shown Mr. Obama is more popular than his policies.  If he continues the approach he took last night, his personal popularity will start to match the distain we find for many of his legislative ideas.”

Daron Shaw, Ph.D. Professor, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Government:

"I'm usually somewhat disappointed by State of the Union addresses; they tend to be too long and rhetorically uninteresting. As expected, President Obama's first SOTU was too long. The foreign policy section was especially yawn-inducing. Moreover, the initial narrative offered by the president was confusing to the point of incoherence: the administration's tax cuts, made possible by the stimulus package, helped reduce the number of jobs lost.

The rhetoric, however, was quite interesting. It was confrontational and defiant. In particular, the president hammered the Senate, the Bush administration, banks, lobbyists, and, somewhat stunningly given their ceremonial presence in the chamber, the Supreme Court. A colleague of mine pointed out Wednesday morning that the SOTU response should be given by the Congress, not the opposition party; after the president's speech I would love to hear such an institutional reaction to many of the charges leveled by the chief executive.

In political terms, my guess is that the speech will work well enough. Most Americans are not interested enough in politics to pay much attention to the SOTU address, and so it's unlikely the president's approval numbers will move much. The disconnect between spending proposals and deficit reduction may also prove problematic next fall. But the president did provide Democrats with some talking points and direction. In fact, despite bemoaning the existence of the permanent campaign, the president kick-started the 2010 election campaign."

James G. Gimpel, Ph.D. Professor of Government, University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics:

"On display was the president’s usual portentous and disdainful self, at times sprinkled with a false deference that seemed strained and obligatory.  Some characterize it as an 'I know better than you' attitude, or a 'you haven’t thought about it as much as I have' posture, that belies efforts to reach out beyond a hard core liberal base. 

Evidence that the president isn’t serious about working across the aisle includes the traditional Democratic dogma that Washington is the solution to all of the nation’s problems, or should be.

The president displayed a disrespectful attitude toward the Supreme Court which was particularly embarrassing given that he apparently misunderstands the nature of the ruling.  No laws restricting contributions by foreign corporations were struck down.  

The emphasis and intention to spend massive sums on rail construction is misplaced.

The protest of the reflexive partisanship that has come to characterize so much of politics in Washington is truly an expedient complaint now that Democrats occupy the White House and their agenda has been hindered.  Certainly none of the president’s counselors would have been grumbling about partisanship standing in the way of policymaking two or three years ago."

William F. Connelly, Jr. Ph.D. John K. Boardman Politics Professor, Washington and Lee University:

"President Obama began his speech with the words 'Our Constitution.'  He then immediately left the Constitution in the dust.  President Obama is right that a 'deficit of trust' has been 'growing for years,' yet he fails to appreciate that this deficit of trust has grown as the cost and size of government has grown – especially as Democrats during the first year of his presidency have sought to grow the government by leaps and bounds.  Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, in the Republican response, offered the solution to the growing deficit of trust: limited government.  The Founders’ Constitution provides for limited, not activist, nor overweening government.

President Obama lamented the deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works, yet grinning behind him sat two important reasons for voters’ doubts: Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.  Republican opposition cannot explain the inability of Congressional Democrats to act since, as the President noted, Democrats enjoy the largest congressional majorities in decades.

President Obama called for restoring leadership.  Indeed, Americans want presidents to tame the beast that is Congress.  Instead, during his first year in office President Obama allowed Congressional Democrats to run him – especially on health care reform.  He insisted 'I will not walk away' from health care reform.  Yet he has failed to provide leadership, deferring instead to the liberal wing of his party on Capitol Hill.

President Obama called for an end to politics and the 'perpetual campaign.'  And he announced he would immediately fly to Florida and New Hampshire on his latest campaign swing.  His denouncing the special interests seemed ironic at best given Democrats’ closed door meetings with labor unions and drug companies on healthcare reform.  President Obama also sought to renew his post-partisan promise, but surely by now he must know actions speak louder than words.  Trying to pass a liberal wish list of policy proposals over the past year relying on Democrats’ supermajorities in Congress while allowing Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to exclude Republicans is no way to move beyond the partisanship in Washington.

Finally, President Obama taunted Republicans repeatedly ('let me know, let me know, let me know') to provide alternatives to his party’s big government solutions to everything from health care reform to the environment to student loans.  Minutes later, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell provided the alternative citing Thomas Jefferson: limit government, don’t grow the government."