U.S. President Barack Obama gave his seventh, and last, State of the Union address Tuesday night in Washington. The speech, as is often the case for presidents in their last year, differed from previous addresses. Instead of laying down a list of policy initiatives and making the case for a legislative agenda, Obama drew a larger picture, one that explains how he looks at and frames the world. Most significantly, he attempted to deflate the bubble of anger and fear that seems to animate U.S. politics and is especially evident in the Republican campaign. Remarkably, that was also the message of the GOP "response" to the president's address.
As he considers his last year in office, Obama has reason to be proud. As he explained in his speech, the United States is in the middle of the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history. More than 14 million new jobs have been created, and the unemployment rate has been cut in half, from 10 percent to 5 percent. The manufacturing sector has created nearly 900,000 jobs in the past six years. Household income has grown at a rate of 3 to 4 percent annually for the past two years. All the while, the federal government has been getting its house in order, cutting its deficit by almost three-quarters. The president concluded that "anyone claiming that America's economy is in decline is peddling fiction."
Nevertheless, the mood among the electorate is dark and angry. A Gallup poll released earlier in the week showed an overwhelming majority — 79 percent — deeply dissatisfied with the direction of the country. That could be because they see terrorist attacks overseas and they are told that their country is hated because it is powerful, and threatened because their president is weak. That "weakness" is the product of Obama's belief that the U.S. cannot try to rebuild every country that falls into crisis. "It's the lesson of Iraq," he said.