Obama to Press Centrist Agenda in His Address (NYT)

[somone]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/us/politics/23obama.html

Obama to Press Centrist Agenda in His Address
By JACKIE CALMES and JEFF ZELENY

WASHINGTON — President Obama will outline an agenda for “winning the future” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, striking a theme of national unity and renewal, as he stresses the need for both government spending in key areas and an attack on the budget deficit.

Mr. Obama previewed the themes in a video e-mailed on Saturday evening to Democratic activists who had helped in his election campaign, mostly liberals. But the video made plain that his speech would be geared more broadly toward the political center, to independent voters and business owners and executives alienated by the expansion of government and the partisan legislative fights of the past two years. Advisers said the president would describe five “pillars” for ensuring America’s competitiveness and economic growth: innovation, education, infrastructure, deficit reduction and reforming government.

“These are big challenges that are in front of us,” Mr. Obama went on in the video, sent to members of Organizing for America, his network of supporters from the 2008 campaign. “But we’re up to it, as long as we come together as a people — Republicans, Democrats, independents — as long as we focus on what binds us together as a people, as long as we’re willing to find common ground even as we’re having some very vigorous debates.”

The annual address on Tuesday, with much of the nation watching, will pull together themes suggested by Mr. Obama over the past two months as he has moved rapidly following the midterm elections to retool his presidency. In his speeches, policy choices and personnel appointments, Mr. Obama has signaled that after two years in which his response to the economic crisis and his push for passage of the health care bill defined him to many voters as a big-government liberal, he is seeking to recast himself as a more business-friendly, pragmatic progressive. That means emphasizing job creation, deficit reduction and a willingness to compromise in a new period of divided government...

[subterranean]

1. What has he been pressing up to now?

[mmonk]

2. A Centrist Agenda.

[aquart]

6. Right wing but not unacceptably insane?

[mmonk]

18. Yes.

I think gutting government in the downturn while continuing tax cuts this time, however, is stubborn conservatism that is going to exact a further price from us.

[Mojambo]

3. It's who he is.

The only question now is how much of what's left of the New Deal will survive his business/corporate friendly brand of centrism.

We'll see.

[KeepItReal]

4. Who are these "alienated executives"?

Wall Streeters are reporting record profits and are raking in big bonuses again, meanwhile their tax rates are being cut.

What are these "alienated executives" beefing about?

[inna]

7. it's truly unbelievable. how the people buy this crap and put up with it is beyond me.

[harun]

5. Does Centrist really mean Centrist anymore? Seems like they just use it to mean Corporate Agenda now

[inna]

8. precisely. it's been glaringly obvious lately.

[whathehell]

12. Exactly...We need to press the pundits to "define terms". n/t

[ProSense]

9. What an odd article

When did investing in education and infrastructure become a "centrist agenda"?

Still, the article twists and turns:

<...>

In his speeches, policy choices and personnel appointments, Mr. Obama has signaled that after two years in which his response to the economic crisis and his push for passage of the health care bill defined him to many voters as a big-government liberal, he is seeking to recast himself as a more business-friendly, pragmatic progressive.

That means emphasizing job creation, deficit reduction and a willingness to compromise in a new period of divided government. But it also means a willingness to make the case for spending — or investment, as many in his party would prefer to call it — in areas like education, transportation and technological innovation when it can be justified as essential to the nation’s long-term prosperity.

<...>

Without going into detail, he will touch on issues like overhauling the corporate tax code and encouraging exports, and he will defend his health care law. Less clear is whether he will touch on social issues like gun control, which has become more prominent in the wake of the attackthat gravely wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and left six others dead.

<...>

Mr. Obama is unlikely, they said, to embrace the recommendations of a bipartisan majority on the debt-reduction commission he created, which proposed slashing projected annual deficits through 2020 with deep cuts in domestic and military spending, changes to Social Security and Medicare, and an overhaul of the individual and corporate tax codes to simplify them and to raise additional revenues.

<...>

I'll wait for the speech.

[RedCloud]

10. Just ban those who ship jobs overseas from America. And freeze their assets.

We worked to build this country mister.

They enjoyed a life of ease.

[gratuitous]

11. Centrist, huh?

Will this bolt leftward upset the Republicans?

[whathehell]

13. "he's 'moving to the center' dontcha know"?...

What a load of shit.

They must really think we're stupid.:puke:

[WinkyDink]

14. "as we come together as a people — Republicans, Democrats, independents": Interesting ORDER he uses.

[whathehell]

17. I'm sorry, but..

I do NOT trust this president...I do believe that, at best, he's a stealth republican.

I voted for him twice...but he is not, IMO, an honest broker.

[TBF]

15. Wow, there's a surprise.

:eyes:

[Odin2005]

16. Centrism = Fascism with lipstick