Photo
Scenes from President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Credit
Clockwise from top left, Stephen Crowley/The New York Times; Doug Mills/The New York Times; Jabin Botsford/The New York Times; Doug Mills/The New York Times
Good Wednesday morning from Washington on the day after a State of the Union speech that has Republicans shaking their heads and lamenting a lost opportunity for cooperation. We use the occasion to look at how
President Bill Clinton
handled a similar situation in 1995 and what
President Obama
didn’t say this year. And this may be a first: The White House uses fashion to push its political message.
Washington will try to get back to business on Wednesday after a
State of the Union address
that found a confident and relaxed
President Obama
delivering a speech that seemed to leave the new Republican majority in Congress genuinely
perplexed.
After their resounding election victory just two months ago, Republicans had hoped to hear the president say he had gotten the message and was willing to find common cause. What they got was a sharp reminder
that he had twice won the presidency, veto threats and a call to embrace a series of government initiatives that Republicans are not inclined to support (except for new trade deals).
He made no mention of their congressional ascendancy.
“He hasn’t adjusted to the new reality at all,” said
Senator Susan Collins
of Maine, a moderate Republican who is usually considered a candidate for cooperation with the
Democrats.
Republicans did not interpret the president’s jabs at their positions on the minimum wage, climate change and Cuba — interspersed with calls for compromise — as a hopeful sign. “He’s
not looking for cooperation,” said
Senator John Barrasso
of Wyoming.
Democrats said they found the speech and the president’s attitude refreshing. “It was almost joyful,” said
Senator Amy Klobuchar
of Minnesota.
That was not the word Republicans had in mind.
— Carl Hulse
President Obama
‘s decision on Tuesday night to ignore the Republicans’ election victory and the party’s new majority in the Senate was notable. It also raised the question
of how
former President Bill Clinton
handled a similar situation in January 1995 after Democrats were trounced in the midterm elections and Republicans took back the House for the first
time in 40 years.
He certainly didn’t avoid it. Mr. Clinton wasted no time in noting that “once again our democracy has spoken.”
“So let me begin,” he said, “by congratulating all of you here in the 104th Congress and congratulating you, Mr. Speaker.” That was, of course,
Newt Gingrich
.
But, like Mr. Obama, Mr. Clinton also made sure to point out that he’d had his own big election victory in 1992.
“If we agree on nothing else tonight, we must agree that the American people certainly voted for change in 1992 and 1994,” he said. “And as I look out at you, I know how some of you must
have felt in 1992.”
— Carl Hulse
President Obama
’s speech was more than 6,500 words long. And almost none of them were about entitlement programs.
The question of what to do to secure the future of Medicare and Social Security has been a staple of State of the Union speeches by presidents of both parties for decades. Just two years ago, Mr. Obama called
on Congress to embrace overhauls of both social safety nets.
“Those of us who care deeply about programs like Medicare must embrace the need for modest reforms,” he said at the time. “Otherwise, our retirement programs will crowd out the investments
we need for our children, and jeopardize the promise of a secure retirement for future generations.”
There was none of that last night. He noted the history of the programs and acknowledged that Americans had “set up worker protections, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to protect ourselves from
the harshest adversity.” He didn’t discuss their future.
If the omission was intentional, Republicans say it was also a missed opportunity. Afterward, from the Senate floor,
Senator Mitch McConnell
of Kentucky, the new majority leader, called on Mr.
Obama to “reach across the aisle to allow us to save and strengthen Medicare.”
“Cooperate with both parties to save Social Security,” he urged, adding that Mr. Obama had the chance to “pursue an achievement that history will remember.”
That’s unlikely to happen in the two years Mr. Obama has left in office. He suggested on Tuesday that he was more interested in finding ways to improve government services for middle-income Americans.
Trimming the social safety net is not on that agenda.
— Michael D. Shear
Former Gov. Jeb Bush
of Florida has
publicly criticized
Mitt Romney
‘s 2012 presidential campaign
in recent weeks. But with Mr. Romney now
openly considering another presidential run
— and with
Mr. Bush doing the same
— he is toning down his language.
Mr. Bush, in a Washington meeting with lobbyists on Tuesday, responded to a question about Mr. Romney by saying that had the former Massachusetts governor defeated
President Obama
, the country
would have been better off, according to two people at the gathering.
His assessment of Mr. Romney was not entirely upbeat. Mr. Bush noted that Mr. Romney’s aptitude for political campaigning did not match his qualities as an executive.
— Jonathan Martin
President Obama
travels to Boise State University in Idaho to sell the policies he outlined in the State of the Union speech. It will be his first visit as president to the Republican state.
Jacob J. Lew
, the Treasury secretary, talks about the state of the economy at
the Hutchins Center for Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee holds a
hearing on the Iran nuclear negotiations.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will discuss the
effectiveness of the No Child Left Behind initiative
.
Brent Scowcroft
and
Zbigniew K. Brzezinski
, both former national security advisers, will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee about the latest
challenges
facing the United States.
Senator Rand Paul
, Republican of Kentucky, talks to the Ripon Society about the State of the Union speech and the Senate agenda for the rest of the year.
In the end, President Obama didn’t wear
his infamous tan suit
:
He opted for dark gray, with a white shirt and silver tie.
But the fact that the White House used last August’s sartorial snafu to generate Twitter traffic
(#YesWeTan)
before
Tuesday’s State of the Union speech should put to rest any doubt that his aides consider style a useful communication tool. #YesTheyDo.
The overarching theme of the speech was neatly mirrored by the visually strong state of the president’s own union: united in grey with
Michelle Obama
, who wore a
tweed Michael Kors suit
(her first-ever suit at a State of the Union address) with a black zipper that matched her husband’s color choices almost exactly.
Get it? Forget red and blue. Time to turn the page.
But has the rest of Washington caught on to the new look?
Judging by the flashes of traditional look-at-me periwinkle and crimson sprinkled throughout the House chamber, not entirely — though
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr
. and
Speaker John A. Boehner
demonstrated
their own kind of understanding
, at least in their ties: indigo and pink stripes (Mr. Biden) and lavender (Mr. Boehner). The knots, however, did seem to skew in opposite directions.
But it was
Senator Joni Ernst
of Iowa — charged with the Republican rebuttal — who really rose to the challenge. The combat veteran was sporting
camouflage-print pumps
. Forget fighting words; this was fighting footwear.
— Vanessa Friedman
State of the Union speech coverage:
video, highlights
,
analysis
and Republican
reaction
, a view of the address through the eyes of
two congressional freshmen
, and
Senator Joni Ernst
’s
rebuttal
. The Upshot staff also weighs in
with its take
on the State of the Union.
A heavy-hitting lineup of potential Republican president candidates is headed to Palm Springs, Calif., for the Koch brothers’ annual winter seminar. Some call it the
Koch primary.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo
of New York is facing a
showdown with teachers
over his education plan, and that’s an unusual situation for a Democrat.
The Supreme Court rules that states cannot prevents Muslim inmates in their prisons
from growing beards
.
Mayor Bill de Blasio
of New York
is in Paris
paying respects to the victims of the recent terrorist attacks.
Reaction to
President Obama
’s State of the Union speech from
Peter Beinart in The Atlantic
(a triumph of domestic over foreign policy),
Fred Barnes in The Weekly Standard
(“Obama is blowing smoke”),
Jonathan Capehart in The Washington Post
(“the start of a
conversation with Congress”),
Lisa Lerer and Margaret Talev at Bloomberg Politics
(“Why focus on policies that are destined to fail?”),
Andrew Sullivan
(“one of his best”) and
James Oliphant in National Journal
(“thematically, it’s the same old song”).
Politico ranks the
“state of the states.”
Minnesota is first, and Mississippi is last.
New York magazine
profiles
Representative Tim Ryan
,
the Ohio Democrat who is trying “to make America more Zen.”
Patricia Garcia in Vogue says
“The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore”
— which replaced “The
Colbert Report” — is the “news we need right now.”
The United States probation office has determined that federal sentencing guidelines call for
Maureen McDonnell
, the former first lady of Virginia, to spend as many as
six and a half years in prison
, The Washington Post reports.
Like the Politics Newsletter? Get it delivered to your inbox.