Pennsylvania squarely in President Obama’s State of the Union

Posted by By Eric Zager at 26 January, at 09 : 32 AM Print

A seemingly subdued President Barack Obama delivered his State of the Union speech in just over an hour. No political theatre or high energy; it was meat and potatoes on a winter’s night.

Perhaps his energy level sizzled under the duress of the massacre in Arizona that critically injured Gabrielle Giffords, one of congresses’ own. Or maybe Obama toned down his delivery because he’s tired of being described as extremely “professorial,” or not caring enough, or one of any other host of emotions thrown his way for being devoid of natural, human connection.

Obama touched on most of the most pressing issues of the day, job creation, healthcare, renewable energy, and education. One could make the argument he pandered a bit too much to the gallery’s commingled Republicans, political observers will argue it’s the real start of Obama’s move toward becoming a centrist.

Obama’s plan to “win for the future,” was aimed at fostering deeper cooperation between the parties to carve a path to a better future that is becoming increasingly competitive across the globe.

“The rules have changed,” said President Obama. “We need to out-innovate, outeducate, and outbuild the rest of the world.”

Adding that “we have to make America the best place on earth to do business.”

He hit on notes that clearly lock-step Republicans could agree on, reducing the deficit, reforming government, freezing domestic spending for five-years. But Obama did not lay out any new policy initiatives or gun control in the wake of the massacre in Arizona. Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, now a political contributor on NBC criticized Obama for not taking the opportunity to at least broach the subject.

Obama emphasized more of the positives than the recent past.

“Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back,” Obama said. And, “the economy is growing again.”

Pennsylvania had two shining moments — Obama talked about how a kid from Scranton could grow up to become Vice-President as in (Joe Biden), the president also spoke of the amazing accomplishment of a Berlin, Pennsylvania company and its “PlanB,” that led to saving 33 people trapped last summer in a Chilean mine.

There were no boos, no inflammatory shout-out’s, (“you lie.), critiques during his speech came in the form of body language. His overall tone was positive, “Remember, for all the hits we’ve taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world.”

(Want to read about the Republican response to Obama’s speech, then just click on Rock The Capital.)

This post was written by:

Eric Zager - who has written 323 posts for Rock The Capital

Eric is a national award winning storyteller. Eric’s work is credited with changing laws, saving lives, and in one instance, saving taxpayers about $2,000,000.00. Mr. Zager’s career in journalism is ripped from the pages of an adventure novel. Upon graduating from the esteemed Newhouse School of Public Communications, he headed north, about as far as one can travel and still stand in the Continental U.S. The call of journalism not a penchant to play with Polar Bears brought Zager to the ‘Last Frontier-Juneau, Alaska. Over the course of Zager’s more than 20 years in journalism, he has covered the political side of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, dodged horse manure on the backside of Churchill Downs, and has uncovered numerous scams and scam artists. Eric is constantly in search of a meaningful story to tell. - Email Eric Zager

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