STATE of the
UNION
In preparation for this year’s State of the Union address, JSA reached out to prominent leaders
in their fields and asked what you should be looking for in this year’s State of the Union.
Here are their responses:
MIKE McCURRY
FORMER PRESS SECRETARY
From the time I was a
pup of a press secretary on Capitol Hill, the night of the State of the Union address has
been magical for me.
State of the Union addresses– like inauguration speeches, convention acceptance speeches, and presidential debates – are among
the few public appearances by those who would lead our nation as
chief executive which take on enormous importance in proposing a
vision and direction for the nation. That’s why official Washington
gears up to provide response, reaction, and commentary. We have
only a few “set pieces” in American politics that are institutionalized; where the public knows something important will happen.
The State of the Union is one of them.
As a Democrat, I have often been on the opposite side of an incumbent President in preparing the official response to the State
of the Union. What a thankless task. No matter how hard the
opposition tries and no matter how creative the format of the
response (and believe me, they ALL have been tried over the many
years), the public really wants to hear from the President and to
think about how THEY respond...not the party on the outs. There
is a small group of us who, every time we have a Democrat in the
White House, email each other on the night of the address to proclaim, “Thank God we are not doing the official response tonight.”
That’s not a surrender to the President and the power of the bully
pulpit. It’s a recognition of reality that it is the President’s night.
And Presidents and their White House staffs must use the opportunity wisely.
During the Clinton years, we prepared months in advance for a
State of the Union. Agencies and outside groups lobbied for mention of pet proposals.
(continued pg.2)
Mike McCurry, served as White
House press secretary from 19951998 under President Clinton.
Hon. McCurry is a JSA Alum
and served as Governor for the
California Junior State. McCurry
currently serves on the JSA Board
of Trustees. pg. 1-2
MIKE MEESE
COO, American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association
Watch how President Obama articulates America’s
role in the world in 2014. He has proposed a long
term security agreement with Afghanistan, but he
is also ending combat operations and withdrawing
most, if not all, troops from there. He has said that
we are emphasizing Asia, but it is not clear what
that means, especially as the crises he has faced
have been in Syria, Iran, Libya, and elsewhere in
the Middle East. He made a speech in May 2013 to
constrain the drone program, but we are still using
drones for targeted killings, even as troop involvement is reduced. So listen to the speech to determine what verb best describes America’s role in the
world: Are we Leading, Engaging, Shaping, Adjusting, Following, Listening, or Retreating.
-Mike Meese
HON. JANICE RUTHERFORD
COUNTY SUPERVISOR
State of the
Union addresses have a unique place in American history. To
get a sense of that history and the context of President Obama’s coming address, I encourage students
to read Peggy Noonan’s column in the Wall Street
Journal published on Jan. 24 before watching the
SOTU. Think back on previous SOTUs, paying particular attention to the rhetoric, style and content of
those speeches. Talk to your grandparents and teachers about the most memorable SOTU they recall and
why. Will President Obama say anything that YOU will
find worthy or memorable or meaningful enough
for you to save as a memory to share with your own
grandchildren a few decades from now?
-Janice Rutherford
Supervisor Janice Rutherford
serves San Bernardino County.
Supervisor Rutherford’s career has
spanned from being a city council
member to being President of the
Board for the Fontana Boys & Girls
Club. Supervisor Rutherford is a
JSA Alumna. pg. 1
Mike Meese retired from the
United States Army as a
Brigadier General. Meese
served as the Professor and
Head of the Department of
Social Sciences at the U.S.
Military Academy. Meese is a
JSA Alum. pg.1
STATE of the
MIKE McCURRY
CONT. FROM PG. 1
UNION
DR. MYRON LEVINE
PROFESSOR OF URBAN AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
In his second term, a president turns toward thoughts of his
legacy. How does he want to be remembered? For what exactly does Obama want to be remembered? This year’s State of
the Union (SOU) message should provide more than a hint.
Cabinet secretaries shed tears if a favorite idea was
edited out and went drifting to the wasteland of the
“Fact Sheet” prepared by the White House to encompass all the spiffy new initiatives that did not quite
rate a mention in the speech itself.
In some ways, the SOU message today is not as important as it
once was. The growth of the Internet, cell phones, and social
media all provide White House advisers alternative ways to
get the president’s message across to the public, These “new
media” also serve to limit the president’s message. When
President Obama in his 2010 SOU speech criticized Citizens
United, the Supreme Court decision that widened the role
played by big money in elections, television cameras showed
Justice Samuel Alito mouthing the words “Not true!” as he sat
in the audience. Obama’s critics sent the clip viral, countering
the message that the President had tried to get across.
The speech became something of a road map for the
year ahead. What initiatives will the President push?
What are the highest priorities? Where does he draw
the line when it comes to negotiations with a Congress of a different mind?
In our current environment in Washington, some
might dismiss the night of the State of the Union as
another when popular TV or a basketball game might
be more rewarding. And sometimes the President’s
message is distracted by something else (how well I
remember THAT as a Clinton veteran). I am sure that
President Obama’s team is trying to seize this moment
to create a new narrative around the remaining years
of his presidency.
-Mike McCurry
The Republican rebuttal will also be of interest. Given the
weakness of its standing in the polls, will the Republican leadership use their rebuttal as part of a strategy to reclaim the
political center? Or will the GOP simply choose to duck and
cover, presenting a message that does little more than bash
Obama and avoid alienating Tea Party-type activists?
-Myron A Levine
HON. MICAH ALI
PRESIDENT
COMPTON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION
“In my visit to the White House, I have felt firsthand President Obama’s passion to raise up poor,
working and middle class families. In the short
term, that means boosting wages through a higher minimum wage. Longer term, I hope the President will lead an investment in our young children
and their future economic potential by funding
universal pre-kindergarten, which is righteous,
scientifically supported, and all-American.”
- Micah Ali
Dr. Myron Levine is a Professor of
Urban and Public Affairs at Wright
University. Dr. Levine’s research
focuses on national urban policy
and urban revitalization.
Dr. Levine has taught at JSA
Summer School programs for
over twenty years. pg.2
HON. LIZ LEMPERT
MAYOR OF PRINCETON
Federal initiatives can have
significant impact on local
towns. As the mayor of Princeton, New Jersey, I’ll be listening
for the President’s plans with regards to immigration policy,
funding for scientific research, and efforts to help communities prepare for and recover from severe weather disasters
such as Hurricane Sandy.
-Liz Lempert
Mayor Liz Lempert is the Mayor of Princeton. Previously,
Mayor Lempert worked as a
writer, producer and editor for
the National Public Radio
program “Living on Earth”.
Mayor Lempert is a JSA
Alumna. pg. 2
Micah Ali is the President of the
Compton Unified School District
(CUSD) Board of Education. Ali
was elected to CUSD Board of
Trustees in 2007 and is president of the Compton Meals on
Wheels Program. Ali is a JSA
Alum. pg. 2
STATE of the
RACHEL CENTARICZKI
DIRECTOR OF DEMOCRACY
MARIA SHIM
PRINCIPAL OF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT, GOOGLE
“It is hard to imagine a time when technology was more
powerful in our lives or innovation was occurring more
rapidly than now. While it has solved problems at a large
scale and fundamentally changed the way we interact with
each other, technology has also helped create a divide
between those who have benefited richly from
understanding how to use it and those who have been left
behind. I personally would like to see President Obama
address how he intends to work with states to create more
opportunities to empower students with technology and to
help those who have been unemployed gain more technical
skills to participate in this new economy.”
- Maria Shim
ROCK THE VOTE
“Last year the Supreme Court struck down a portion
of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that required states
with a history of voting discrimination to get clearance
from the federal government before making changes
to voting laws in their communities. In response, a
new bill was introduced last week by Representatives
Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), John Conyers (D-MI), and
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). It creates a new plan for
the states that have a history of voting discrimination
and requires states that discriminate against voters
five times over a 15 year period to fall under federal
supervision. Be on the lookout for President Obama’s
opinion on the Voting Rights Act.”
-Rachel Centariczki
MARK McKINNON
NANCY JACOBSON
CO-FOUNDERS NO LABELS
DR. JIM TODD
PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
“Critics of the State of the Union address charge that
it has become a spectacle for television and is used by
presidents mostly to promote their own popularity. Most
of what presidents say is quickly forgotten. Members of
the president’s party cheer too loudly and too often while
members of the opposition party sit still or sneer or jeer
at the president’s remarks. To combat that, some members sit with members of the other party. See if you see
any examples of that or any evidence that partisanship is
declining. As you watch the address, try to view it objectively, whether you like President Obama or not, and
identify things that you think are good and bad about it.
Then, after it’s over, decide whether you think it should
be continued in its present form and, if not, what changes
you’d like to see made.”
-Jim Todd
Dr. Jim Todd is a Professor of
Political Science at the University
of Virgina. Dr. Todd has taught
at JSA Summer School programs
for over twenty years. pg.3
UNION
“We have a pretty good idea of what’s coming from
the president’s State of the Union address next week:
a long list of ideas and policy proposals. Democrats
will applaud, while Republicans will mostly sit in
silence. Meanwhile, Washington’s gridlock won’t
change at all. No Labels is launching a three-year
campaign for a new governing process that will lead
to a national strategic agenda by bringing leaders
from both sides of the aisle together to create shared
goals for America. During the State of the Union, look
for nearly 70 members of Congress wearing orange
No Labels pins at the State of the Union to signal
their support for this common-sense approach to
governing and tweet @NoLabelsOrg when you see
one.”
-Mark McKinnon and Nancy Jacobson
Rock the Vote is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization
whose mission is to engage
and build the political power
in young people. Rock the
Vote has registered more
than five million young people to vote. pg. 3
Mark McKinnon has served as a
principal media adviser for hundreds of campaigns for candidates,
companies, and causes, including:
George W. Bush, John McCain,
Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, and
Bono. No Labels is dedicated to
bipartisanship. pg. 3
STATE of the
HON. CHRIS CABALDON
MAYOR OF WEST SACRAMENTO
“Federal agencies work in isolation from each
other even when they’re dealing with the same
place or people. The President broke down these
walls in his first term with a little-known but very
important Sustainable Communities Initiative that
got the Department of Transportation, Department of Housing & Urban Development, and EPA
working closely together, jointly coordinating
their programs and grants to support integrated
transit, land-use, toxics cleanup, and affordable
housing strategies that together strengthen local
economic development, help move goods and
people efficiently, reuse old abandoned brownfield land, get people out of dependence on cars,
clean up the air, and reduce inequality. It has
been a big success, so I’m listening for the President to double down, and announce the same
kind of integration in order to strengthen workforce skills, increase college completion, meet
employer needs, and sharpen our global economic competitiveness—perhaps by breaking down
silos between the departments.”
-Chris Cabaldon
FOR FURTHER READING:
Preview of the State of the Union Speech in The Hill
Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal
Brad Bannon in U.S. News and World Reports
BE THE PEOPLE
Dan Schnur is the director for the
Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics
at the University of Southern
California. Currently Schnur is on
leave as he campaigns for California Secretary of State . Schnur
currently serves on the JSA Board
of Trustees pg.4
UNION
DAN SCHNUR
DIRECTOR OF JESSE M. UNRUH INSTITUTE OF POLITICS
“Most American presidents run into difficult times during
their second terms, and Barack Obama has been no exception to that historical trend as a result of controversies
surrounding health care reform and national security and
surveillance policy. But the president still has an unrivaled
bully pulpit to capture the attention of the American public,
so watch to see what he has to say about job creation and
income inequality, about college affordability, and about
immigration reform. Most of all, though, pay attention to
how he addresses the Republicans in Congress. Does he
sound like he’s looking for common ground to work across
the aisle, or is he spoiling for a fight? The tone he takes
may be as important as the substance of what he says as an
early indicator to whether 2014 can be a productive year in
Washington.”
-Dan Schnur
HON. MARK TAKANO
REPRESENTATIVE
“The President’s State of the Union address is part of a
tradition that dates back to our Founding Fathers. In his
speech, the President will outline many of his goals and
priorities as he begins his second term, including
addressing the dysfunction in Congress, strengthening our
economy, reducing income inequality, and advocating for
immigration reform. It gives me great hope that young
people are engaged in the political process and I hope that
the President’s words spark a discussion and conversation
between you and your peers.”
- Mark Takano
Representative Mark Takano serves
as a United States Congressman for
the 41st District of California. Rep.
Takano has a long history of public
service. Rep. Takano is a recipient
of the Martin Luther King Visionaries Award. Congressman Takano is
a JSA Alum. pg.4
Mayor Chris Cabaldon is
currently serving his fourth
elected term as Mayor of
West Sacramento. Previously,
Mayor Cabaldon served on the
West Sacramento City Council.
Mayor Cabaldon is a JSA Alum.
pg.4