|
 Both Obama’s speech on Tuesday, and for that matter, the
Republican response by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, took
pains to rebuke Trump, the real-estate mogul whose red-hot rhetoric
has endeared him to some and dismayed others in the campaign for the
Nov. 8 presidential election.
Obama and Haley, although from different parties, offered a defense
on Tuesday of establishment politics, a plea for optimism and a
quest for common ground.
Obama seemed to refer specifically to Trump’s call for a temporary
ban on Muslim immigration following a deadly shooting attack last
month in San Bernardino, California, by a couple authorities said
had been radicalised.
The president said: “We need to reject any politics that targets
people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political
correctness.”
Trump has mounted much of his insurgent candidacy on the notion of
America losing ground, both economically and in terms of global
influence. Obama rejected that idea outright.
 “It’s easier to be cynical,” Obama said, “to accept that change
isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our
voices and actions don’t matter."
Soon after Obama concluded his remarks in the chamber of the U.S.
House of Representatives, Trump tweeted: "The State of the Union
speech was one of the most boring, rambling and non-substantive I
have heard in a long time."
While consistently criticizing Obama’s record, Haley, seen as a
potential Republican vice presidential choice for the November
election to replace Obama, also seemed to indict Trump's message
without naming him.
“Some people think that you have to be the loudest voice in the room
to make a difference,” Haley said. “That is just not true. Often,
the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is
quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that
can make a world of difference.”
Paul Sracic, chairman of the politics department at Youngstown State
University in Ohio, said: “Donald Trump must be smiling tonight. He
managed to make himself the target of not just the president’s State
of the Union address, but also the Republican response.
"Trump, and in particular his views on immigration, are now
dominating our political discourse in a way that no one would have
predicted even a year ago."
CRUZ WEIGHS IN
Obama also appeared to single out conservative Texas Senator Ted
Cruz, the top challenger to Trump in the Republican race. Cruz has
called for a massive bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria to wipe out
Islamic State forces.
Meeting the threat of Islamic State, Obama said, “needs to be more
than tough talk or calls to carpet-bomb civilians.”
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said Obama “made the argument very
well that leadership is not bombing the crap out of someone.”
[to top of second column] |
Cruz quickly countered in a statement. Obama, he said, “lectures us
on civility yet he has been one of the most divisive presidents in
American history.”
Both Trump and Cruz, who are topping opinion polls weeks before the
early nomination contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, have pledged to
push the Republican Party in a more confrontational direction, and
seek to undo much of what Obama has accomplished as president.
Both candidates are likely in coming days to hammer the Obama
administration on its approach to Islamic State.
Republican strategists keyed on Obama’s statement that the militant
group was not a threat to “our national existence” and cited the
detention by Iran of 10 U.S. Navy sailors after two ships were
reported to have crossed into its territorial waters.
“Republicans will disagree with the president that our enemies are
not getting stronger and will likely quickly cite Iran has 10
American sailors in its possession at this very moment,” said
Republican consultant Ron Bonjean.
Obama did not address the sailors' detention in his speech. The
White House expects the situation to be resolved quickly.
Obama’s defense of pragmatic politics may also help his former
secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, who is trying to stave off a
challenge from self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders in
the Democratic presidential contest, said Bannon.
“He’s taking about holding up the establishment,” he said. “When the
president makes a good case, it helps Hillary more than Bernie.”
But John Geer, an expert on voter opinion at Vanderbilt University,
thought Obama, in his bid for unity, damaged Clinton’s prospects by
not making a stronger case for continuing the Democratic agenda. “He
didn’t put forward an argument why there should be another Democrat
for four years,” Geer said. “I think she would have liked to see
that.”
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Jeff Mason; Editing by
Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
