Our president offered an address that took into account the current state of public opinion and power realities in Washington.
There was no talk of the threatened middle class or the plight of the poor. The huge Republican victory last November indicated what the electorate thought about these subjects.
The president borrowed strategies from John F. Kennedy and Ronald REagan, challenging the nation to great things and partly buying into American exceptionalism.
The nation does not like to hear bad news from Democrats, so Obama did not say that the financial system is still very shakey, so much so that banking officials are now talking about their plans for the next bail-outs. Nor did he say that there is a danger of a double dip recession-- It is still a possibility.
He looked forward to more jobs, but he did not promise a great number right away. The infrastructure proposals, now endorsed by the AFL-CIO and Chamber of Commerce, will produce some jobs. The simple fact is that the austerity of the GOP House will prevent significant job creation. It is possible that John Boehner and Eric Cantor are smart enough to know that the lack of significant job creation could hand them both Houses and the presidency in 2012.
Polls show that by far the largest number of voters want something done about jobs. But in November, they effectively voted against significant job creation.
Decades ago, I.F. Stone wrote about the political power of facts. Those days are gone. For 30 years, the GOP has taught a vast number of voters to think with the reptilian parts of their brains. Even many of the Catholic bishops havev surrendered to emotionalism and reptilian think. With absolutely no solid proof, they went about insisting that health care reform opened the door to federally funded abortions. Disabled by fears of the Church's future and anger over internal criticism, they abandoned Catholic social teachings and became reliable cogs in the Republican political machine. These men are essentially good people, but cultural forces and some external manipulation led them to turn their backs on God's poor.
So many are simply incapable of sorting fact from fiction. They cannot even figure out what their self interest is. The great power of the Tea Bag movement came from voters over 55, people who cannot figure out which party has a long term design to shrink Medicare and Social Security.
Obama talked about rebuilding the manufacturing sector. The first step in doing so would be to rerpeal all the legislation that gives corporations tax breaks for exporting jobs. The House would shht this down, and it is an issue that does not resonate with most voters. In accordance with conventional wisdom, they seem to believe that the corporations are benevolent. Reading a little history would show that the corporations in World War II had to be prodded to help the war effort. One firm slowed airplane production so it could protect its aluminum monopoly. Another kept the Nazis supplied with a vital chemical needed for aviation fuel. Another shared synethetic rubber technology with the Nazis.
Who can really believe that corporations will spend the trillions in reserves on creating American jobs.
President Obama is a remarkable man. Despite some mistakes he probably cound not avoid, I think I understand him. He worked for the Gamaliel Foundation, a group of people who sincerely want to make the world better.
The president clearly wants to be reelected, and that means he has to position himself in a way that appeals to a majority. His chances of reelection are not particularly good. He needs either Ohio or Florida in 2012, and both seem out of reach. It would be a miracle if unemployment was below 7% by 2012. The fqact is that we are in one of three huge downturns since 1880: the depressions of 1893 and 1929, and the great recession. People need to understand this, but a Democrat dare not explain it to them.
The president is also up against a mainstream media that has abandoned its role as fact checker. So many people have come to believe so many crazy things, that a news broadcast would loose many viewers if it introduced reality. There was a lot of talk about Mr.Justice Alito's absence last night. No one noted that what Obama said about the Citizens United Decision, including his comment about foreign contributors, turned out to be right on target. One net work aired both Paul Ryan and Michelle Bachmann's attacks on him. Both said his stimulus created no jobs. No one voluteered to fact check.
If he is reelected, the odds are strong that he will have a Repug House and Senate. In the Senate, th3e Dems have 23 seats to defend and will have to battle massive amounts of soft money made possible by the Citizens United Decision.
All he could accomplish in a second term is to somewhat blunt the massive assault on the poor and marginalized that is certain to come. He must know that; yet he still seeks reelection. That is a real mensch.