Now, Even Speeches Fail President Obama

Prior to last night, we could have all agreed that President Obama had one undeniable and great skill; the man could deliver a speech. His national political career, after all, had been launched with a speech, at the Democrat Party Convention in 2004. More than that though, his entire political history–and trajectory–can be mapped by speeches. When his primary campaign for the Presidency was sputtering, a rousing speech at the Iowa Democrat’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner created the momentum he needed to win that state’s pivotal caucus. When inflammatory video of his long-time pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, surfaced and threatened to derail his campaign, a well-received speech on race allowed him to turn away the controversy. A Will.I.Am video riff of one of Obama’s speeches was such a potent piece of political propaganda that even I developed a bit of a man-crush on the One.

Obama seemed to have a gift for perfectly capturing the tone and mood of the public. It may seem a tired cliche now, but his speeches did much to inspire the hope people attached to his candidacy. Even rather vague or pedestrian phrases seemed to soar in his gifted hands. I had accepted it as a given that, if his political fortunes were ever down, Obama would be able to reverse his troubles by pulling just the right speech from his rhetorical bag of tricks.

No more.

Obama’s State of the Union address last night was not just overly long and dull, it was totally tone-deaf politically. Coming on the heels of a political upset in Massachusetts, with deteriorating poll numbers and anxious members of his own party, Obama badly needed a home-run to change the political dynamics. He struck out.

In many ways, Obama’s SOTU address was the exact opposite of the speech he needed to give. Much as been said about the voters being angry, but the anger is just a symptom of a deeper problem. The voters are scared. Scared about their jobs, their homes and their future. Worse, they’re scared for their children’s futures. Throughout our history there have been other periods where the public worried–mistakenly usually–that America’s best days were behind it. Now, however, that worry is all too real.

Obama’s long laundry list of programs, initiatives and priorities was addressed to a different time. The model for Obama’s speech was pioneered by Bill Clinton in 1995. Coming off his own political disaster, the GOP take-over of Congress, Clinton responded to the times with his claim that “the era of big government is over.” In his State of the Union address at the time, Clinton outlined a long–and much parodied–list of small initiatives and targeted programs. A little tax credit here, a push for school uniforms there. It was the exact opposite of the sweeping, broad changes he had attempted in his first two years in office. It perfectly matched the mood of voters and signaled to me at the time that Clinton would win reelection.

Clinton changed. Obama doubled-down.

The political situation Obama faces is the polar opposite of what it was at the start of his presidency, when he mapped out his agenda. Republicans have recaptured the Governors’ mansions in New Jersey (!) and Virginia and they have won a US Senate seat in Massachusetts (!!). Obama’s approval rating has collapsed and the Democrat lawmakers who haven’t announced their retirement face the very real prospects of being retired by the voters. Democrats will probably lose the House and could possibly even lose the Senate. They will likely be massacred in state Houses around the country.

In light of this, Obama announced not a single change in his agenda or his priorities. Okay, well maybe one; his call for a three-year spending freeze. But, it is clear he isn’t really serious about this, since he also announced a huge swath of new spending initiatives. He still wants to enact sweeping changes to health care, even though it is political kryptonite. He wants another bloated, pork-filled “jobs bill”, even though his “stimulus program” was a joke, and a failure.

Let me be frank, Mr. President, this isn’t how it works. You don’t face rejection by voters and still get to continue pursuing the same agenda.

The Presidency is a dialogue with the American people, not a soliloquy. You can propose, but when they react, you may have to adapt. That he doesn’t understand this is telling.

It does help us understand, though, why Obama is so fond of making speeches. In a speech, he is the only one talking.