Earlier this week, Obama gave his State of the Union speech, explaining where the country is, what it has accomplished, and where it is headed. For this weeks blog post, I viewed his speech, and am commenting on several interesting points in the speech.
So, to start, you cannot ignore the sass war that happened. After stating that he had no more campaigns to run, applause from the Republican side echoed around the hall. However, Obama's response was what made this notable. He responded by stating, "I know because I won both of them." Applause crossed the hall, and some even stood up. It was a pretty funny moment during the speech, so I thought I'd mention.
Early in his speech, Obama begs the question of whether we want the US to be a land of opportunity, where anyone can advance, whatever circumstances they come from. He mentions the story of Rebekah, and how her family struggled, but managed to survive and are now in a good place. He later calls for a "greater link between hard work and opportunity for every American." As our first black president, Obama has the unique position of talking about opportunity and race politics.
He connects this talk of opportunity to the workplace, both in concern of equal pay for women, maternal and sick leave, and minimum wage. Many of the ideas of his speech seemed to be focused on the idea of working Americans and their rights, and rightly so. He speaks of most of his issues, whether it's child healthcare, education, free community college, and many other current and future issues for Congress. For the most part, he plays to the middle in concern to his rhetoric.
He addresses climate change bluntly: "No threat, no threat poses a greater challenge than climate change." Countless scientists, including Bill Nye, have been saying and repeating this point for years, with no avail. However, for years, Congress has refused to pass laws in concern to climate change, and this perhaps was his most partisan proposal, at least from viewing the way applause sounded, and Congress's history.
While that last part was a bit off topic, I found it interesting. The speech overall, seemed to beg a non-partisan tone, not only in Obama's constant use of we, but of how he presented each issue as beneficial towards all of us.
So, to start, you cannot ignore the sass war that happened. After stating that he had no more campaigns to run, applause from the Republican side echoed around the hall. However, Obama's response was what made this notable. He responded by stating, "I know because I won both of them." Applause crossed the hall, and some even stood up. It was a pretty funny moment during the speech, so I thought I'd mention.
Early in his speech, Obama begs the question of whether we want the US to be a land of opportunity, where anyone can advance, whatever circumstances they come from. He mentions the story of Rebekah, and how her family struggled, but managed to survive and are now in a good place. He later calls for a "greater link between hard work and opportunity for every American." As our first black president, Obama has the unique position of talking about opportunity and race politics.
He connects this talk of opportunity to the workplace, both in concern of equal pay for women, maternal and sick leave, and minimum wage. Many of the ideas of his speech seemed to be focused on the idea of working Americans and their rights, and rightly so. He speaks of most of his issues, whether it's child healthcare, education, free community college, and many other current and future issues for Congress. For the most part, he plays to the middle in concern to his rhetoric.
He addresses climate change bluntly: "No threat, no threat poses a greater challenge than climate change." Countless scientists, including Bill Nye, have been saying and repeating this point for years, with no avail. However, for years, Congress has refused to pass laws in concern to climate change, and this perhaps was his most partisan proposal, at least from viewing the way applause sounded, and Congress's history.
While that last part was a bit off topic, I found it interesting. The speech overall, seemed to beg a non-partisan tone, not only in Obama's constant use of we, but of how he presented each issue as beneficial towards all of us.