Jamie Weinstein

Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, honored guests, my fellow Americans,

I speak to you tonight just over one year into my presidency.  I also speak just eight days removed from a report card given by the people of Massachusetts on my performance to date.  It would be fair to say that the grade was far lower than the B plus I so recently thought I deserved.

How about making the country applaud?

Fellow citizens, the state of our union is surely strong, but my task is to ensure it remains so. Let us not delude ourselves. We face great challenges both domestically and internationally.

When I came into office a year ago, I promised change. I promised to create a new atmosphere of inclusiveness in Washington. I promised to change the old ways business was done.  I am keenly aware that few see that this kind of change has occurred.

Tonight, however, I offer some actual change in the form of a little honest self-reflection. My fellow Americans, I readily admit I have made some great mistakes my first year. But the greatest mistake of all would be if I was too obstinate to admit my wrongs and refused to change course.

This is an error I will not make.

Instead, tonight, let me assure the American people that I get the message. I understand the unrest in the country. Tonight, we change course for the better.

Domestically, I rededicate myself and my administration to doing whatever is necessary to create jobs by reenergizing the economy. Perhaps most importantly, I will work tirelessly to get this nation’s fiscal house in order.

Creating jobs is primarily the responsibility of the private sector.  I will detail my new economic policy soon, but the focus of it will be to unleash the creative energy of America’s entrepreneurs.

A spiritual thriller by Dan Calabrese. Click the image learn more and to order a copy.

In order to address America’s long-term fiscal challenges, I call on Congress to support a special bipartisan entitlement commission. I am afraid that without such a commission, this politically sensitive but vitally important issue will continue to be punted down the road.

We cannot continue to be the world’s strongest economy and only superpower unless we get our fiscal house in order.  The time to act is now.

Fundamentally, I understand that I serve as president at a time of war, and winning this war has to be my top priority. No one in this country understands the threat of Islamist radicalism better than I. Every morning, I am given a wake up call in the form of a daily intelligence briefing. I see the threats to this country everyday. They are real and sobering.

The attempted Christmas Day bomber should remind all Americans that we cannot become complacent. Al Qaeda still wants to attack the American homeland with devastating violence. Our greatest concern still remains that Islamist terrorists will come into possession of weapons of mass destruction. We simply cannot allow that to happen.

To help win this war against Islamist terrorists, I drastically increased troop levels in Afghanistan during my first year in office. We cannot allow the Taliban and their Al Qaeda brethren to reclaim control of Afghanistan as a safe haven to plot and plan against the West as they did before the 9/11 attacks. And we can’t allow these same elements to destabilize a nuclear Pakistan.

But Afghanistan is not the only front in this war. From Yemen to Somalia and beyond, we face threats from Islamist extremists. We must remain vigilant and work with allies to destroy this network of terror.

My fellow Americans, we must never forget that we are a nation at war. Accordingly, we must act as a nation at war. On this score, I made some major mistakes during my first year.  My administration should not have treated the attempted Christmas Day bomber like an ordinary criminal. There is no good reason to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad as a civilian in the United States. And while I understand why some have called for closing the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, I now understand that this will serve no useful purpose.

From now on, this administration will recognize reality and act with the understanding that we are in a war. And we will do so while maintaining the values that make us a great nation.

Entering the Oval Office last year, I mistakenly believed that however bad the Iranian regime was, its leaders could be dealt with. I now understand the Iranian regime is entirely dedicated to creating a nuclear weapon. No amount of conferences and no amount of incentives will convince them to change course.

What’s more, the Iranian regime has time and again proven itself fundamentally illegitimate. The boiling point has reached a high level in the country. Even while the regime brutalizes them, the Iranian people are rising up against these injustices in great numbers. Let me be clear and unequivocal: The United States of America stands squarely with the Iranian people in their quest for freedom.

My fellow Americans, I may have made mistakes during my first year, but it is not too late to change course. My administration must pursue policies that make the United States strong economically and militarily so that this century can be another American century. That is my task as president. I won’t let the American people down.

4 Responses to “Now here’s a State of the Union address, should Obama like to deliver it”