This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Jan. 26, 2011 - WASHINGTON - While the Republicans and Democrats in the audience worked hard to give the impression of warm bipartisanship during President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening, the assessments of the speech afterward divided along predictably partisan lines.
Anticipating the winter storm that was heading toward the capital, most Republicans -- while praising Obama's spirit of bipartisan civility -- gave his call for a federal spending freeze the cold shoulder because they said it would not cut deeply enough.
"The president said a lot of the right things tonight. But Americans expect action in addition to words," said U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who questioned whether Obama will back up his rhetoric with action. In a statement, he said, "This speech should have been about jobs and too much government spending. Instead it was about 'investment,' which is just another word for more government spending."
Most Democrats in the Missouri and Illinois delegation praised the president's speech and the challenges he laid down. "I thought it was an inspiring speech," said Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis. "The president laid out a very ambitious set of goals. At the same time that we streamline our government, close tax loopholes and cut waste, we need to continue to invest in infrastructure, renewable energy and closing disparities in health care and education."
Coming down somewhere in the middle was Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who got a coveted kiss from the president as he walked down the aisle toward the podium. She said she liked parts of Obama's speech but doesn't "think his proposal to freeze spending goes far enough" to address the nation's deficit. She said she was pleased that Obama came out against congressional earmarks -- which McCaskill also opposes -- as "a small, but symbolic way Congress can signal to the American people that we are serious about bringing fiscal responsibility to Washington."
On Tuesday night, the grand stage of the U.S. House chamber was transformed by a couple of major changes from Obama's speech last year: Republican House Speaker John Boehner replaced former Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi behind the president, and -- rather than Republicans and Democrats segregating on the two sides of the chamber -- many Congress members defied tradition and crossed the aisle to sit with colleagues of the opposite political party.
It was certainly a far cry of the highly charged atmosphere at Obama's health-care speech to Congress in September 2009, which U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.Carolina, interrupted by shouting, "You lie!"
Bipartisan Seating Chart
The main reason was the call for civility in political discourse that followed the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson that killed six people, critically injured Rep. Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords, D-Ariz., and wounded 14 others. On Tuesday evening, members of Arizona's congressional delegation sat together around an empty seat that honored Giffords. Sitting next to that group was U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-St. Louis, who told the Beacon afterward that "it was an emotional group. Everyone was pleased that the president mentioned Gabby and the other Tucson victims in his speech."
Among the bipartisan pairings: Illinois' two senators Democrat Dick Durbin and Republican Mark Kirk; Blunt with Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland; Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Belleville, with Republican Rep. Jimmy Duncan of Tennessee; Clay with a freshman Republican from Philadelphia; and Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, with Democrat Tim Bishop of New York.
After the speech, Durbin -- the Senate's second-ranking Democrat -- said he hoped that "the good manners we saw in the congressional audience tonight will continue when the session resumes tomorrow."
McCaskill, who sat in a row with Sen Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and conservative Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said "the tone in the Capitol tonight was optimistic." She added that Obama "is right that we need better civility and bipartisanship in Washington to tackle the tough challenges facing our nation."
In general, Durbin said he liked the speech as well as the atmosphere in the House chamber. He said Obama "continued the conversation with the American people that he began in the wake of the Tucson tragedy. It was a message about our future and our need to work together, with respect, to meet our challenges."
From Outside the Beltway
In some ways, experts said, Obama toned down his speech to foster a better atmosphere in the House chamber. "In a way, the speech allowed Congress to become as important a part of the speech as the president," commented Wayne Fields, a Washington University professor and expert on presidential rhetoric, who watched the speech in St. Louis.
"There was not a lot of reaching for quotable lines in the speech," Fields said, "but it was an interesting speech that helped blur the traditional lines between Republicans and Democrats for a while." Fields is the author of "Union of Words: A History of Presidential Eloquence" (1996).
Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, described the speech as "very capable. The president did what he needed to do, building on some of the themes he had struck in his Tucson speech" after the Giffords shooting.
Robertson noted that "Obama mentioned the idea of major reorganization of the executive branch. He said that its organization had not been updated since the age of black and white TV. There's a reason for that. Major reorganization has been highly contentious, because there are many agencies, interest groups and members of Congress that have a stake in the status quo."
Both Robertson and Fields said one phrase that may be remembered from the speech was Obama's call for increased federal investments in clean-energy technology, biomedical research and information technology as "our generation's Sputnik moment."
But political analyst Gina Loudon, a key figure in the St. Louis Tea Party, told the Beacon that she thought Obama's speech was "a little bit flat" -- especially in contrast with his Tucson speech. "When he says 'investment,' he really means spending," she said, "and that's not what people wanted to hear."
Local Delegation's Varied Reactions
Obama's call for clean-coal technology was appreciated by members of Congress from Illinois, with its coal resources, and the president's mention of his goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years struck a chord when he boasted that "routes in California and the Midwest are already underway" -- an apparent reference, among other routes, to the St. Louis to Chicago high-speed line.
Members of the U.S. Senate and House from Missouri and Illinois -- several of whom sat next to colleagues from the opposite political party -- tended to assess the speech along familiar party lines.
Kirk -- a Republican who occupies Obama's old Senate seat -- said he and Durbin "sat together as patriots, not partisans." He said he appreciated Obama's plea for civility, but he felt the president did not go far enough in calling for spending cuts. "The American people elected a new Congress with a mandate to cut spending, reduce debt and keep taxes low," said Kirk. "Unfortunately, I heard more ways to spend tax dollars than ways to cut the budget."
Even so, Kirk said that "Republicans should support the president's efforts to consolidate the federal government and his call for ending congressional earmarks." And the new Illinois senator said he was "eager to join in the [Obama] administration's discussion toward a simplified tax code and ending regulations that hamper economic growth."
Costello said Obama "outlined a workable blueprint for continuing and expanding our economic recovery. His attention to regulatory reform, streamlining government and tax reform should be well-received on both sides of the aisle."
But Missouri's Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country -- who ended up standing near the back of the House chamber because he couldn't find a seat -- said he didn't see much in the speech that Republicans can work with.
"He gave the deficit problem lip service, but not much more," said Akin, who saw "serious contradictions" in Obama's call for new infrastructure spending at the same time he called for deficit reduction. And Akin said the president's apparent willingness to tinker with aspects of last year's health-care reform package "ignored the fact that the House just voted to repeal ObamaCare. It needs a lot more than tinkering."
Carnahan, on the other hand, found a lot to praise in Obama's speech. "His focus on clean energy technology -- and research and development in general -- is a big deal for the St. Louis region," Carnahan told the Beacon. "And so is the call for infrastructure improvement, considering that St. Louis is a major transportation hub."
Rep. John Shimkus, R-Collinsville, said Obama did not go far enough in calling for spending cuts -- far deeper than a freeze. He also said the president's call for more investment in green energy didn't go far enough. "While clean coal technology is vital to Illinois and an issue I fully support," Shimkus said, "I believe an 'all of the above' energy strategy is the best way to increase supply and reduce energy costs."
Missouri's two freshmen House members -- Reps. Billy Long of Springfield and Vicky Hartzler of Harrisonville, both Republicans -- said they were impressed by the atmosphere in the crowded House chamber but did not think Obama went far enough in calling for cuts in spending.
"President Obama is a gifted speaker and tonight he said a lot of things that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on," said Long. But he added: "I usually agree with 80 percent of what he says and disagree with 80 percent of what he does."
Hartzler, who ended up sitting next to a Democrat from Virginia, told the Beacon that the atmosphere in the House chamber was "a little surreal," with lots of political heavyweights gathered together. While she appreciated the event, she said Obama "didn't go nearly far enough to satisfy Republicans on spending cuts."
One member of Missouri's congressional delegation who did not attend the speech was Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau, who slipped on the ice and broke her arm over the weekend and was unable to travel to Washington. She issued a statement saying that House Republicans "are very concerned about the flood of regulations from this administration, the health care law, and the growth of government in general. All of this costs us jobs in Missouri."
But Emerson, a co-founder of the Center Aisle Caucus that works for bipartisanship in the House, said she was encouraged by the show of civility by members of Congress who sat with colleagues of the opposite party. "Republicans and Democrats showed tonight that they are rededicated to civil discourse," she said. "It's important that we all work to find some common ground, whether we are in the political majority or the political minority."
Read More
Warning of painful spending cuts, President Barack Obama calls on Americans to unleash their creative spirits, set aside their partisan differences and come together around a common goal of out-competing other nations in a rapidly shifting global economy. | New York Times
Read the text of Obama's speech. | Politico
Read Paul Ryan's GOP response. | NPR