Blogger Candidate Forum: The President Address To Congress

President Trump speaking before a joint session of Congress
February 28, 2017
cnn.com

Hello Everyone:

It is time for the weekly edition of Blogger Candidate Forum.  This week's post is focused on President Donald Trump maiden speech before a joint session of Congress, February 28, 2017.  Blogger's initial impression, this is the speech that POTUS should have given at his inauguration.  It was optimistic and laid out his vision for the United States.  The speech outlined a bold vision for the nation.   President Trump was, for lack of another word, presidential.  How long he will maintain this demeanor remains to be seen.  Blogger would like to focus on some of the takeaways from the speech and what we can draw from them.

POTUS with Vice President Pence and House Speaker Ryan
11alive.com

First of all, which is the real Donald Trump?  The one standing in front of Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan or the man who denigrated the intelligence community and bickered about the size of his inauguration crowd?  Excellent question.

Both his nomination acceptance speech in Cleveland last summer and his inaugural speech offered a dystopian vision of America.  A "mourning-in-America" doom and gloom vision of the United States. Since the inauguration, the President has regularly lashed out at anyone who opposed him and those who did not: the media, Saturday Night Live, Sweden, former President Barack Obama, the Democrats, and so on.  Tuesday evening we got the nice version of POTUS.  The speech that he delivered yesterday evening brought establishment Republicans, including former primary opponents, to their feet.  The speech was marked progress for a man who frequently goes off script and a has an itchy Twitter finger.  The overarching question is will this new unifying tone signal the long awaited pivot or was it just for show?

Cabinet members applauding POTUS
newsday.com

President Trump began his address with an immediate condemnation of bigotry.  He said,

...we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms. (http://www.nytimes.com; date accessed Mar. 1, 2017).

Was this a response to criticism of his sluggish response to the violence and vandalism directed against the Jewish, Muslim, and African American communities or just a case of too little, too late? Hard to say but POTUS does bear some responsibility for the hate and evil in all of its ugly forms.  If you listened carefully to his campaign and nomination speeches, you would have noticed an underlying us-against-them philosophy.  This is similar to the rationale behind hate group rhetoric.  Yet, given the enthusiastic sustained cheers that greeted this statement, it seems this rather neutral statement was most welcomed.

Has POTUS Kept His Promises So Far?
morningconsult.com

Let us be blunt, the polls have not been very kind to President Trump.  Despite his rowing about negative polls being fake news, there was a bright spot.  Politico/Morning Consult poll (see graphic on the left-hand side) released on Tuesday indicated that 56 percent of Americans believe that POTUS has kept his promises, so far.

This number is important for a president who is anxious to prove he is not just talk.  Team Trump has been relentless in branding the President as a man of action, locked in combat with Washington elites, signing executive orders, leading panels on business.  He told the assembled members of Congress, cabinet secretaries, and guests:

...It's been a little over a month since my inauguration, and I want to take this moment to update the nation on the progress I've made in keeping those promises... (Ibid)

The promises he is taking credit for are: saving jobs, pulling the U.S, out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, renegotiating defense contract, and giving the go ahead to the controversial Keystone Pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline.  Never mind the fact that a month into his his first term, President Obama accomplished more than his successor-i.e. the stimulus package and gender pay-parity law.

Presidential tone and demeanor aside, President Trump cares more about taking credit for these accomplishments as proof that he is a man of action despite the fact that his administration is portrayed in the media as short-handed and riddle with conflict.

First Lady's box
abcnews.go.com

Another noticeable feature of the hour-long speech, aside from the applause lines and attention grabbing pronouncements, was the lack of an actual explanation on how exactly does POTUS intend to govern.  Also lacking were details about his signature proposals.  Specifically, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), overhauling the tax code, the massive infrastructure package he promised to jam through, or his plan to send $54 billion to the Defense Department.

This is not a big surprise.  The President has never been a person big on details.  However, this is not one of his business deal, this is about governing the United States.  Specifics are essential because you are now talking about policy decisions that will greatly affect people's lives.  Already we are seeing angry citizens upset about the lack of a tangible replacement for ACA.  His proposals for immigration are short details.  President Donald Trump must remember that his policies have consequences on people's lives, thus specifics are absolutely crucial.

Carryn Owens,
The widow of U.S. Navy Senior Chief William "Ryan" Owens
npr.org

Finally, let us talk about the central pillar of President Trump's winning strategy with the white working-class voters-you guess it-cracking down on illegal immigration.  His most decisive action, thus far, has been centered on the subject, including fumbled rollout of his ill-conceived executive order barring immigrants from seven Muslim nations.  Prior to his address, Team Trump sent out very mixed messages on the subjects.  POTUS declared, to the delight of many Republicans,

...we will soon begin the construction of a great, great wall along our southern border... (Ibid)

However earlier, in an interview with some of country's leading news presenters, the president appeared to considerably soften his position.  In private he has suggested that legal status could be granted to the millions of undocumented immigrants without felony criminal records.  This is something that immigration hardliners, like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, have considered "amnesty."

President Trump never returned to the subject nor to did he make any reference to legalizing undocumented immigrants-raising questions about what position he will take when dealing with Congress.

The next time President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress will be early next year.  This time it will be a formal State of The Union speech, in a mid-term election year.  A lot can happen in a year.  How the President's bold and optimistic vision plays out over the next year remains to be seen.