The GOP's response to President Obama's first post
reelection State of the Union Address in some ways will be markedly different
than in its response to his prior addresses. But in one way it will be the
same. Its blatant frontal assault on him didn't work for four years. So this
time the GOP's rebuttal will be softer and gentler in tone and theme. But
underneath the flowery rhetoric, the GOP"s relentless attack on his policies is
still very much in place.
The party desperately trying to find some way, anyway, to
rebound from the November losses, banks on their rising star Florida Senator
Marco Rubio to soft sell its attack ploy. Rubio will hit the usual GOP fall
back themes of freedom, liberty, and free enterprise, restrained spending, and add
a new wrinkle, responsible immigration reform.
These are aren't exactly code words and terms, but
they're close enough in that they subtly reinforce the ingrained notion of
millions of Obama opponents and critics that he is an unreconstructed leftist,
tax and spend, big government, anti-business,
Democrat. This attack line was very predictable.
The State of the Union speech is always one of the most
watched and listened to political speeches. It's a president's report card on
the accomplishments, the present and future planned initiatives of his
administration and his vision for the country.
GOP and Democratic presidents are keenly aware that their
Democratic and Republican opponents know that State of the Union Addresses
boost the stature, prestige, and power of the presidency, and usually bumps up
the president's approval rating by a point or two. They also know that the
opposition's response to the speech is feeble, pale, and little watched or
counted by Americans.
The history of the State of the Union speech underscores
the power to shape policy and bolster the president's image. President James
Monroe announced the Monroe Doctrine in 1823. In 1862, President Abraham
Lincoln flatly called for the end of slavery in the rebellious states. This was
the prelude to the Emancipation Proclamation he issued a year later. Woodrow
Wilson warned of the dangers of impending war in 1913. Franklin Roosevelt
outlined the famed Four Freedoms in 1941. Lyndon Johnson unveiled the outlines
of his Great Society program to fight poverty in 1965. Bill Clinton unveiled
his health care reform plan in 1993. George Bush in his State of the Union
speeches in 2002 and 2003 prepped the nation for the Iraq invasion. Presidents
quickly latched onto the media to give their State of the Union speech more
exposure and political wallop. Calvin Coolidge gave the first radio broadcast
in 1923. Truman gave the first televised broadcast in 1947.
The GOP's attacks on Obama's State of the Union address
are not new. They hit their shrillest level with his second State on of the
Union address in January 201. GOP critics leveled all sorts of absurd charges
against him before he even uttered a word of his speech. His first State of the
Union Address was hardly spared from withering GOP criticism either. The GOP harangued
him for allegedly lashing out at Republicans. Business Insider headlined
its SOTU piece with the question, "A Less Partisan State of the Union
Speech?" It scolded Obama for his criticism of the Supreme Court for its
conservative majority decision in Citizens United in 2010. The decision
opened the floodgate for corporations to pour unlimited dollars into elections
with minimal checks and accountability. Major corporations and financial
institutions wasted little time in doing that. They poured millions into the
midterm election campaigns. The bulk of money as Obama and the Democrats knew
went to ads for corporate friendly GOP candidates and incumbents.
Obama pretty much tipped what he will this year say to a
gathering of House Democrats. The centerpiece will be the looming battle over
what and how big the GOP demanded budget cuts should be. A part of that will be
to extend the olive branch to obstructionist and intransigent House Republicans
to get them to work out a deal to avoid fiscal gridlock. But making nice with
the GOP won't stop it from again turning the tables and ripping him for allegedly
being a polarizing, divisive leader. Former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels did
exactly that in his rebuttal speech in 2012 again. But Obama, as in his annual
addresses in the past, is on firm ground in that Americans still overwhelmingly
want him and Congress to end the rancor and work together to resolve the crucial
problems and issues that face the nation. Obama will say that and so will the
GOP. The difference is that one will really mean it the other won't. And the
other that won't is not the president.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst.
He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network.
He is the author of How Obama Governed:
The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America
Media. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK-Radio and the
Pacifica Network, and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson
