President Obama will launch a bid for the political center during Tuesday evening's State of the Union address, aiming to recast himself as a "business-friendly, pragmatic progressive" rather than a "big-government liberal," reports The New York Times. The president will also call for an end to the partisan rancor that has divided the body politic for much of the past two years. Obama will appeal to "independent voters and business owners and executives alienated by the expansion of government and the partisan legislative fights of the past two years." Can Obama spin himself as a centrist? (Watch The Week's Sunday Talk Show Briefing about Obama's centrist move)
Obama must build on his momentum: The president has already moved to the center, says Fareed Zakaria at The Washington Post, "and it is working — politically." But Obama needs to persuade voters that bipartisanship is "not simply an exercise in political theater," but a genuine attempt to "produce better policies than ideologically driven agendas." On Tuesday, he can become what America yearns for: "A president who can deal with both parties and gets things done."
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