Obama's State of the Union

On Tuesday, Obama gave his final State of the Union Address. He focused on how politics need to change. He said campaigning is focusing on "tribalism" and "fear" and is looking for a successor to be "clear-eyed" and "optimistic". He slammed the Republican candidates saying that they were threatening America's destiny by festering in malice, gridlock and keeping control with the rich and powerful. "As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don't look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background," Obama says. In general he kept up his optimistic tone encouraging US citizens to not be fearful of change. "Economic opportunity, security and a sustainable, peaceful planet are possible if the country could return to rational, constructive debates. It will only happen if we fix our politics," he said. He then proceeded to defend his presidency going back to his statistics like cutting the unemployment rate in half and creating 14 million new jobs. He also briefly addressed climate change stating frankly that if Republicans really weren't going to accept that it was happening, then they were welcome to that opinion, as they were going against the rest of the world. "Obama also vowed to fight to close the war on terror camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, renewing one of the first promises of his presidency that has been thwarted by Congress. He called the facility a 'recruitment brochure for our enemies and was expensive and unnecessary.'" Lastly his address of the ISIS situation was nothing but dismissive and confident. He said things like, "As we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands. They do not threaten our national existence. That's the story ISIL wants to tell; that's the kind of propaganda they use to recruit." And to those who claim that he is weakening power abroad, he simply said, " fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages do not represent an existential threat to America." This address really did a great job of summing up his presidency. He has never been about "fear politics" and didn't waver from his stance on foreign policy. He did a great job being upfront about this issues that the presidency that will follow him will have if the political scene does not clean up it's act. Right now, candidates are winning for all the wrong reasons and he encouraged not only candidates, but voters, to begin to look at things with a clear, level-head and pleaded that America not veer away from what makes it the greatest country on Earth.