The Cutter Report »

The State of the Union: President Obama’s Evolving Vision

Obama is getting closer to the reset that will be necessary to get the country back on track but still has some substantial progress to make.

Last night was by far President Obama’s best State of the Union speech. As you would expect, this is not everyone’s view. Governor Romney called it “detached” from reality. Michael Gerson said, “Obama’s reelection was the unifying theme of last night’s speech.” Dana Milbank said, “Obama’s speech was flat.” The Wall Street Journal saw it as a populist pitch.

I thought it was well structured, set the right tone, and began to provide an actual vision of the economy of the…

The New Guard »

Obama’s SOTU Charts a Course Toward a Prosperous Millennial America

With work still yet to be done, President Obama’s State of the Union kept the momentum from the 2008 election going for young Americans.

In November 2008, I voted in my first presidential election. The summer had been a brutal battle for the Democratic nomination, and young people were campaigning in record numbers to take hold of our futures (and, of course, that of “Joe the Plumber”). That fall, approximately 23 million young people comprised almost two-thirds of the overall 5.4 million voter turnout increase. NDN states that the Millennial Generation (born 1978 - 2000) voted for Barack Obama by a 34-point…

Obama Makes the Case for Government

The president didn’t go as far as he needed to, but he began to articulate an argument that the American people need to hear.

The president’s State of the Union speech last night was not a progressive’s delight. But it straightforwardly and strongly put forth a case for government that the president has heretofore not made. Perhaps America is again ready to listen after the dominance of an anti-government narrative for so long.

Last night, the president covered a lot of territory, and in fact almost all the important bases. He made several unfortunate nods to the right, including proudly boasting of…

The New Guard »

What Lessons Can We Learn from Obama’s SOTU Proposals on Education?

The president’s speech brought up core issues facing our educational system but he didn’t always go far enough.

Obama’s State of the Union focused minimally on education. However, what he did say fits with the administration’s existing policy. Focusing on retraining our workforce through partnerships with community colleges is key. Most community colleges are already well equipped to do the technical training and re-training needed for both young people and older workers to succeed in our ever-more technologically complex manufacturing economy. Additional financial support from the federal government will help make community college more affordable, especially for those out of work.…

SOTU Name Checks Tax Reform and Campaign Finance but Misses Key Points

President Obama raised some very important issues but still isn’t focused on the real roots of the problems.

President Obama’s third State of the Union address was certainly a masterful performance, delivered with a sense that he’d finally gained command of both the political and policy demands of the office. (Ryan Lizza’s brilliant article yesterday on the early decision making around economic stimulus struck me as a sharp reminder of how far Obama was from that mastery in 2009. But, not to make excuses, nobody arrives in the Oval Office knowing how to do the job of President of the United States.)…

Roosevelt Reacts: Obama’s SOTU was Heavy on Campaign Themes, Light on Policy

As President Obama delivered his third State of the Union address, we asked Fellows and staff from the Four Freedoms Center, Campus Network, and Pipeline to weigh in with their thoughts on what they wanted to hear and how the speech matched up:

Ellen Chesler, Senior Fellow, Roosevelt Institute:

“Since Obama’s speech was so overtly political and partisan, challenging Republicans on basic principles, I was actually surprised at first that it contained so few explicitly ‘gendered’ references. Candidate Obama, after all, can only win a second term handily if he woos back the independent women voters who favored him by such a…

The Millennial Pulse »

Obama’s SOTU Captures the Millennial Mindset

The president showed he understands that Millennials are concerned about paying for college, getting a job, and not getting left out of health care if they can’t.

Last night, listening to the State of the Union, I felt really proud of my president. I felt inspired. He spoke to me as a member of the Millennial generation.

There seems to be a lot of chatter in politics about how to help out my cohort — talk of how to save my generation from a dystopian future of mountains of federal debt, an oppressive federal health care system, and illegal immigrants stealing our…

Daily Digest »

January 25: Stand Together or Fall Apart

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Click here to receive the Daily Digest via e-mail.

Compiled with the help of Roosevelt Institute intern Elena Callahan.

Obama Speech Makes Pitch for Economic Fairness (NYT)
The president’s agenda wasn’t exactly drawn from the Occupy movement, but the broad themes he addressed were at least similar enough for a “based on a story by” credit, and Republicans would really like to turn the page before November.

Obama Urges Tougher Laws on Financial Fraud (NYT)
A call for fairness requires one to acknowledge, as Obama did by calling on Congress to strengthen the SEC, that ordinary Americans can’t…

Meet the Millennials Who Are Changing the World

Who says young people aren’t paying attention? This year’s Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network Senior Fellows have ideas that aim to solve issues from boosting economies in developing countries, finding new thinking in the Arab world, and ending the school-to-prison pipeline. They may still be in school, but their ideas could reach every corner of the country — and even the globe. Watch them talk about their inspiring projects:

The New Guard »

Will Homemakers Once Again be Left Without a Financial Lifeline?

There may be a new trend of men becoming homemakers, but they could face the same limitations to credit that women did in the 1950s.

“We may see the Masculine Mystique in 2020.” That’s the prediction Kathleen Christensen, Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, makes at the end of Bloomberg Businessweek’s article on homemaker dads published earlier this month. She suggests that in any arrangement where one person does 100 percent of the housework and the other 100 percent of the work outside the home, someone will get frustrated. Today’s homemaker dads may be discovering what mothers in the 1950s…