As featured in Politico’s The Arena:
Spectacular speech. The President faced his most important moment in his presidency last night and he did it with ease, decorum humor, self deprecation, while he stood firm on an agenda that puts America’s middle class families and small businesses first. He surpassed expectations by cutting through the clutter and haze of the last several months and outlining a very clear and detailed path forward to ensure our country gets back on the right track.
He also did something else that was very important. While acknowledging mistakes he and his team have made in the past year (a refreshing quality for any Commander in Chief), he did not make the much anticipated “pivot” in the way many expected him too. Yes he acknowledged the pain and anxiety of America’s working class and middle class families, yes he focused on jobs and he economy for most of the first part of the speech, which was right on, and yes he outlined new proposals to alleviate the burdens on small businesses, which again were exactly on point. But he did NOT run away from his agenda of change. He did NOT “start over” as many critics advised him too. He stuck to his guns because his agenda is the right one to bring relief to the much aggrieved middle class and working class who have seen themselves take the brunt of our failed economy thanks to the failed policies of the President’s predecessor. He underscored his initiatives on education, on climate change, on don’t ask don’t tell, on foreign policy, on education, on comprehensive immigration reform (to my Latino brothers and sister, there IS hope yet!), and YES, on health care which remains, after last night’s speech, a priority as it should be.
So now, my Republican friends, it time to step up. You can no longer be the party of “no” and the party of no solutions other than to hope this President fails. You have 41 votes in the Senate. You now have a responsibility to help us govern. This President has reached out since day one – contrary to the poppycock that we hear from the other side (in fact the health reform package contains 218 Republican amendments and the well-known Health Insurance Exchange – a Republican idea – and got this President how many Republican votes? You guessed it – ZERO). So join the President in doing what what the American people sent you here to do. Find a way to make it work. America deserves and will stand for nothing less.
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