The Roundtabler: Doris Kearns Goodwin - 2012 may provide debate the country needs msn.com
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
A State of the Union delivered at the start of an election year must inevitably be judged by a different standard than those given in other years. In normal years, the standard should be whether the words produce action, whether Congress answers the president’s calls for legislation. At the start of the 2012 presidential campaign, however, and in the context of this divided Congress, the realistic standard is whether the president’s speech provided a philosophical vision for his campaign.