Following State of the Union address, Lamborn blasts Obama for being a ‘polarizing president’
President Barack Obama took some of the blame for the worsening “rancor and suspicion between parties” during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, a point with which an El Paso County Republican Congressman eagerly agreed.
“It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency – that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better,” Obama said. “There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.”
Congressman Doug Lamborn, a Republican so upset by the president’s politics that he once skipped the State of the Union on principle, said that’s the one thing the president said Tuesday with which he agreed.
Obama was using the admission of a fault to call for changes to the American political system that forces perpetual campaigning, driven by wealthy donors, in districts gerrymandered to favor incumbents. He asked for the public to help implement reform.
“He’s exactly right when he says we have become more polarized. He has been a polarizing president. I lay the blame wholly at his feet,” Lamborn said. “I hope he can change in this last year of his second term but I’m not optimistic.”
Obama spent much of his hour-long address talking about foreign policy, a topic Lamborn is concerned about as the representative of an area with six military installations.
“The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It’s not even close,” Obama said. “We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined. Our troops are the finest fighting force in the history of the world. No nation dares to attack us or our allies because they know that’s the path to ruin.”
Lamborn said he didn’t buy that.
“He can say we have a powerful military out there and people ought to know it, but that doesn’t stop them from using whatever means they have at their disposal to harm us,” Lamborn said. “Look at San Bernardino and the locally home-grown terrorists inspired by ISIS. That’s the type of threat that’s growing even though we have a great military. We don’t have leadership from him to make our adversaries back off.”
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President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
President Barack Obama is greeted on the House floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, after giving his final State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)