View from Australia: The Union in an election year

By Jonathan Bradley

Barack Obama began the fourth year of his presidency this past Friday, and he used what may be his final State of the Union address to remind Americans how much he's accomplished while in office.

This speech, titled An America Built to Last, was a bold review of the president's achievements, a spirited rebuke of his detractors, and a populist portent of the campaign to come. "The state of our Union is getting stronger..." Obama concluded to Congress, with an implicit addendum inherent: "...and it's thanks to my efforts."

President Barack Obama addresses Congress for the 2012 State of the Union

From the start, the speech focused on what Obama has accomplished over the past three years. His first words after greeting the audience concerned him welcoming home soldiers from the Middle East. "For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq," he boasted. "For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country." The president wanted there to be no doubt in the American public's mind: He promised to end the war in Iraq, and he did. He promised to capture and kill Osama bin Laden, and he did. This was a State of the Union by a president who wants people to know that he gets things done.

The remainder of the address was not quite as triumphant, but it made plenty of room for Obama to list the things he has achieved and the ways he believes he has helped the American people.

We bet on American workers. We bet on American ingenuity. And tonight, the American auto industry is back.

Message: President Obama saved the auto industry.

Soon, there will be millions of new customers for American goods in Panama, Colombia, and South Korea.

Message: President Obama secured free trade deals that will create American jobs.

So if you’re a big bank or financial institution, you are no longer allowed to make risky bets with your customers’ deposits. You’re required to write out a “living will” that details exactly how you’ll pay the bills if you fail – because the rest of us aren’t bailing you out ever again.

Message: President Obama regulated the reckless financial industry that caused the Great Recession. (He hopes you won't notice that the refusal to bail out banks again isn't credible, because it hasn't stopped them from reaching a size at which they're too big to fail.)

Where his State of the Union addresses in previous years have been more concerned with his plans for the future, Obama's focus this year was on his achievements. It was a stump speech. That's also why Republicans reviewed it terribly and called it divisive: it was a preview of the case Obama will make to the American public as to why he deserves four more years in office, and why his Republican opponent is too much of a risk to elect.

The speech wasn't as pugnacious as conservatives thought, but the hand Obama offered across the aisle wasn't as open as usual. And it came with some unmistakable jabs at his critics. "I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury pollution," he said, outraging Republicans who don't at all believe that's a fair description of their desire to pare back Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

In urging a minimum top tax rate of thirty per cent on millionaires, Obama argued "When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it’s not because they envy the rich." It was a clear jab at Mitt Romney, his likely opponent in the coming election, who has described such proposals as "the bitter politics of envy."

Another line was a defence against a common Republican attack on the administration: "Some technologies don’t pan out; some companies fail. But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy." It was a none too subtle pushback on criticism of government support for Solyndra, a clean energy company that continued to receive federal subsidies even as it was going broke.

A State of the Union address can never simply be a campaign speech, however — not even in an election year. Obama's ability to propose new policies is constrained by the stage in the electoral cycle at which his presidency currently stands, and the continued hostility of Congress to passing his proposals. Nonetheless, he did lay out some new agenda items.

Some of these were smart. A plan to help the large numbers of Americans refinance their mortagages will do much to reduce the drag on economic growth caused by borrowers who owe more than the value of their property. Congress should pass the bill the president requests, and, if it doesn't, the president should attempt to do the same via regulation. An announcement that the Justice Department will investigate the abusive lending practices behind the housing bubble is also welcome. A plea to reform the filibuster and require straight votes on adminstrative nominations was entirely sensible, and is doomed to fail.

But the president's populist support of manufacturing can't change the fact that the proportion of jobs in that sector will never be as high as it was in the past. Some of the rhetoric devoted to this subject veered uncomfortably close to an espousal of protectionism, or broached ideas that seem unworkable or tokenistic, such as "the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trade practices in countries like China." Exactly what power will this unit have, and does America really need a new body confirming China manipulates its currency?

The truth is that State of the Union speeches are never as important as all the pomp suggests. I pay closer attention to these addresses than most, and all that sticks in my memory from last year's speech was a t-shirt slogan — "Win the Future" — and a bad joke about salmon. The year prior to that, I watched the address from within the Capitol building, and have more solid memories of the media ruckus in Statuary Hall afterwards than anything that came up in the speech itself. And don't ask me to recall stand out moments from George W. Bush era addresses.

These speeches, by design, have to be laundry lists. Every interest group out there is waiting for their pet issue to come up, and so the president is obliged to talk about practically everything that might be politically relevant that year. There's never enough time to give detailed accounts of everything, so even the best suggestions seem freighted with non-specificity. Obama's speech this year had some verve and fight to it, so I thought it was successful — moreso than last year's rather anemic address.

What was important was what it suggested will matter for the coming year. President Obama will try to get Congress to pass his tax and mortgage refinancing plans, and will continue to talk up the importance of infrastructure investment. But he will also hammer these themes on the campaign trail, because he believes the American people agree with him on those issues. By November, he will find out if he is right.

25 January 2012