President Barack Obama on Tuesday night urged Americans to rekindle their belief in the promise of change that first carried him to the White House, declaring that the country must not allow election-year fear and division to take hold.
“The future we want,” he insisted, “is within our reach.” But opportunity and security for American families “will only happen if we work together ... if we fix our politics,” he added.
The nation’s goals must include “a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids,” he said in his final State of the Union address.
Sharply, and at times sarcastically, he struck back at rivals who have challenged his economic and national security stewardship, calling it all “political hot air.”
In a swipe at some Republican presidential candidates, he warned against “voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us or pray like us or vote like we do or share the same background.”
The State of the Union address represented one of Mr. Obama’s last opportunities to claim a large television audience as President.
Seeking to shape his own legacy, Mr. Obama ticked through a retrospective of his domestic and foreign policy actions in office, including helping lead the economy back from the brink of depression, taking aggressive action on climate change and ending a Cold War freeze with Cuba.
“Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger and must be stopped,” he said. “But they do not threaten our national security.”
The President’s words were unlikely to satisfy Republicans, as well as some Democrats, who say he underestimates the Islamic State’s power and is leaving the U.S. vulnerable to attacks at home.
Mr. Obama was frank about one of his biggest regrets — failing to ease the persistently deep divisions between the Democrats and the Republicans.
“The rancour and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better,” he conceded. “There’s no doubt a President with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.”
Mindful of the scant prospect for major legislative action in an election year, Mr. Obama avoided the traditional litany of policy proposals in State of the Union addresses. He did reiterate his call for working with Republicans on criminal justice reform and finalising an Asia-Pacific trade pact, and he also vowed to keep pushing for action on politically fraught issues such as curbing gun violence and fixing the nation’s fractured immigration laws.
