If you had two words to quickly summarize President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night, what might they be?
Two words often used in next-day media coverage and commentary of Obama’s speech were “bold” and “audacious.” Both Democrats and Republicans were using these words the day after — the former side with praise and admiration, the latter more with an incredulous tone.
Two other words might be “mixed message,” since the president at one point appealed for “better politics” in Washington in a let’s-play-nice gesture … before later finding ways to tweak the new-look, Republican-dominated Congress with condescending comments and glances.
The two-word phrase we would offer as an appropriate summary: “missed opportunity.”
While it was his seventh such State of the Union address, Obama was facing for the first time in his two terms a House and Senate both favoring the opposing Republican Party. And the president didn’t’ so much as face the joint session of Congress as much as he faced off against it in a sometimes combative manner, pushing his points while threatening to wield his veto pen against the GOP’s own plans.
Some wondered if Obama was immersed more in rhetoric than reality regarding his assessments of the U.S. economy and announced successes in foreign affairs. The overall economy is not as rosy as the president painted it. And while Obama is pinning his legacy to restoring relations with Cuba and ending U.S. involvement in wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East, the United States still has issues simmering with Islamic States radicals and international terrorism, such as recent incidents in France, Nigeria and Canada.
Also, there was practically no attention given in Tuesday’s address of such key issues as immigration and entitlement benefits. Nor was there mention of the number of issues and proposed solutions that already have bipartisan support and are seemingly all but set for quick congressional approval.
Obama is not the first lame-duck president to face an opposing Congress. The four other presidents constitutionally barred from running again — George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and Dwight D. Eisenhower — were in similar situations, with some of their State of the Union addresses remembered as being more conciliatory in nature than Obama’s.
Not that President Obama was expected to be conciliatory. But certainly more cooperative than he actually was would have been welcomed.
Some commentators suggested Tuesday night’s SOTU speech sounded more like an Obama farewell address — a thought somewhat bothersome, given that Americans are watching Washington more closely as a new year and a new Congress seem to be a right-time combination to confront past legislative gridlock.
It can’t be a farewell address — because America has two more years of a determined Democratic president and a now-Republican-controlled House and Senate.
And if Tuesday night’s State of the Union address and subsequent reception of the president by Congress is any indication of what’s to come — stare downs and standoffs, politicking and posturing — then we’re in for a long two years in the nation’s capital.
For that, Obama’s speech was a missed opportunity.