President Obama is right that through his remaining months he can leave his deepest imprint primarily through unilateral actions that don’t require congressional cooperation. But they aren’t the actions he highlighted the most in this week’s State of the Union.
In the speech, Obama offered a coherent vision of the president as catalyst and cheerleader. He correctly argued that while the country is stalemated in Washington, businesses, local governments, and nonprofit organizations still show enormous vitality in confronting big problems ranging from education to stagnant incomes. With vigor, he pledged to mobilize the innovators already driving that change. Congress, he insisted, could join him—or stand aside and marginalize itself. CONT.
Ron Brownstein, National Journal