Lexington: The union's state is dire

摘要

It is becoming hard to remember that Barack Obama's speeches were once described as inspiring, visionary and transformational. His state-of-the-union message on January 24th was none of those things. Then again, circumstances were against him. He said, as presidents must, that the state of the union was "getting stronger". But everyone knows that the true state of the union is dire: 13m Americans are unemployed, the recovery is fragile and at any moment the economy could be blown sideways by a new gust of bad economic news from Europe. Nor, frankly, was this speech a useful guide to the administration's legislative plans for the coming year. Since the mid-term elections of November 2010, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives has blocked most of the Democrats' legislation, and will continue to do so, which means that the president's plans count for little. To be understood, this speech needs to be seen for what it was: an audition for re-election.