CHICAGO (WLS) -President Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday evening is likely to be viewed as a reelection speech, and the president’s former chief of staff, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has some ideas about how the speech should be constructed.
The mayor told a panel at the University of Chicago that the president should say very little about his first term, and focus on what he would do in a second term. Emanuel said, “What you do with the first term is say, ‘I inherited a mess, I did what I could to stabilize it, and here’s what we’re gonna do.’ ”
Emanuel spoke at the announcement of plans to begin an Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, to be headed by David Axelrod, President Obama’s key political strategist. Emanuel told the audience that the State of the Union Speech should deemphasize the first term. He said, “Elections are all about tomorrow, not about the past. If you’re going forward while you’re looking in the rear view mirror, they’ll catch you on that and you’ll have an accident.”
The President emailed a video preview of his address to supporters over the weekend. In it, he promised a “blueprint for an American economy that’s built to last,” with the government assisting the private sector and individuals to ensure “an America where everybody gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules.” And the President again will propose changes in the tax code so that the wealthy pay more.
26 Jan
Rahm to Obama: Don’t run on your record, sport
That bit about the rear-view mirror…….don’t you wish Ron Paul could stop talking like he’s got a time machine so he can go back and ”fix” all the stuff in the past he doesn’t agree with?
But, if he stopped talking about the past he’d come up mute!
LOL!
It is the job of the GOP candidate to keep focus on Obama’s record. All the facts. The stimulus which financed the Obama political agenda. His failure to reduce the jobless rate. Can anyone say we would be in this position if Hillary had won the nomination? We would not have Obama care and I think she would have done more about the economy, will Bills assistance. I am no Clinton fan but they understood its the economy, stupid.
@Nan G: Paul has plenty of forward looking plans… not sure where you got this criticism. Now if you wanted to say that it’s like he *stepped out of* a time machine from 1936 or thereabouts, you’d have something…