Does Obama Believe What He Says Anymore?
The president returns to his audacity-of-hope message in his State of Union.
January 20, 2015 President Obama ended his State of the Union address where he started his political ascent—offering to be a leader who produces can-do bipartisanship in a divided, dysfunctional capital.
"Imagine if we broke out of these tired old patterns," he told a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. "Imagine if we did something different."
Yes, imagine if rather than empty promises, the president could report two-party progress on big issues like immigration, climate change, social mobility, and the debt and deficit.
Actually, you don't need to imagine. Such leadership exists in this country—just not in Washington. More on that in a bit.
Recalling the 2004 Democratic Convention address that launched his national political career—the one that declared there wasn't a liberal America or a conservative America, a black America or a white America—the president acknowledged that he had not delivered on that vision.
"It's held up as proof not just of my own flaws — of which there are many — but also as proof that the vision itself is misguided, and naïve, and that there are too many people in this town who actually benefit from partisanship and gridlock for us to ever do anything about it," Obama said.
Who thinks his 2004 promise is naïve? Lobbyists, lawmakers, contractors, pundits, and the scores of other professional partisans whose money and power are invested in gridlock. Foremost among them are liberal commentators who mock calls for bipartisanship and dismiss the president's vision as magical thinking.
Polarization didn't begin with Obama. He can't end it without bucking his increasingly stubborn liberal base and overcoming even stiffer resistance from a hyper-conservative GOP base. But he is partially responsible for the problem he pledged anew to fight.
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