The state-of-the-union speech

The limits to verbiage

The president’s speech was underwhelming, which was probably better than the alternative

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Readers' comments



Sorry, but I just don't agree overall. Staying with his style is important. It is still a long haul.


If mastery over the English language was needed, William Shakespeare would have been a good choice for the White House.


Appx. 60million Americans voted against Obama in 2008. Based on the standard voting error: damaged ballots, counting errors, this puts Obama in a statistical tie with Bill Clinton 1992 and George W. Bush 2004 for most votes against a candidate.

Is it possible that many of that record 60 million Americans that voted against Obama, saw his campaign speeches as no less vacuous than the State of the Union address appeared to the writer of the article?

Dr. Etuka obinwa

It has not been easy for President Obama to weather the storm in Washington. He saw another ball game when he became the President. Compromising issues at stake has been the order of the day in Washington. Mr. President what next? Remember that most of us with the best educational qualifications and work experience have not been able to find jobs.


Economist: No, the President´s speech was powerful, comprehensive and just right. A long catalogue over tasks ahead for Congress. The President underligned the job for his fellow politicians: to get their job done for the benefit of the American people.


And, especially, the President gave a clear signal that detrimental lobbying in Washington is going to be curbed. No more secret influence operations in the wings. "I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people", the President said.

This President is the best President the USA has seen since FDR.


What you see before you is exactly the person you and many others endorsed and the majority of Americans voted for, for president; a politician with little substance or experience. What would cause you now to be surprised by his first year in office or his state of the union address? He is a fine speaker, as long as he has his teleprompter, who can talk for a long period of time without saying anything. I blame the Democrats for nominating him and the Republicans for not putting forward a better candidate. When he was dishing out the blame did you notice that he did not blame Congress who is responsible for putting forth the budget and therefore truly responsible for the huge debt we now face.


Obama is a great speaker and orator. But the promises he made during his campaign -- and continues to make during his Presidency -- have an empty ring about them, especially with those Republican voters who took a chance and jumped the fence to vote for him.

All the things he could be focused on-- weaning the country off foreign oil, renewable energy, job creation, ending our involvement in Afghanistan instead of expanding our role -- he's either been silent or his policies have died on the vine.

His left of center stance on virtually everything and particularly healthcare has every single Republican unwilling to cooperate. And polls show he's quickly losing ground with the American public. (Remember us?)

And while his supporters plead to give him a chance, a little less oratory and a little more substantive action would go a long way with his detractors. He's quickly running out of time, and risks becoming the earliest lame duck President in American history.

My my, I have a transcript of his speech and I can't find any of the things people below who loved it say are in there; no concrete ideas, no plans, no "how tos" but just a bunch of slogans and pleas to join him, vote with him, agree with him, blah. Attacking the Supreme Court? Those who oppose him are holding America back? Call him if you have any good ideas and he'll listen? Does he know how bills are written, like in private and without allowing opposition to participate? Sitting at home I said "you lie" any number of times. Well, we believe what we want to, the truth matters little. Good article. True too.


Why no discussion of cutting defense spending? Military R&D expenditures are the most useless, expensive, and potentially dangerous chunk of our budget.


Despite having appeared some 18 months ago I still find this paper's endorsement of Mr. Obama a superbly funny Halloween prank and await its retraction. Earlier this week I actually re read that endorsement. I quote "Two doubts present themselves: his lack of executive experience and the suspicion that he is too far to the left." And the most naive thing I have read in The Economist "At home he could salve, if not close the ugly racial wound left by America's history...." The latter first. Mr. Obama deserves to be admired but he is just a single person and no matter how often 6 Swede's denote him the world's savior he is incapable of ushering anything other than modest gradual change. No matter how much change he promised and promises and so many (like the Economist) wish to believe he will never change the way the US works. We are too big, important and diverse to be subject to one man’s wishes no matter how noble some see them. It seems to me his lack of legislative success (note passing the House but not the Senate is not success) and his unwillingness to re visit his very expensive liberal policies show that he is beholden to the left wing of his party and its main supporters such as the unions. As for his claims to have saved the economy please note that Mr. Bush would never have signed the TARP legislation without the whole hearted support of the Fed who all but pleaded with the US government to pass it. Without that independent voice (at least then and for now) it would never have happened. Politicians taking credit are as bad as those second guessing the Fed today. There was no choice in the Fall of 2008 As for the claim that we have saved 2 million jobs I will ask that someone substantiate the claim as no one I know can. So time will tell but seems to me year one was underwhelming at best and the map laid out last night for year two portends only more of the same. Finally more than anything else the Mr. Brown’s election to the Senate evidences that middle class and independent American’s care greatly for the bottom 10% of our society (31 million uninsured) until they are asked to actually par for it.


Wow. You guys missed it entirely. President Obama nailed it precisely. America has politicians in Washington but we have no government. The people (the employer) want the politicians (the employees) to stop playing games (personal and party politics) and get to work (jobs, education, health care, etc.). The people know that the nation is in crisis, the job of governing demands hard work and plenty of over-time, but since the politicians will not stop their personal games and do the job they were hired to do, it is time to fire them. That is what the vote in Massachusetts was all about. The President got the message. He just passed the message on to Congress and, judging by the looks on their faces, neither party was happy. Bravo. If they get to work, they keep their job. If they continue to play games, we fire them in every election cycle until the economy returns to happier days. The tide has turned, the people are serious, Obama gets it, Congress does not, and you seemed to miss it too. He spoke to power for every furious American - that seems pretty populist to this citizen. The people voted for a champion to fix the problem - the underlying problem - the failure to have a government that shows up to work. To paraphrase President Clinton, "He feels our disgust."


Obama's problem is not the quality of his oratory it is that people are increasingly determining that there is little of substance behind it and that when they do find substance, they don't like what he has on offer.


I think we all need to understand the world from Obama's point of view and attempt to think strategically about how he is setting the stage for his upcoming year. Look at the landscape:
**Obama has successfully taken the middle for the executive, forcing his own party and the Republicans to move to the fringes.
**The Republicans have responded in 'Republican Kind' by stone walling and "saying no to everything", marginalizing their relevancy.
**The Democrats have responded in 'Democrat Kind' by fighting amongst themselves and perpetuating self interest as a doctrine.

Obama now has double the approval rating of Congress (which has slid to a new low in the last year) which he clearly leveraged last night to brow beat Congress from his "Bully Pulpit". I think we can expect more of this in the coming year, which is exactly his role.

If I were Obama, I would use that speech as a launching point to bring my own party back into line, occupying more of a middle ground in American politics and further driving the Republican party to the extremes, and thereby marginalizing their relevancy to the American people.

This newspaper often criticizes Obama for not doing more, but I believe he is setting the stage for the right kind of strategic move later in his first term. We have to remember that this President has the ability to be a two-termer and can easily attain that with the state of American politics. He is playing the game strategically, calmly, and with a clear plan for reform that likely spans 8 years not 4. His major obstacle is putting a spinal cord back into the Democratic party and getting them as tightly aligned as the Republicans.

Lets move more toward strategic criticism and leave the tactical criticism to the Republicans.


You have it wrong on the Health Care bill and you have it wrong on emissions. It makes absolutely no sense for America to completely revamp an established health care system that accounts for one-sixth of the economy. Not just at this juncture but at any juncture. It deeply offends commonsense. Any change needs to be incremental, widely discussed with all parties, political, academic and health specialists across the spectrum, and not pushed down people's throats by loony liberals like Pelosi with an over-weening Democrat majority.
As for tax emissions, for goodness sake get off your obsession with C02 and climate change. Its a loser and will be shown to be a loser. A dysfunctional economy such as Britain with many, many resources all in the wrong place and a debt load that is three times the annual value of GDP faces really grave problems and simply cannot indulge in fanciful schemes like taxing emissions.
Repeat each day before you go to sleep - cut the cloth to fit, unintended consequences and fatal conceit.

Nonplus Deplume

I agree with MRB007! I often shake my head when reading or listening to what the media has to say about a speech -- wondering if we were watching the same thing or if I'm in some parallel universe. Obama pointedly challenged the Republicans to provide him with a better version of health care reform. I would love to see them do something besides lockstepping, saying no and smirking. I don't think future generations will look upon their actions as either patriotic or pragmatic.


The Economist got it wrong on this one. I was very impressed with President Obama's State of the Union address. He told the truth to the Congress and the voters. Solving large, complex national problems requires partnerships and compromise. Both parties must listen to one another and place the needs of the people first. What I found most disturbing, however, was the lack of support by the smirking Republican Congressmen for the President's call for needed reforms of the banking and financial systems. These right-wing Republicans no longer represent the historic fiscal conservatism of the GOP; President Eisenhower would find them quite unacceptable.

Truly Yours

This speech was also notable for what was missing: a thorough castigation of the Republican-nominated Supreme Court Five, who have decreed that corporations are to be allowed to corrupt our political process without hindrance. Surely this naked power grab by the corporate power structure behind our oligarchy is the most serious threat to America's existence in its short history. Our Constitution and the rule of law are being flouted by a political system that has been bought and paid for by corporate interests. All the other issues in the media-instigated "culture wars" are merely distractions from the real power play that has just been accomplished.

Wake up, America, your hair is on fire!


I agree the tax credits are little gifts that will amount to squat for most families. It is very like the credit most Americans got early in this crisis which amounts to very little each month for those families. The credit cost a lot but has had zero impact. I find it amusing that with more people getting laid off daily that child care credit would be the choice of credits. Doesn't this president realize yet that when one parent is home they now become the care giver. Many families have enlisted family members to take care of their children.

What I do support with great enthusiasm is energy credits because they are changes that are permanent and reduce costs for each family. There is no phony baloney nonsense that typically is seen with credits that rarely apply to most Americans. Last year we took advantage of that energy credit by adding insulation to our garage, house coupled with new doors and new garage doors and a new roof. We have seen temps down around -20 this year already and still my garage does not fall below freezing. This has made a huge difference with our energy costs. An even bigger benefit was the fact that we employed about 15 people to do all this work. I know for certain that the insulation companies got very busy because of those energy credits. WE NEED MORE. We need to apply credits to appliances as well. It could make a world of difference for so many struggling families.

As far as the speech goes, I was o.k. for the first third of the speech and then he moved into the blame all others before him like they all were a bunch of jerks. The thing is if a president took up behind him right now they would think the same about his policies.

Closing Gitmo? Stupid. Trying terrorists in NYC. Stupid. Treating terrorists as a police matter. Stupid. Pushing a health care bill full of bribes and special exceptions for his unions while not addressing the medical shortage, tort reform, portable insurance, and the silly notion that congress will cut Medicare by 500 billion. Those bills were written by special interest groups and would solve nothing. Again, stupid. He didn't explain it well because he couldn't defend those bills. Obama is of the POV that any health care reform is good no matter the consequences. The really sad thing is there are plenty of examples of health care plans out there such as Mass Care that do cover more people because they are mandated, but the costs are bankrupting the state with all the subsidies.

The government needs to concentrate on keeping us safe, which they failed to do on Xmas day, to provide a business environment so that people feel confident to start new businesses, which currently there is an anti-business climate, and represent the US within the international community. Instead they are filling their plate with all sorts of pet projects and failing to do what the federal government should be doing. We need to downsize the federal government and solve many of our problems on a state level.

Bio cube


You and I must be seeing black and white on Obama's presidency.
Obama has done nothing meaningful to compromise on Healthcare. Instead he's allowed Congress to make backroom deals that make a mockery of healthcare reform.
The GOP have held fast on their positions (thank god) because they know they have the correct position on the issues. While the Democrats are merely pandering to their loyal voters who tend to be those who are the least productive in our society.
The healthcare bills as they stand are a joke as any "practicing" physician will tell you. (The AMA was coerced in to supporting obama, google it!)



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