2014 State of the Union

Here are my early impressions on President Obama's fifth State of the Union Address.  I'll try to be brief and to the point.

The president had three messages or impressions he wanted to get across, and I believe he did so successfully.  The first was to be positive and inclusive.  The second was to show Americans he gets their concerns, that he's on their side.  The third is that he is going to act.

It's been a frustrating year for President Obama.  Congress was only able to move on 3 of 41 goals he set out for them in the 2013 SOTU.  They finally did pass a budget, and finally did raise the debt ceiling.  The other was when the Senate changed its rules to permit up or down votes on executive appointments without allowing filibusters.  Despite this, he did not want to appear petulant or angry about it; he wanted to show optimism.  He did this well by starting with a list of good news items about economic improvement.  He furthered the theme by saying he was eager to work with congress to solve the country's problems.

The President then showed he understood the nation's concerns about jobs and equity.  His line about women's pay and comparing the situation to a Mad Men episode was one of the biggest applause lines of the night.  He had a lot of good ideas for bettering children's education, job training, income inequality, exports, energy and the environment.

Finally, having established his goodwill and empathy, the President made it clear he would act.  Though he had said he was eager to work with congress, he said "America doe not stand still," and he would take executive action "Whenever and wherever I can" to further the well being of the American people.  For example, Obama said he would require all federal contractors to pay their workers a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour, whether congress agreed to make the standard nation wide for all workers or not.  He had ideas on retirement accounts, gun safety and green projects too.  Unfettered, the President must have made the Republicans squirm as they contemplated the prospect of his making unilateral steps to help the little guy which the GOP might not want to second, but which could make them look bad come election time this November.

It will be interesting to see what he can accomplish on his own the rest of the year.  And just maybe, they might be able to forge some sort of a workable accord on immigration policy.