OBAMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address on Tuesday [1-30-18] night, a (very) lengthy speech in which he largely revisited his accomplishments over his first year in office and offered a handful of proposals he’d like to see considered in the coming year.
While it’s important not to over-analyze what the speech means for Trump’s presidency — his first year in office suggests what he says one day means very little for what he will do the next — I did jot down a few takeaways from the address. They’re below…
4. Trump as the Obama eraser
Much of Trump’s pitch as a candidate was as the anti-Barack Obama. And, Republicans — who, in Obama, saw everything they disliked about big government liberals — ate it up.
Trump has spent his first year governing as the anti-Obama as well. Or, more accurately, the Obama eraser.
He jettisoned DACA. He pushed for the repeal of the individual mandate. He has stripped out regulation after regulation put into place by Obama. And on Tuesday night, Trump announced his plans to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba open — a direct rebuttal to Obama’s long-made and long-failed pledge to close the prison.
Remember that prior to running for president and even during his bid, Trump lacked any clearly thought-out set of policy prescriptions. In lieu of that, he reacted — or, in Trump’s lingo — counter-punched against what Obama had done as president. He just kept doing it on Tuesday night.”
-Chris Cillizza, “6 takeaways from Donald Trump’s first State of the Union speech,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Jan. 31, 2018 09:18am