Obama eyes voters, Romney in key address

25 Jan 2012, 8:32 pm   -   Source: AFP

In a campaign kick-off speech on the grandest of stages, President Barack Obama challenged American voters to join him to forge a fairer economy and present the bill to the rich.

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In a campaign kick-off speech on the grandest of stages, President Barack Obama challenged American voters to join him to forge a fairer economy and present the bill to the rich.
  
In a distinctly political State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Obama also skewered Mitt Romney, the multi-millionaire Republican venture capitalist he expects to face in November's election.
  
Deprived of the chance to argue, Ronald Reagan-style, that the US economy is roaring and that it is "morning in America," Obama had to find an alternative conceit on which to anchor his bid for a second term in November.
  
Hope and Change it is not: Obama's blunt warnings to Republicans and his self-image as a champion of the middle class demanding large tax hikes on the rich are a far cry from his calls for unity and bipartisanship in 2008.
  
"We can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules," Obama said from his perch in the House of Representatives -- as glum Republicans looked on.
  
The president, seeking to deflect attention from his own economic record, also warned Republicans he would not stand for their almost certain obstructionism of his plans to create jobs and tax the wealthy.
  
But given high unemployment, a sluggish recovery that many Americans are yet to feel and the painful realities of jobs lost abroad in the predatory global economy, Obama may be a compromised messenger.
  
Only 13 percent of voters polled by Gallup in a new survey released Monday were satisfied with the US economy, and just 40 percent asked in a CBS/New York Times survey last week were satisfied with Obama's handling of the economy.
  
But Michael Traugott, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, said that Obama's rhetoric may have given him an early upper hand in the debate with Republicans.
  
"The entire speech was couched in terms of values," Traugott said, adding that the issue of fairness in taxes could appeal to voters.
  
In 2008, Obama correctly sensed his nation was hungry for change from the broken politics of the past.
  
His reelection chances may now depend on whether he has correctly read the mood again.
  
Costas Panagopoulos, a campaigns expert at Fordham University, New York, argued that while Obama had centered his speech on equality, he was careful to leaven hard-edged politics with lashings of optimism needed to inspire voters.
  
"I think this is an argument the president can win, but he has got to connect with the American people on it, and I don't think he connected in this speech," Panagopoulos said.
  
Brian Darling, senior fellow for government studies at the conservative Heritage Foundation, agreed.
  
"Considering that the economy and jobs are the central issue, I think there would have been more of a detailed explanation about how to turn around the economy," Darling said.
  
"It really did have the feel of a campaign speech," he said.
  
Obama will test the success of his State of the Union message in a tour of five electorally crucial swing states starting Wednesday in Iowa, the cradle of his 2008 race.
  
Much of his narrative on Tuesday seemed to be a direct repudiation of Romney, a former Massachusetts governor currently battling former House speaker Newt Gingrich in a tougher-than-expected tilt for the Republican nomination.
  
By reviving his push for millionaires to pay a similar or higher tax rate than average Americans -- suggested by billionaire financier Warren Buffett -- Obama was taking direct aim at Romney, a wealthy former venture capitalist.
  
Romney comes across as just the kind of rich Wall Street fat cat Obama is holding up as an example of the unfairness of the current economic system.
  
Ambushed on the campaign trail, Romney was forced to publish his 2010 tax return, which showed he paid a tax rate of just 13.9 percent on $21.7 million of income -- a far lower rate than the average American.
  
Another prong of Obama's strategy on Tuesday was to shine by comparison to the deeply divided Congress.
  
The president has a job approval rating of only 44 percent according to Gallup's daily tracking poll -- below the 50 percent barrier most incumbent presidents need to be sure of reelection.
  
But Congress fares even worse.
  
A CBS/New York Times poll last week put the job approval rating for Congress at just 13 percent, near historic lows.
 

State Of The Union Address

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