Current events: 6 take-aways from #SOTU2019
He took a stand — on abortion, socialism, and illegal immigration. Every solid speech needs a platform. This one wasn’t wishy-washy.
He also found some common ground — on defeating AIDS, childhood cancer and defending American jobs. A good speech builds rapport with the audience. He named it where he could find it.
He reached out — by championing paid parental leave and women in the workforce. That candid moment when he applauded the record number of women in the 116th Congress and told them: “Don’t sit yet — you’re going to like this…” was a nice surprise.
Speaking of SURPRISE — He made a major announcement about a second summit with Kim Jon-Un to be held in Vietnam this February. I don’t think this captured the news cycle the way it should have — especially considering that he did NOT surprise the nation with an emergency declaration for a border wall as was expected by his opponents. They were prepared for war, and he sort of trumped them. Again, I don’t think this received the attention and praise it should have.
It was focused — He narrowed the speech to eight priorities. For context, presidents since Lyndon Johnson have averaged 34 policy proposals, with Bill Clinton requesting a record 87 in 2000. (Source: FiveThirtyEight.com)
Delivery was “meh” — the cadence was awkward at times, and that transition from abortion to national security... ? One could also say it was sort of oatmeal — not especially rousing. But keeping it low-key was probably appropriate given the recent stand-off with Congress and rescheduling circus.
