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State of the Union looks to a fairer America |
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 “America is back,” declared Barack Obama in his fourth and possibly final State of the Union address.
But rather than the fireworks and grand oratory of past SOTUs, the President’s January 24 speech to congress was relatively measured and held little in the way of new policy.
Instead, wrote Centre head Geoffrey Garrett in The Australian, Obama took the unusual step of laying out his agenda for creating a fairer America. “Americans typically talk of equality of opportunity. Equality of outcomes is a too European no-no. But the President clearly thinks this year is different,” wrote Garrett.
The intention, said research associate Tom Switzer on ABC TV’s 7.30, was to win back the moderate votes from the battleground states such as Florida in the lead-up to November.
However, as the Centre’s chair in US Media, James Fallows pointed out on ABC Radio’s PM, in the end the President’s executive powers don’t yet stretch to enacting threats such as the 30 per cent tax for everyone earning more than $1 million per year. |
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US Navy talks sustainability at sea |
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 First it was reducing fossil fuel use in planes, now the US Studies Centre’s Dow Sustainability Program is bringing together top heads from around the world to discuss the use of sustainable fuels at sea.
This week the Centre’s adjunct professor in sustainability, Dr Susan Pond chairs the three-day Sustainable Maritime Fuels forum at the Pacific 2012 International Maritime Conference in Sydney. Topics to be covered include the challenges and opportunities of innovation in the area and how to achieve a transition from fossil fuels to sustainable fuels.
Leading the speakers at the forum, which is sponsored by the US Studies Centre together with Maritime Australia Limited, will be the US Navy’s Chris Tindal, director for operational energy, who is in charge of the Navy’s massive renewable energy and alternative fuels programs. Part of Tindal’s responsibility is what the US Navy calls its ‘Great Green Fleet’, a fleet of ships set to sail to Australia in 2016 powered only by biofuels. The Weekend Australian discussed the Navy’s work and this week’s forum in a recent feature. |
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Election Watch 2012: Single sentence disaster |
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 On the eve of the critical Florida Primary it looks like both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are in a position to take line honours in the next race to be 2012 Republican presidential candidate. However, as the Centre’s Dr David Smith writes on the Election Watch 2012 website, a single sentence could spell disaster for either of them.
Also on the Centre’s Election Watch 2012 website, we have Tom Switzer’s words in the Australian Financial Review about why Gingrich was able to come back in South Carolina as well as new blog entries by Jonathan Bradley and Luke Freedman.
And to help make sense of it all, US Studies Centre research associate and ABC NewsRadio host, John Barron is now covering the do or die race in detail with the recommencement of his weekly special, Inside America. |
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| COMING UP |
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31 January |
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| Florida Primary |
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31 January - 1 February |
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Pacific 2012 International Maritime Conference. Sustainable fuels forum to be chaired by Dr Susan Pond. Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour. Read more
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4 February |
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| Maine and Nevada Caucuses |
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| COMMENTARY |
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The fourth State of the Union address by Barack Obama dominated commentary on the US this week – dwarfing even the riveting Republican candidate race.
In addition to commentary quoted in the lead story, Garrett told ABC News24 that the talk of fairness was a new tactic by Obama – a reaction to the Occupy movement. Meanwhile, on SBS World News Australia, associate professor Brendon O’Connor said the move may play well as the election year progresses. In the same vein, in The National Times online, lecturer Dr David Smith noted that the speech had all the hallmarks of an election-year address: “… an exclusive focus on big campaign issues, jabs at President Barack Obama’s opponents and more mentions than usual of the word ‘American’.”
In addition to his appearance on ABC 7.30, Tom Switzer spoke on ABC News24 about the SOTU focus on the economy and jobs. Speaking immediately after the address, Switzer contrasted Obama’s election-year SOTU with Bill Clinton’s last address which called for smaller government: “It was more about reviving the role of the State to help kickstart the economy.”
On a completely different topic, Switzer recently wrote about the new book containing a selection of the letters between Sir Robert Menzies and Heather Henderson, his daughter. Among other references to the US-Australia relationship, the review in the Weekend Australian opens with a depiction of an unusual White House dinner in February 1969, held by the then President Richard Nixon and attended by the long out of office Menzies. |
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