I expected the reaction of the progressive blogosphere to this speech to be harsh, but it hasn’t been for the most part and I am not sure why. As best as I can guess, it’s because this speech reminded people why they liked Obama and worked to get him elected. After all, CBS says 83 percent and CNN says that 78 percent of the people had a positive reaction of the speech. And there were elements of the speech that should please progressives. He said that all of our troops will be leaving Iraq (which is probably not true), he called for the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) law, he committed to letting the Bush tax cuts for the rich sunset, and he vowed to keep up the fight to pass health care reform.
But he also announced several things that most progressives don’t support, including a spending freeze on discretionary spending, and new nuclear power plants and more off-shore drilling. He also used some right-wing framing on several issues and even aped John McCain and his obsession with earmarks. Most of all, he doubled-down on the post-partisanship rhetoric and approach.
These things usually evoke a kind of Pavlovian gag reflex from a good subset of progressives. For some reason, the criticism has been muted. I think that’s good.
I think people enjoyed seeing Obama scold both the Supreme Court and the Senate Republicans. For my part, I wasn’t overly impressed with his response on health care. I like that he committed to keep up the fight, and he did a good job of making the case for reform. I just don’t think he was forceful enough. I can tell that the Democrats in Congress are begging for leadership and direction, and he didn’t articulate the path forward. For me, that’s what has been lacking, and he didn’t solve the problem tonight when he had the spotlight.
In the end, the proof will be in whether they get something passed or not. If they do, and it is a little better than the Senate bill, then I’ll give him credit. But if the reform effort fails to produce anything, I will have no choice but to criticize the president for too much passivity on his number one priority item.
So, good speech, nice performance, but I need to see some more fight.
I want to digest the other more thematic and aspirational elements of the speech before I comment on them. Hopefully, I’ll have something interesting to say about that tomorrow.
