Elaine Lin

October 20, 2010

Period 4

AP Government

President Obama's Speech Analysis

In the beginning of 2010, President Obama began the year addressing the nation in his

State of the Union speech on January 27, 2010. At the time, America was in a recession and

worked hard to get out of it. Because of the recession, millions of people were left without a job,

many houses were being foreclosed, banks were being shut down, and many are still in debt

(Recession Effects in The United States, 2009). Americans were not only concerned about their

country, but also what was happening around the world. Foreign affairs that were of concern

included the war, good governance, and human rights in Afghanistan; the elections and

withdrawal of troops in Iraq; the nuclear issue in North Korea; the earthquake in Haiti; the

corruption in Guinea; and the economic progress of India, China, and Germany as compared to

the United States (Muskal, 2010).

There was even a heated debate about the nationalizing health-care reform; every

Republican voted against it; but when the results came out, the Democrats had pushed the health

care bill through. This led to the passage of the health-care reform bill which will take effect near

the end of this year. Obama's political party, the Democrats, had control of both the Senate and
House of Representatives. The Senate currently consists of 58 Democrats, 40 Republicans, and

two Independents, and the House of Representatives currently consists of 256 Democrats, 178

Republicans and one vacancy (Gill). Nancy Pelosi is the current Speaker of the House of

Representatives. But this may all change; the Democrats might lose control of Congress in the

upcoming mid-term election this year.

Obama proposes many policy changes in his State of the Union address. Because of his

formal or implied powers, he can set forth some of these policies on his own. First, he proposes

to encourage American innovation and to focus on clean energy. The power that would be

appropriate to accomplish this goal is his ability to set the nation's political agenda. Second, he

wants to tackle childhood obesity, which is headed by the First Lady, Michelle Obama. The

power that would be appropriate to accomplish this goal is being a global representative of

America as a whole. Third, Obama wants to reduce deficit by freezing government spending for

three years on discretionary programs, eliminating programs that are unaffordable or don't work,

extending middle-class tax cuts, and restoring pay-as-you-go law. Obama says he will enforce

this discipline by veto is he has to – the power that would be appropriate to accomplish this goal

is his formal power to veto. Fourth, Obama wants to end the outsized influence of lobbyists –

Obama has excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and

commissions. The power that would be appropriate to accomplish this goal is his implied power

to remove administrators from their offices.

However, although he is able to put some policies in action on his own, some are beyond

his power and require Congressional approval. First, Obama proposes a fee of the biggest banks.
He cannot just force banks to pay fees, and thus needs the help of Congress to pass a bill that

would charge fees on those banks. Second, he proposes to take $30 billion from recovered TARP

(Troubled Asset Relief Money) money to community banks to extend credit to small businesses.

Again, the president cannot do it on his own. Third, Obama is calling for a new jobs bill to try to

solve the problem of unemployment. Since, he cannot create new jobs on his own, he needs the

help of Congress to pass the bill. Fourth, Obama wants to export more of our goods – his goal is

to double exports over five years. To help achieve this goal, he is launching a National Export

Initiative. The president outlines his ideas, and Congress writes the bill. Fifth, Obama wants to

invest in the skills and education of our people by renewing the Elementary and Secondary

Education Act, revitalizing community colleges, ending taxpayer subsidies to banks for student

loans, giving $10,000 tax credit for families for four years of college, increasing Pell Grants,

requiring only 10% of income to student loans, forgiving all student loan debt after 20 years, or

after 10 years if they choose a career in public service, and cutting costs at colleges and

universities. Again, in order to pass new laws, the president has to work together with Congress.

Finally, Obama is calling on Congress to continue down the path of earmark reform. The

president wants Congress to publish all earmark requests on a single website before there's a vote

so that American people can see how their money is being spent.

The speech as a whole gave Americans a whole lot more insight as to the direction the

president wants America to head. At 70 minutes, President Obama's State of the Union address

ranks among the longest such speeches in the last 45 years. Most of his speech was based on

logos, but there was some ethos and pathos as well. He spoke with authority, trying to convince
all the viewers that he knows what is best for the nation, since he has witnessed some of the

hardships that people have faced because of the recession. Obama spoke in a partisan nature

about the upcoming mid-term election, when he stated, “To Democrats, I would remind you that

we still have the largest majority in decades, and people expect us to solve some problems, not

run for the hills. And if Republican leadership is going to insist that sixty votes in the Senate are

required to do any business at all in this town, then the responsibility to govern is now yours as

well. Just saying no to everything may be good on short-term politics, but it's not leadership.”

The President mainly focused on talking about the economy what he policy changes must

be done to restore America – from creating new jobs to stopping government spending. Because

of that, in order to put things into effect, he will need Congressional approval. He did not speak

much about foreign policy; in fact, the president dedicated only 11 minutes of his 70 minute

speech to matters of foreign policy. Only 1,193 of the 7,309 words he spoke had to do with

matters beyond the country's shores, which equals 16 percent, as compared to Bush's State of the

Union Address in 2007, which 2,966 of the 5,500 words (54 percent) was dedicated to foreign

policy (Bast, 2010).

 Work Cited Page

• Bast, Andrew. "Foreign Policy Disappearing From the State of the Union -
Newsweek."Newsweek - National News, World News, Business, Health, Technology,
Entertainment, and More - Newsweek. Harman Newsweek LLC, 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 20 Oct.
2010. <http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/01/28/foreign-policy-disappearing-
from-the-state-of-the-union.html>.

• Recession Effects in The United States. Blogoncherry, 17 Mar. 2009. Web. 15 Oct. 2010.
<http://www.boncherry.com/blog/2009/03/17/recession-effects-in-the-us/>.

• Gill, Kathy. The 2010 Election - US Senate and US House of Representatives. N.p., n.d.
Web. 15 Oct. 2010.
<http://uspolitics.about.com/od/elections/tp/2010_congressional_election.htm>.

• Jeff. "What Are 5 Informal Powers of the President of the U.S.? - Yahoo!
Answers." Yahoo! Answers - Home. Yahoo! Answers. Web. 19 Oct. 2010.
<http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071220005942AArjGdv>.

• Hauger, Danny. "Summary of President Obama's First State of the Union

Speech."Associated Content - Associatedcontent.com. Associated Content, 28 Jan. 2010. Web.
17 Oct. 2010.
<http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2639355/summary_of_president_obamas_first_sta
te.html?cat=62>.

• "Answers.com - What Are Some Presidential Implied Powers." WikiAnswers - The Q&A
Wiki. Answers Corporation. Web. 20 Oct. 2010.
<http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_presidential_implied_powers>.

• Muskal, Michael. "Obama's State of the Union Address: Idealism in Foreign Policy | Top of
the Ticket | Los Angeles Times." Top of the Ticket. Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2010. Web.
19 Oct. 2010. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/01/obamas-state-of-the-
union-address-idealism-in-foreign-policy.html>.