Walking and Talking the Fine Line

President Barack Obama delivered his first State of the Union Address last night to a Joint Session of the US Congress.

The State of the Union Address, mandated under the Constitution, is an annual address before a live national TV and radio audience and the way a President can unveil his or her agenda. It is the beginning of the launch of the President’s budget, which begins the long road in creating, fighting and delivering (well, sometimes anyway) the next Federal Budget.

Since President Obama just delivered his Inaugural Address a month ago, this President’s first State of the Union Address, as other President’s first appearance before the joint session, is a speech to move the President’s campaign vision into legislative action.

The annual State of the Union Address is as close as Americans come to having a speech matching the annual address of Her Majesty the Queen to Parliament. Unfortunately there is no Black Bart or slamming of the Chamber door, but the speech has an air of ceremony and tradition, well, at least in an American sort of way.

The State of the Union Address includes members of the US Senate gathering and then walking en masse to the House Chambers, where they sit jointly with their House colleagues. Also seated on the floor of the House Chambers are the President’s Cabinet, the US Supreme Court Justices, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior members of the US Diplomatic Corps.

First Lady Michele Obama, VIP guests mentioned in the President’s speech, other celebrities, guests and representatives of the International diplomatic corps sit in the visitor’s gallery.

The television shot in the House Chamber of the Democratic President standing at the podium delivering the address and seated behind him, the Democratic Vice President and Speaker of the House, was validation of the dramatic change of governance in America.

President Obama’s first State of the Union Address was an extraordinary balancing act – the speech aimed to build confidence and trust; paint a realistic picture of the severity of the nation’s economy while being realistic, honest and optimistic.

The President justified the need for government spending in his Economic Stimulus Package and that there would be the need for the federal government to take further actions and spend more money to stabilize the economy. At the same time, the President talked about efforts to reel in spending and as he promised during his Inaugural Address, fund programs that work and cut programs that do not.

In addition, the President balanced his desire to work across the political aisle with Republicans to achieve bipartisan success on legislative initiatives and he also made comments reiterating his position as the political leader of his party and made it clear he was committed to moving ahead in his belief that doing something is always better than doing nothing.

The President focused the majority of his speech on issues surrounding the need to stabilize and begin to grow the economy. President Obama laid out three legislative priorities – energy, health care, and education.

Decreasing energy dependence, creating innovation and fueling alternative energy solutions to grow the green economy is a critical component of the President’s legislative agenda. Beginning next week, the President is beginning his ambitions effort to reform America’s disastrously broken healthcare system and he tied healthcare reform as one of the most critical components of fixing the nation’s economy. The President’s focus on changing the national commitment to education at all levels was framed with the need to move the economy forward. The rest of the address included some of the President’s foreign and domestic policy objectives.

The State of the Union Address also includes the nationally broadcast rebuttal by the minority party. The Republicans picked the very young Governor of Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. The Governor tried to also balance the need to be realistic about the seriousness of the nation’s economy, while saying government was not the answer to fixing the problems of this nation.

The television appearance by the Governor is another indication the opposition to the President will be led by a new generation of Republican leaders and not currently serving in national government. The selection of the young Governor of Alaska to be the running mate to US Senator John McCain in the 2008 Presidential election and now the selection of the 37-year-old Governor of Louisiana to deliver the national rebuttal speech is framing the change of leadership within the GOP.

Now the speeches are over, Statuary Hall in the Capitol have emptied out the flood of television reporters, equipment. The armies of Congressional staffers with their Congressional members in tow seeking media opportunities to put their spin on the President’s speech, have all returned to their offices scattered around Capitol Hill.

Thursday morning, the President delivers his proposed budget to Congress.
And then it is seriously game on.