"The 'Occupy'
movement, which pits the 1 percent ultra-wealthy against the other 99 percent
of the population, has come in handy. Obama has corrected these numbers for
himself, pitting the top 2 percent of wealthy citizens who benefit from tax
breaks against the 98 percent of families that earn less than $250,000 per
year."
All of
those who thought Barack Obama would have a hard time taking up his 2012 campaign
with his 2008 message of action, hope and change had to eat their words Tuesday
night. In the SOTU, that most solemn annual address on the State of the Union,
Obama even revisited his 2008 slogan, promising this time “an America built to
last,” and hammering home the idea that “we can do this ... I know we can,
because we've done it before.” The president also enumerated a long list of
projects and reforms he would like to initiate and which necessarily require a
second term: immigration reform (already on the agenda in 2008, but without
sufficient time or support to implement), fiscal reform (ensuring that
millionaires pay at least 30 percent income tax, particularly apt on the day
that his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, was forced to reveal that he pays
less than 15 percent on income of more than $20 million), aid for refinancing
home mortgages, and the creation of a new department to fight unfair Chinese
trade practices ... just to name a few.
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
Forcefully
for once, and at the beginning and end of his speech, Barack Obama also brought
up what remains the principal "achievement" of his presidency: the assassination
of Osama bin Laden. Up to now, Obama has had a relatively modest triumph and hasn't
spoken much about it. But as we were told by a White House advisor last summer,
that will change as the election campaign progresses. Bin Laden's assassination
is the only point on which Republicans can neither attack nor challenge.
As had
been guessed by the sly devils of American politics (Paul Begala, David Gergen …),
even before the SOTU, Barack Obama has been trying to "reframe" the
national debate around subjects that show him in a favorable light. He spoke
relatively little on Tuesday about employment or debt in order to put more
emphasis on the need for justice and equality - social or fiscal. If the
central question in November 2012 is the unemployment rate, Obama will have
trouble winning. If the central problem is inequality, the rich who barely pay
income tax and the poor who risk losing the "safety net," the battle
will turn out much better for the incumbent Democratic president.
To
this end, the "Occupy" movement, which pits the one percent ultra-wealthy
against the other 99 percent of the population, has come in handy. Obama has corrected
these numbers for himself, pitting the top two percent of wealthy citizens who
benefit from tax breaks against the 98 percent of families that earn less than
$250,000 per year. For this 98 percent, he promises not to raise taxes. To
illustrate the point, the secretary of Warren Buffett (who is more imposing
than her billionaire boss, as we have begun to learn over the months the White House
has pushed the issue), was invited to attend the address and sit in the box of Michelle
Obama. As they say: the number one problem is not unemployment or even reviving
the economy; but rather the need for fairness in the country.
