State of the Union Address

In President Obama's State of the Union address given last night he hit many important points and set some pretty ambitious goals. The state of the union address is not only to set the agenda for congress, but to inform and please the public about the goals he hopes to achieve. By going public with his agenda, Obama has the potential to get the approval of both congress and the American public.

 I think the overall tone of his speech was about boosting the economy, but how could it not be after the recession that we have been through? He began by addressing innovation, infrastructure and education. He made the message clear that we need to be supporting new research and innovations equating this goal to a modern space race. We must invest in things like biomedical research and clean energy technology. By doing such things, Obama points out that we will not only be strengthening security, but creating countless new jobs. Along the same lines he makes the point that this all starts by restoring educational values, we can only achieve such innovations and new technologies if people are hard at work learning and creating ways to do such things, and not just those who are already educated, but people of all ages must work towards these achievements. He says that by eliminating the taxpayer's money that goes to oil companies and redirecting it towards research in fuel and electricity, hopefully we will have cleaner air and a million electric cars on the road in the future. Then Obama turns the focus to the problems in our businesses. He says that by doing things like keeping business within our borders and by creating a small business tax credit, more jobs will be restored to hard working Americans. Obama also hopes to freeze government spending for the next three years. The last main point Obama makes is to end "don't ask, don't tell" and allow those who are gay/lesbian to serve their country.

Many of the things proposed by Obama in his agenda would be achieved through informal power. He does assert his formal power when he threatens congress that he will veto and hopefully end all earmark legislation. Other than his veto power, the other aforementioned goals would either be achieved through informal powers and through congress. Not only does he exercise informal powers through his address, but his overall role of "agenda setter" is an informal power.

While Obama's speech was one of optimism and hope, we all know that the agenda may never actually be put into action. Many of his goals will go unattended and those that do begin in congress will most likely die there as well. Since many of the goals set my the president last night are vital to our economy and out overall success as a nation, I will try to remain as Obama was last night...hopeful.