State of the Union team coverage
On TV: WHIO TV Channel 7 will carry the State of the Union address live at 9 p.m. Tuesday and the Republican response afterward.
On Radio: Because of a University of Dayton basketball game Tuesday night, News 95.7 FM, AM 1290 will air the president's address and the GOP response after the UD game.
Our Washington Insider Jamie Dupree will bring his insight to Miami Valley’s Morning News at 7:24 and 8:24 Wednesday morning on News 95.7 FM and AM 1290.
Miami Valley’s Morning News will also feature reaction from some local lawmakers to the president’s address.
Online: Our political team will be live on Twitter at @Ohio_Politics during the president's address starting at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Also several local residents have been invited to the State of the Union by Speaker of the House John Boehner. We will have videos and other features about them and their trip to Washington.
In Wednesday's newspaper: Look for complete coverage of the president's address and reaction for our local congressmen and senators. Also, our reporter Michael Pitman will be in Washington with a group of local residents who have been invited by Boehner. He'll have coverage of their experience.
In Thursday's newspaper: Pitman is sitting down with Speaker Boehner on Wednesday, a rare chance to break away from the national stories and talk to Boehner about issues impacting our communities in his district. We'll have complete coverage of their interview in Thursday's newspaper.
Memorable passages from State of the Union addresses
“The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation…”
Abraham Lincoln, Dec. 1, 1862
“I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough.”
Richard Nixon, Jan. 30, 1974
“President Washington began this tradition in 1790 after reminding the nation that the destiny of self-government and the preservatiuon of the sacred fire of liberty is finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
Ronald Reagan, Jan. 26, 1982
“The era of big government is over.”
Bill Clinton, Jan. 23, 1996
“States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.”
George W. Bush, Jan. 29, 2002
“When we act together, there is nothing the United States of America can’t achieve.”
Barack Obama, Jan. 24, 2012
Source: Politico.com
Entering the seventh year of his presidency and facing a Congress controlled by Republicans, Barack Obama in his State of the Union address Tuesday likely will offer a bit of confrontation with a blend of conciliation.
As Obama has made clear in a series of speeches during the past two weeks, the prime-time speech before a joint session of Congress “will be a chance to talk about America’s resurgence” but also how to “help more Americans feel that resurgence in their own lives through higher wages and rising incomes and a growing middle class.”
But while the president is expected to forcefully propose ideas to expand family medical leave — ideas that have little chance of winning GOP approval — he also has the opportunity to find common ground with Republicans to expand international trade and improve cyber security to guarantee greater privacy for Americans.
“Obama has a chance to lay out what he wants to accomplish and show voters — who he will never stand before again — to come with him because he kept his word and he got the job done despite the odds and the opposition of Republicans in Congress,” said Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic consultant in Boston.
Carmel Martin, executive vice president of the Center for American Progress in Washington and a former aide to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., predicted that Obama “will lay out a bold agenda and demand that Congress deliver for the American people.”
Yet even as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said cybersecurity and providing Obama with authority to negotiate trade agreements “are two areas where we’re likely to end up in the same place,” many Republicans are convinced that Obama plans a combative approach Tuesday.
“He’s shown no inclination or ability to find common ground and work within the common ground,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican political consultant in suburban Washington.
Ted Hollingsworth, a lobbyist in Washington and onetime chief of staff to former Sen. George V. Voinovich, predicted “there are not many prospects for long-term cooperation” because “there is nothing short of mutual contempt” between Obama and congressional Republicans.
Strong-willed presidents such as Lyndon B. Johnson have relied on the State of the Union to advance audacious ideas, such as in 1965 when Johnson proposed his Great Society to eradicate poverty and provide health coverage for the elderly and poor. That speech cleared the way for Congress to approve Medicare, which pays for health coverage for the elderly, and Medicaid, which provides health care for low-income Americans.
In 2010, Obama offered bold plans to toughen regulations on financial institutions and overhauling the nation’s health care system to extend insurance to millions of Americans without coverage. By the end of the year, Obama had signed the sweeping new health law known as Obamacare.
But that year, Obama spoke to a Congress controlled by Democrats. By contrast, his top aides believe the Republicans have opted for a combative approach of their own, such as chipping away at the heath law, curbing financial regulations approved by Congress in 2010, and blocking Obama’s executive orders to delay deportation for millions of illegal immigrants.
Yet Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon, who also faced a Congress controlled by the opposition party, forged compromises to build the nation’s interstate highway system, curb federal deficits, and reduce air pollution.
“Both Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton had very productive years working with a Congress of the other party,” Ayres said.
In speeches during the past two weeks in Michigan, Arizona, Tennessee, Maryland and Washington, D.C., , Obama has taken the unusual step of revealing his plans for Tuesday, joking, “Why wait for the State of the Union? It’s sort of like you’ve got your presents under the tree, you kind of start shaking them a little bit.”
He focused on issues likely to appeal to Democrats, now are in the minority in Congress for the first time since 2006. In Baltimore last Thursday, he threw his support behind a “seven-day sick day policy across the country.”
Earlier this month In Knoxville, Tenn., Obama said that a “college degree is the surest ticket to the middle class,” proposing a plan to make it free for students to attend community colleges.
Yet neither idea is likely to get very far with the new Congress. House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., pointed out Friday that the community college plan will cost taxpayers $60 billion during the next decade.
“The American people want us to find a way to address their concerns,” Boehner told reporters last week. “That was the big message out of the elections. I am hoping the president heard the same message.”
Obama also is expected to make a pitch for overhauling the federal business income tax code, which resonates with Republicans such as Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio. But Hollingsworth pointed out that “tax reform is incredibly difficult. Both sides would like it, but both sides are in very different positions on what they want. But it requires mutual trust and respect and I don’t think that exists.”
Although Obama has a knack for making good speeches, traditionally the State of the Union has been long on policy ideas and short of electrifying rhetoric. As Marsh said, the State of the Union is “more a to-do list than a vision statement.”
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