Isabel Sawhill, a domestic poverty and federal fiscal policy expert with the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua in an interview that 2011 was the first year the issue of fairness, equality and opportunity in America was made part of public debate, and that it's now a part of the political debate as well.
"I think throughout 2012, it will continue to be a major issue, and people will have to decide whether they think that government should do something about this level of inequality to help compensate the poor, perhaps by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, which the president has consistently argued for, or whether instead the government should get out of the way, which is what the Republicans argue, and hope that the market will help everyone and lift everyone up through economic growth," Sawhill said.
Obama appears to have no intention of abandoning his tactic. According to the White House, in the morning after the address, Obama will launch a three-day, cross-country tour through five election battleground states to promote the proposals he made in his State of the Union address.
He will focus on manufacturing in Iowa and Arizona on Wednesday, and discuss energy issues in Nevada and Colorado on Thursday. On Friday, he will give a speech in Michigan on college costs.
Yet bashing Congress is one thing, and battling a Republican candidate in the general election is another. Obama is well aware that he has to make this election a choice about the future, not a referendum on how he fared in the first term.
"We have an electorate that is so incensed with what's happening in their government, that they just want to throw the rascals out, so I don't think the public is very focused right now on the issues and on the candidates' positions as much as they are on wanting someone to shake up the system and to change it in a major way," Sawhill said.
