President Obama gave his final State of the Union speech Tuesday night, saying America is still the greatest nation on Earth, but warning of trouble ahead if the country can’t embrace more change and fix its broken politics. In the Republican response, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said there is enough blame to go around, and urged change as Obama enters his last year in office: “We need to accept that we’ve played a role in how and why our government is broken. And then we need to fix it.”
- Our wrap-up: Obama focused on aspirations rather than ambitious plans.
- Read Obama’s prepared speech.
Obama’s State of the Union pledge to push for bipartisan redistricting reform was a late add
President Obama used his last State of the Union address to push for national voting reforms and went off script to specifically call for bipartisan groups to draw new congressional districts instead of lawmakers.
“I think we’ve got to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters and not the other way around,” he said before veering from his prepared remarks to add: “Let a bipartisan group do it.”
Redistricting expert Paul Mitchell said Obama’s line echoed calls by California Republicans a decade ago when they were pushing for a citizens’ redistricting commission to draw boundaries, instead of the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Voters approved that measure, and the commission drew new lines in 2011.
More states, including Illinois, where Obama got his start in politics, are considering switching to commissions.
“When you strip away the politics and have it be in a nonpartisan setting, the district lines that get drawn are pretty good,” Mitchell said. “I can see there being a space and time right now for this kind of redistricting reform to catch hold.”
A message of lower expectations
Here’s a shorter version of Obama’s message: Lower your expectations. The president who, when he won his party’s nomination of 2008, said this might be “the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless … the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal” – that president is older and wiser now.
After seven years of work, he knows he may have to be satisfied when he leaves office with a sluggish economic recovery, a not fully rooted healthcare law and a foreign policy that still faces a generation’s work of challenges.
Obama’s State of the Union: First and last
President Obama during his Jan. 27, 2010, State of the Union, left, and in his address tonight.
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See the first lady’s guests
The White House sends details of how First Lady Michelle Obama’s guests are seated.
In order from left to right, starting from bottom row: Cindy Dias, Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Michelle Obama, Naveed Shah, Jill Biden, Edith Childs, Braeden Mannering, Lydia Doza, Dr. Rafaai Hamo.
Second row from bottom: Oscar Vazquez, Chief O’Toole, Ryan Reyes, Satya Nadella, Jennifer Bragdon, Spencer Stone, Jim Obergefell, Earl Smith.
Third from bottom: Cory Dixon, Cedric Rowland, Sue Ellen Allen, Shelby County (Tenn.) Mayor Mark Luttrell Jr., Valerie Jarrett, Gloria Balenski, Lisa Jester.
Back row: Renna Rice, Mark Davis.
More about that ‘moonshot’
Michael A. Memoli detailed President Obama’s announcement in the post below this one, but there’s another element of interest.
Just this week, a Los Angeles billionaire announced a cancer-fighting initiative with this same name. The political twist? Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the oncologist and philanthropist who is spearheading the program, said the “MoonShot” came together over the last year after meetings with other healthcare executives and Biden.
From our story:
The Biden family consulted with Soon-Shiong before Biden’s son, Beau, died of brain cancer in May. Soon-Shiong said he met with Biden in October and presented the vice president with a report outlining the MoonShot initiative. Biden aides said the vice president is not connected to MoonShot.
Play State of the Union Bingo! with us
We’ve put together a bingo card based on things we have a hunch could happen during the president’s speech. Click here to play!
You’ve got at least one square all locked up:
If #SOTU disaster strikes, Jeh Johnson ... or a Republican could become president
This year’s designated survivor is Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. And also Republican Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah.
Confused yet?
Fox’s Chad Pergram broke the news earlier that Hatch, the Senate president pro tempore, had been picked as this year’s designated survivor. That would have marked the first time the Obama administration has selected a Republican for the role. Hatch is third in line to the presidency, after the vice president and speaker, and serves as a stand-in for Vice President Joe Biden -- the president of the Senate.
But the White House told reporters at 5:26 p.m., “Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has been designated as the Cabinet member who will not attend the State of the Union address this evening.”
Pergram is reporting that both men will sit out.
Early excerpts from the speech
“The future we want,” President Obama will say, according to prepared remarks the White House released before he addresses Congress at 9 p.m., “is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates.
“It will only happen if we fix our politics.”
The president will say that America’s diversity -- including its diversity in opinions and attitudes -- is its greatest strength. The nation’s founders disagreed on the size and scope of government in the 18th century, just as Americans do today.
It will only happen if we fix our politics.
He will argue that our democracy “does require basic bonds of trust between its citizens” in order to realize America’s potential.
“America has been through big changes before – wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights,” Obama will say.
“Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control.
“Each time, we overcame those fears,” he will say. “We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the ‘dogmas of the quiet past.’ Instead we thought anew, and acted anew.”