A speech like every other

If every wish ever uttered by a president in the State of the Union address had been granted, we’d be living in a much different America.

Thanks to Richard Nixon, we wouldn’t have to import foreign oil for our energy needs. Thanks to Ronald Reagan, we’d have a smaller federal government and a balanced budget. George W. Bush would have solved the dilemma of illegal immigration years ago. And thanks to Barack Obama, we’d have an economic boom, thriving green industries and an education system that even China would envy.

But State of the Union speeches are just that: wish lists. No president gets everything he asks for, even when his own party controls Congress. Just ask Obama.

Same speech

There’s been a remarkable consistency in this president’s annual agenda-setting message to Congress. He’s basically delivered the same speech three years in a row. The main difference has been that, as his political fortunes have changed, he’s been forced to lower his ambitions.

In 2009, in his maiden speech to Congress, he promised that his $787-billion stimulus program would turn the economy around, and he asked legislators to pass a health-care bill, then tackle energy and education. In 2010, in his first official State of the Union address, Obama expressed regret that the stimulus hadn’t worked faster but said he still wanted that health-care bill passed so Congress could move on to energy and education.

Tuesday night, he said the stimulus was finally working; he vowed to defend his health-care law against the Republicans who want to dismantle it; and he promised to look for low-budget ways to work on the two issues he still considers critical to the nation’s economic future: energy and education.

And what about the fiscal centerpiece of his speech: a freeze on most domestic spending? If that sounded familiar, it’s because it’s an updated version of a proposal in last year’s speech that, like many others, didn’t get done.

There’s been plenty of talk in Washington this winter about Obama turning himself into a centrist, but judging from Tuesday’s speech, he hasn’t changed much at all. The president’s goals are the same despite new political realities that have forced him to dial them back a bit. Even many of his proposals for reaching his goals are the same.

Now that Democrats are no longer a majority in the House of Representatives, it was no wonder that Tuesday’s address included a lyrical call to bipartisanship. The rallying cry deliberately echoed Obama’s 2004 paean to “one America,” the speech that vaulted him to national attention.

“We are part of the American family,” he said Tuesday. “We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found ... we share common hopes and a common creed.” That, he said, “is what sets us apart as a nation.”

Recurring theme

But beyond the grace notes of bipartisanship, there was a recurring theme that emphasized the sharp contrasts between the two parties — a theme Obama intends to press in the months ahead even as he tries to woo Republican votes.

He delivered a bracingly direct critique of Republicans’ plans for deep cuts in federal spending. “Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine,” he said.

The message Obama hopes to send is this: He has a positive strategy for long-term competitiveness and economic growth, and he’s an optimist who believes America can rise to the occasion. “This is our Sputnik moment,” he said.

Doyle McManus is a columnist for The Los Angeles Times. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.