Optimistic Obama looks toward future
WASHINGTON — With Americans soon to begin choosing his successor, President Barack Obama is casting his seven divisive years as a time of positive change, implicitly asking voters to replace him with a Democrat who would continue his hard-won policies on health care, climate change and Iran.
Addressing a hostile Republican-led Congress and a country plunged in a tumultuous, at times angry presidential campaign, Obama used his final State of the Union address to summon an affirmative vision of his administration and for the future. He rebutted critics, naysayers and the GOP White House hopefuls, but also acknowledged his own failure to transform the country’s bitter politics and unite the nation.
With a year left in office, he presented that task as more urgent than ever and pleaded with voters to turn away from harsh voices and come together.
“Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise; or when even basic facts are contested,” Obama said. “Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention.”
Conceding that changing Washington was not the job of one person, Obama called on voters to change the system itself by demanding less money in politics, fairly drawn congressional districts and easier access to voting.
“There are a whole lot of folks in this chamber who would like to see more cooperation, a more elevated debate in Washington, but feel trapped by the demands of getting elected,” Obama told a Congress unlikely to follow his lead, though many lawmakers might agree with his call.
At times, Obama referred sarcastically to the Republicans running to replace him, though without mentioning them by name, just weeks before voting in Iowa and New Hampshire. He countered the negativity of Donald Trump, who promises to keep out Muslims and “Make America Great Again,” and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s vow to “carpet bomb” the Islamic State group.
“When politicians insult Muslims ... that doesn’t make us safer,” he said. “It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals.”
At another point, he said, “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction.” And he also declared: “The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It’s not even close.”
Referencing terror threats around the globe, Obama defended his own efforts fighting Islamic State militants, and said: “Our answer needs to be more than tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians. That may work as a TV sound bite, but it doesn’t pass muster on the world stage.” Cruz skipped the speech; his primary opponent, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, was present.
Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, sat behind him. Obama alluded to Biden’s own loss of his son to cancer this past year in tasking the vice president to lead a new national effort to conquer the disease.
