State Of The Union And The Road Ahead

The State of the Union. We’ll look at President Obama’s blueprint for the country and staying in the White House.

And the State of the Union is… “getting stronger,” said the President last night.  Not exactly a bold boast.  But nothing to retreat from, said Barack Obama.  “We’ve come too far to turn back now,” said the president.  He looked upbeat in his third State of the Union address.

Determined, as if to say “this will not be my last.”  And class warfare?  Not at all, he said.  What the country needs is common sense.  And higher taxes on the rich.  Republicans hammered in response.  And the lines are drawn.

This hour, On Point:  President Obama’s State of the Union.
-Tom Ashbrook

Ryan Lizza, a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine. He covers the 2012 Presidential campaign and national politics. He is the author of an article in the current issue, “The Obama Memos: The making of a post-partisan presidency.”

Doyle McManus, Washington columnist for the Los Angeles Times. You can find his column on the State of the Union speech here.

Cynthia Tucker, a visiting professor at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She spent 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as an editorial board member and syndicated columnist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007.

The New Yorker "If there was a single unifying argument that defined Obamaism from his earliest days in politics to his Presidential campaign, it was the idea of post-partisanship. He was proposing himself as a transformative figure, the man who would spring the lock."

L.A. Times "The State of the Union address that President Obama delivered Tuesday was, in a sense, the first formal speech of his reelection campaign. It was his chance to wedge himself into the noise of the Republican primary campaign for 66 minutes of uninterrupted television time, and he took advantage of it."

The Washington Post "President Obama will call for “a return to American values” in his State of the Union address Tuesday as he lays out a vision for an economy that provides greater equity at a time of growing income disparities."

You can watch the entire 2012 State of the Union address in this video from the PBS News Hour. You can read a transcript of the 2012 State of the Union speech here.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels gave the GOP response to the president's State of the Union address. You can read the transcript of the response here.