The SOTU frame
by digby
According to the Politico, this is the current thinking on the president's State of the Union address:
The president will note that the makeup of the congressional audience before him is very different from a year ago, and will be blunt about the challenges facing the nation. He will sketch a strategy for winning the future, with both short-term and long-term plans for a foundation of competitiveness and innovation -- looking for growth opportunities by doing things differently and more effectively than in the past. He plans to emphasize issues where he thinks he can find COMMON GROUND with Republicans, including education, trade and fiscal responsibility -- cutting spending, reexamining regulations, and working toward more efficient and effective government. All that can strengthen our economy, is a way to work with Republicans, and fits the Obama COMPETENCY MEME. A LOT OF HIS TIME WILL BE SPENT ON ISSUES WHERE HE THINKS REPUBLICANS SHOULD BE ABLE TO GO ALONG. He will embrace the spirit of the debt commission's recommendations, but a detailed response won't be the headline from the speech. He will call for new investments in education, and talk about trade in terms of competition with other countries, including China.
The president will aggressively defend health reform (benefits are already being enjoyed - preexisting conditions, young adults under age 26, help for seniors on affording prescription drugs) and Wall Street reform (the importance of having rules in place to protect consumers). He will point to progress in Iraq, and the coming "inflection point" in Afghanistan - July, the start for withdrawing combat troops. The president won't announce a major tax restructuring plan, BUT WILL SAY HE VIEWS THE TAX-CUT AGREEMENT IN DECEMBER AS A MODEL for working directly with Republicans to get some things done. It means they have to take some things they don't like, and he has to take some things he doesn't like. But as long as it's putting the best interests of the economy and the American people first, both sides can live with it. And he will reprise the lessons in civility to be drawn from the Tucson tragedy.
Yeah, well. It doesn't sound like a speech I'm going to go out of my way to watch this year. But then, Obama isn't speaking to me at the moment so I suppose it doesn't matter.
The good news is that from this report he isn't planning on specifically targeting Social Security. But there are plenty of hints in there that it's still on the table. He certainly doesn't appear to be ready to explicitly rule it out.
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