More speech reaction
More speech reaction . . .
President Obama is dealing with a lot right now--BP's oil spill in the Gulf, the Gaza/Israel crisis over aid ships--but he came out swinging at his opponents and made some strong statements about the need for clean energy (he pledged to find the Senate votes for reform) in his address today at Carnegie Mellon University, a speech that focused mainly on the U.S. economy.
In some ways, it may have been the first campaign speech of the 2008 (maybe even 2012?) election cycle.
Obama was serving up some partisan red meat but the audience of about 300 people at Carnegie Mellon University did not seem to have a taste for it. There were few applause breaks and the crowd was largely subdued.
PITTSBURGH—President Barack Obama, his presidency bogged down in the Gulf oil spill, lashed out at Republicans Wednesday, linking their deregulatory philosophy to misdeeds by bankers, insurers and oil companies.
Mr. Obama also made a gesture to allies on the left by calling on Congress to pass climate-change legislation that would make it more expensive to burn oil by putting a price on carbon-dioxide emissions.
"The votes may not be there right now," he said, "but I intend to find them in the coming months."
The presentation was billed as an update to the big “House Upon a Rock” economic speech Mr. Obama gave at Georgetown University more than a year ago, in which he laid out a goal of economic rebuilding on a solid foundation of reform, not the shifting sands of economic boom and bust. And indeed, on Wednesday, Obama laid out the case for investment in physical and high-tech infrastructure, clean-energy research, and financial reform.
But with midterm elections looming in November, Obama also took sharp jabs at Republicans, blaming them for saying “no” to proposals such as tax cuts for small business, credits for college tuition, and investments in clean energy.