2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumState Of The Union 2014: What Liberals Want
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE | 1/26/14 4:15 PM EST
For progressives, Tuesdays State of the Union isnt so much about what President Barack Obama says, but how forcefully and expansively he says it.
Theyre looking less for a specific wish list though they have one of those, too than for Obama to deliver a robust response to what he has repeatedly called the defining issue of our time.
In a tone-setting speech in December, Obama embraced an increase in the minimum wage and spoke of his commitment to broad principles. Now hell have to balance how much further to take that to energize his base against the damage he could do to red-state Democrats particularly in Senate races where the partys on defense by seeming to swing too far.
But the politician whose fate progressives say is really in the balance is Obama himself. Though the presidents promise has them more excited and even hopeful than theyve been in years, they warn that hell either follow through with a State of the Union that really starts bringing their response to income inequality to the mainstream or squander his last chance to deliver on the promise of his 2008 election.
This is the last State of the Union before people can see the sunset, said Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League. You can frame this. You can talk about things in a lot of different ways, but fundamentally, youre talking about the notion of direction.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/what-liberals-want-102453.html#ixzz2rXvg2CQo
Laelth
(32,017 posts)If he's going to get anything major done, now is the time. 2014 will be the year in which we see what Barack Obama truly believes and wants. I think he'll push for it (whatever it is) whether he can win or not.
-Laelth
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)quadrature
(2,049 posts)anything new this year?
what should we expect?
the only thing I remember from last
year's SOTU is that some guy
on the radio said the speech
needed more cowbell.