Obama Fails to Lead on Reducing Money in Politics – Advocacy Group

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016.

In his final speech to Congress, the president said that the genius of the country was its perennial willingness to embrace change – and ability to ignore the angriest anti-foreign voices “promising to restore past glory”. On virtually every measure, the President said we are better positioned to lead the world in the 21st century.

“Then you look at some of these ads, it’s some doom and some gloom”, he said referring to “depressing” campaign ads by Republican presidential candidates that are blanketing the region’s airwaves in the run-up to voting.

His trip to Nebraska, a Republican “red state”, is meant to help promote the big-picture ideas he laid out in his final State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

Afterwards, Obama reprised his address to a packed-to-the-rafters crowd of 11,000 at a hockey rink at the University of Nebraska, a state where he acknowledged he got “whupped” in his 2012 re-election campaign.

“Well, I can imagine it – in a “Saturday Night” skit”, Obama said, referring to the NBC’s long-running late-night comedy show “Saturday Night Live”. “And, you know, it was interesting to me really you saw a Congress that was listening much more than in effect demonstrating by ovation”.

He said change is the reason many Americans are anxious about the economy.

OBAMA: This is not a matter of political correctness.

President Obama, however, reiterated concepts reminiscent of his journey into office.

The president didn’t name names, but concern for the rhetoric of Donald Trump – and perhaps select other candidates – was, to us, obviously woven through the president’s remarks.

Cruz: Obama seemed concerned about the tone that seems to be out there and he seemed to counter this notion that the nation is somehow in decline, economically and militarily.

How do we make sure this economy works for everybody?

He also offered his pitch to fix it – including structural reforms to a political system he said even those in Washington don’t like.

Toward the end of the address, the president made one more reference to the Internet Age but this time looking backward.

“You’ll be debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority of the American people, nearly the entire scientific community, and 200 nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it”. And each time, we overcame those fears.

There were some strong but fleeting lines about climate change, but the President declined to take a real victory lap on the Paris agreement from December, which he and his White House staff earned.

Barack Obama has said it is “just wrong” for politicians to “insult Muslims” during his last State of the Union speech as president.