Obama Sets His Course with First Speech to Congress

No doubt about it, Obama's first speech to a joint session of Congress last night knocked people's socks off. Well, maybe not Bobby Jindal's and the rest of the Just Say No Republicans, but we knew how they'd react. What's your response? I thought it was a strong speech in many ways, and a necessary one. Obama, as we have seen many times, knows his way around a podium. I have some bones to pick with the speech -- in terms of what he didn't say about unions and labor and trade and what he hinted at about Social Security -- but there'll be time for that as the administration goes deeper into the details.

Early polling shows the public got just what they came for, what they needed in this precarious moment in time. Democracy Corps, for instance, did dial and focus group research during the speech and found high levels of approval across the board. They , "Obama managed to break through the partisan polarization of Washington and connect directly with American voters across the political spectrum ... His speech inspired confidence in voters of all political stripes in his understanding of the challenges the country faces, as well as his agenda for the future."

And the words being used by commentators to describe his performance are positive indeed: confident, commanding, positive, optimistic, engaging, inspiring, political tour de force, bold and ... hopeful.

The president spoke for a bit less than an hour and laid out an ambitious and wide-ranging agenda (click for pdf of prepared remarks and video). He made it clear he intends to start on it NOW:

We have lived through an era where too often, short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn’t afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.

Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.

Now is the time to act boldly and wisely – to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that’s what I’d like to talk to you about tonight.

... The recovery plan and the financial stability plan are the immediate steps we’re taking to revive our economy in the short-term. But the only way to fully restore America’s economic strength is to make the long-term investments that will lead to new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete with the rest of the world. The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility.

... Let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.

... We will double this nation’s supply of renewable energy in the next three years. We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country. And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills.

Here's what some of our members of Congress had to say about the speech tonight.

Rep. Martin Heinrich: “Despite the very serious economic situation we are in, I share President Obama’s optimistic view that we can create good jobs by investing in green energy, education, health care and restoring our infrastructure. Now, more than ever, we must reform the way government conducts its business, eliminate unnecessary and ineffective programs, fight for middle class families and restore the American Dream for all New Mexicans."

Rep. Ben Ray Lujan: "President Obama and the 111th Congress have inherited a difficult economic situation from the Bush Administration. Tonight, President Obama outlined a clear and responsible plan to get our economy back on track, put people first, and invest in America. President Obama's commitment to changing the direction of our country is encouraging and inspiring. He spoke boldly, he spoke to the American people, and I look forward to working with him to get our economy back on track."

Sen. Tom Udall: “President Obama spoke very candidly about the difficult and uncertain economic era facing the American people. After years of fiscal irresponsibility, misguided budget choices, and refusal to make the difficult decisions our time demands, it’s time to invest in our long-term prosperity instead of short-term and short-sighted gains. We as Americans have a collective responsibility to help our nation change course. We can begin to do this by helping the president build upon the blueprint for our nation’s future he laid out in tonight’s speech.

"We must continue to create and sustain American jobs and remain viable in the global marketplace with the long-term investments in energy, health care and education he described.

“Another important message we must take away is that – regardless of our differences – we must work together to confront this economic crisis of historic proportions. It is time to unite and embrace the enduring spirit and resiliency Westerners know so well to confront the universal challenges ahead.”

PS: If you're not into reading Obama's entire speech, you can check out a word cloud prepared by the News Hour that gives you a visual version of the words.