COMMENTARY | A theme that President Barack Obama offered in the last election, and this election, is bipartisanship. President Obama would like nothing better than for the Republicans and the Democrats to work together to get American back on track.
On Tuesday night, he gave his final State of the Union address before the 2012 election. Once again, bipartisanship played a role. “One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL Team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn’t matter. Just like it didn’t matter that day in the Situation Room, when I sat next to Bob Gates — a man who was George Bush’s defense secretary — and Hillary Clinton, a woman who ran against me for president,” as reported at the White House website.
But who was listening? Bottom line: Democrats who support the president want him to remain in office. Republicans want him out. There’s no room for bipartisanship with these two separate agendas.
If Obama wishes to remain president, given the country’s problems, he must convey strength. One of the biggest complaints that Democrats have had about the president is that he has oftentimes appeared like a puppet controlled by puppet masters. However, when Obama gave his final State of the Union address, we saw the toughness we came to know when he was battling for the White House in 2008. He was criticized as being inexperienced then. He’s not inexperienced now.
There’s two frontrunners battling for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Gingrich is not interested in “Kumbaya” moments with what he calls a “food stamp” and “Saul Alinsky” president. And neither, for that matter, is Romney.
If Obama hopes to stay in the White House, he needs to push his message of what he wants, whether the Republicans agree with him or not — such as provide tax cuts for middle and working class Americans, strengthening security at our borders, supporting clean energy, support for same-sex marriage, removing the rest of the troops from Afghanistan, etc.
A “can’t we all just get along” message sounds beautiful, but it won’t work against a Gingrich or a Romney.