WASHINGTON- President Barack Obama on Tuesday set forth an
ambitious vision for American’s future, but conceded his own failure to heal
the political divisions, which had held back progress, calling it a lasting
disappointed of his tenure.
In a
prime-time televised speech, Obama used his final state of the Union address to
paint a hopeful portrait of the nation after seven years of his leadership with
a resurgent economy and better standing in the world despite inequality at home
and terrorism abroad.
But Obama,
who campaigned for president on promises of hope and change and vowed when he
took office to transform Washington and politics itself, accepted responsibility
for falling far short of that goal.
“It’s one
of the few regrets of my presidency, that the rancor and suspicion between the
parties has gotten worse instead of better,” Obama said, adding that” a
president with the gifts of Lincoln of Roosevelt might have better bridged the
divide.”
He
acknowledged that frightened Americans feel frightened, even as he offered an
implicit rebuke of Republicans who are playing on those insecurities in the
race to succeed him.
Obama
singled out Donald Trump, the leading Republican presidential candidate, for
pointed criticism, saying that Americans must resist calls to stigmatize all
Muslims at a time of threats from the Islamic State.
“Will we
respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation and
turning against each other as a people?” Obama said. “Or will we face the
future with confidence in who we are what we stand for and the incredible
things we can do together?” The New York Times
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