While critics from both parties called his State of the Union address a missed opportunity, President Obama was back in campaign mode, declaring job creation his new top priority.
On a swing through Tampa, Fla., with Vice President Biden, Obama reiterated economic themes of his address, including a call to create jobs through infrastructure spending and similar proposals from his first year in office.
“We’re not going to rest until we rebuild an economy in which hard work and responsibility are rewarded, and businesses are hiring again, and wages are growing again, and the middle class can get its legs underneath it again,” Obama said.
Still, to some who listened to Obama’s first State of the Union, a sense of disconnection persisted. The lengthy speech, which contained a few modest new initiatives, fell short even for those who embrace his larger political philosophies.
“We are pleased that the president understands the urgency in passing health care reform this year,” said Alan Charney, program director at USAction, an anti-war and social justice organization. “But we are disappointed that he did not propose a jobs program that is as massive and robust as the problem he inherited.”
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, ranking House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee, said Obama’s White House feels out of step with national priorities and moods.
“I do think there is a disconnect,” Brady said. “It’s almost like the White House has the Cone of Silence from ‘Get Smart,’ where nothing is getting through.”
Brady, who like Obama is also back in campaign mode, said federal spending, job creation and opposing health care “is all anybody wants to talk about.” He called Obama’s economic agenda, “small ball.”
In Tampa, Obama mocked journalists for their interest in whether he would adopt a more forceful, populist tone in his address and subsequent political outings.
But the day after the speech, administration officials were still rebuffing questions about the larger message of last week’s Massachusetts Senate election.
Widely regarded as a populist rebuttal to Obama’s leadership, the election of a Republican to fill the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s seat dashed the president’s hopes for passing health care.
“What was interesting about the Massachusetts election was that so much of it was reminiscent of what we saw in our own election,” White House senior adviser David Axelrod told ABC News. “That same sense of disillusionment among particularly middle class people.”
John Fortier, a political scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, called Obama’s speech “a little disjointed” and also potential trouble for moderate Democrats who won’t want to vote on immigration reform, gays in the military or other hot-button issues in an election year.
“On the big issues, I think Obama either doesn’t know what he wants to do or wants to send a message to stay the course,” Fortier said. “Their plan is essentially more or less the same plan.”
