Philip Klein: Obama Builds Bridge to Clinton
[Philip Klein is The American Spectator's Washington correspondent.]
For all the “future” talk in last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama seemed to have drawn a lot of inspiration from the past.
While the defining phrase of the speech, “Winning the Future,” was the title of a 2005 book by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the content of the speech echoed the theme of former President Bill Clinton’s reelection campaign.
After defeat in the 1994 midterm elections curtailed his ambitious legislative agenda, Clinton famously pivoted, acknowledging the public’s desire to rein in government while positioning himself as the protector of the social safety net from the Gingrich Republicans who wanted to rip it to shreds. In the 1996 campaign, this morphed into the vaguely defined “Bridge to the 21st Century.”
Obama, facing a similar set of political circumstances, now looks to be replicating the winning Clinton model as he gears up for his own reelection effort.
In both cases, the presidents were addressing a nation that had become skeptical of big government, and thus they tried to frame their expansionary policies in a way that tapped into Americans’ patriotism and romance with the future...
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For all the “future” talk in last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama seemed to have drawn a lot of inspiration from the past.
While the defining phrase of the speech, “Winning the Future,” was the title of a 2005 book by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the content of the speech echoed the theme of former President Bill Clinton’s reelection campaign.
After defeat in the 1994 midterm elections curtailed his ambitious legislative agenda, Clinton famously pivoted, acknowledging the public’s desire to rein in government while positioning himself as the protector of the social safety net from the Gingrich Republicans who wanted to rip it to shreds. In the 1996 campaign, this morphed into the vaguely defined “Bridge to the 21st Century.”
Obama, facing a similar set of political circumstances, now looks to be replicating the winning Clinton model as he gears up for his own reelection effort.
In both cases, the presidents were addressing a nation that had become skeptical of big government, and thus they tried to frame their expansionary policies in a way that tapped into Americans’ patriotism and romance with the future...