I came home from teaching at about 11.30am, and due to the time-difference, and the hi-quality stream I found on the CNN website, I sat down to watch Obama’s State of The Union address – apparently the most-watched 'political programme' on US Televison every year.
It’s a curious event. Being a politics-junky, I have seen it before of course, but I couldn’t stand to watch George W Bush’s SOTU speeches for more than five minutes without becoming incensed, so this was the first time I really gave it my full attention. Of course, Bush is an easy act to follow, in so many ways. Obama is, for a politician at least, a photogenic TV personality and is easy to watch, and he’s also blessed with a talent for making speeches (which he has obviously nurtured and honed during his time in the US presidential campaign - perhaps the ultimate speech-making academy), so, he was in his element. And for me ,he got the delivery, and the content, just right.
Firstly, the delivery of his speech was engaging and often pretty inspiring, even for a non-american. It reminded me of why he won the election in the first place – the energy and charm which so sparked the imagination back in 2008. Now actually in the White House, having to do the boring work of actually trying to run that country, he is not so sparkling in his rhetoric, and policy-wise he has disappointed more than once (watering down health care reform, the lack of a decent Green Energy bill, caving in to the Republicans on tax cuts for the rich). And he has failed to impress me during recent Press conferences, where he has looked tired and frustrated (but then, in his job, wouldn’t you?).
But the big set-pieces speeches like this, really are his forte. So he reassured the country that America still has the biggest economy in the world (even if he didn’t add “not for long!”), that the States are the most popular place “on Earth” for foreign students to come to, and his is the country with the most productive workers, and most inventive business leaders. Feelgood platitudes abounded, but during a recession, and war, (and amid the slow-realisation that “it’s China’s world now”), I guess that it’s the job of a leader to try and cheer people up.
The best part for me was when he stressed the importance of the State to creating a decent economic environment – a point which seems obvious to many, but for hardline republicans, they need reminding that government can often be the solution, not ‘the problem’, as their hero Ronald Reagan used to argue. He cited the example of the Internet - which has of course, revolutionised, well, just about everything,- was initially created by the US Military with taxpayers’ money. He went on to argue that things like non-carbon energy, modernising america’s woeful rail system, and improving education will all require the government to intervene (and, horror of horrors, spend taxes – eek!). I liked the passage where he encouraged "any young person wanting to make a difference in the life of our nation, to become a teacher" and added “Your country needs you”. How refreshing to hear such patriotic prose employed in the context of teachers and education, rather than soldiers and war.
Of course, it wasn’t all great. He failed to mention the words ‘climate change’ once, and perhaps the biggest cheer was for his promise to be tough on illegal immigrants. Yawn. And of course, it’s easy to be cynical and say that, like any politician, he is all words and no action. But words really do matter, words are the very stuff of politics, and leadership. And after the drubbing his party got at the congressional elections last year, it would be easy for Obama to suck up to the Republicans and only tell them what they wanted to hear. He avoided the easy route, yet also managed to unite the congressmen and women before him who are so often bitterly partisan and contemptuous of each other (at least for an hour or so, before they revert to taking chunks our of each other).
And most of all, he reminded me of his greatest quality: for all his faults, he is not George W Bush and he never will be.
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