 "Photo: Katie Rimpfel")
Over the blaring salsa music and din of the second floor bar at Timothy’s of Newark, the sound coming from the televisions was barely audible. Straining to listen in, more than 30 supporters huddled around four screens to watch President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address Wednesday night.
Their applause occasionally drowned out the rest of the crowd, prompting boos from those less interested in the president’s speech.
The scene reflected the divisiveness of Obama’s address, which received differing reviews from each side of the aisle despite his call for bipartisan cooperation. Obama asked his colleagues to cooperate on issues such as financial oversight, job creation and healthcare reform.
“For these Americans and so many others, change has not come fast enough,” Obama said to the joint session of Congress. “They’re tired of the partisanship and the shouting and the pettiness. They know we can’t afford it, not now.”
Obama’s address came in the midst of a 10 percent national unemployment rate and a loss of 85,000 jobs in December of 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The president’s own job approval rating has plummeted since his inauguration last January, dropping from 67 percent to 48 percent in one year, according to a Gallup poll.
The crowd that attentively watched the speech at Timothy’s was not part of the 19 percent of the public that has abandoned President Obama since last January. Most were volunteers for Organizing for America, the group that hosted the watch party. The organization supports Obama’s agenda through various grassroot events.
Paul Baumbach, a progressive activist and blogger from Newark, watched the speech while donning an Obama baseball hat. He was hoping that Obama would encourage a more collective effort to address issues such as healthcare, the economy and the environment.
“People forgot the middle word in the phrase ‘yes we can,’ ” Baumbach said. “It’s hard to run a government when you have 40 senators who have a one-word vocabulary: ‘no.’ ”
Obama fulfilled Baumbach’s wish, calling on Senate Republicans not to use their filibuster power on every piece of legislation.
“Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership,” he said. “We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.”
Dan Boselli, president of the university’s College Republicans, was not as thrilled with the president’s request for bipartisanship.
“He called for bipartisanship in the same speech that he derided the Republicans,” Boselli said in a phone interview. “At this point he hasn’t made substantive movements to encourage bipartisan support.”
Obama shifted his focus from the prominent legislative battle of the past year, healthcare reform, back to the economy. He proposed a series of measures aimed at job creation and aiding the middle class.
Most notably, the president proposed a spending freeze on all government spending as of 2011, with the exception of funds for national security, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
In the Republican response, Bob McDonnell, the newly elected governor of Virginia, called Obama’s spending freeze a “laudable step, but a small one,” indicating it was not enough to appease Republicans.
Jason Mycoff, a political science professor at the university, said that the speech was not going to cause a jump in public opinion, but could instead give the president some momentum.
“There is nothing he can say to appease both sides of the aisle,” Mycoff said. “If the speech is received well by members of Congress, if it’s received well by the public, he might be able to explain how what he’s trying to do matches what the public wants.”
Obama did manage to please some his most fervent supporters, though. Obama brought the watch party, as well as the entire House chamber, to their feet as he ended his speech.
“We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment — to start anew, to carry the dream forward and to strengthen our union once more,” he said.
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