The State of the Union speech is the venue in which U.S. presidents articulate their agendas for the coming year, and in his Tuesday evening address to Congress, President Barack Obama kept with tradition. He made clear his goal in 2012: to get re-elected. His path to that goal is laid with the age-old and necessary strategies of identifying voters concerns and answering them with comforting plans of easing those fears. As such, the content of Obamas speech was as unsurprising as it was lackluster.
Much of Obamas message centered on the economic woes that are on all Americans minds as the November election approaches a thoroughly appropriate focus, regardless of the election cycle, given the breadth and depth of the downturn that has left millions of Americans unemployed, shrunk home values, and stressed financial and production markets since 2008. His proposed solutions to these problems, though, lacked the substance necessary to meaningfully address them. Rather than offering a forward-looking agenda based on innovation, investment and demanding the best that Americans have to offer the global economy, Obama framed what amounts to a race to the past.
Branded as an economy built to last, Obamas answer to the struggles Americans face centered on restoring jobs lost. While that is the right broad-brush focus, the details the president offered were mostly throwbacks: return manufacturing jobs to the United States, develop domestic energy sources of all ilk, ensure that workers have the skills needed to perform todays jobs, and craft policies from regulation to tax code reflecting the values that give all Americans a fair shot at success and a fair share of the pie. There is little to criticize in these intonations.
There is also little from which to draw much inspiration beyond immediate comfort. That is of significant value in economic times as challenging as those Americans face. The nostalgic tone Obamas speech struck is not without justification in its ability to resonate with voters who are rightly yearning for the better times of yesteryear. Americans are seeking a return to those halcyon days, but rather than falsely promising to restore the reality of the past, leaders must shape and prepare for the future. That can only take place with an honest reckoning of what has permanently changed and a bold investment in the systems that will engender the future. Education and innovation and tax structures that support these fundamental concepts for all who invest in them are essential. They are also scary in their uncertainty.
Obama clearly recognizes the importance of all three notions, but did not go far enough in encouraging their full potential. He touched on the importance of learning new skills to meet the needs of todays employers a priority that requires both education and innovation but not shaping the vision for tomorrows job providers. Had he emphasized the latter, Obama would have sketched a bold vision for the future, however abstract and long-term. Instead, he took the safer bet so as to better his palatability to skittish voters. In doing so, he failed to maximize the potential payout in meaningful American achievement and leadership in the global economy. Perhaps that is not the wager for a vulnerable president to make in an election year, but the future success of all Americans requires the risk at some point and soon.
