A focus group assembled by The Post gave mixed grades to President Obama’s State of the Union Address last night, splitting on whether he would really fight to pass health-care reform.
“I like his ideas and policies. He just has to do it,” said Karen Davis, a musician who voted for Obama.
“I liked that that the president called Congress out on health care and said, ‘Let’s get it done.’ I like that he was willing to stick with it,” she said.
Stagehand Joseph Pla praised Obama for showing some fire and vowing he’s not a quitter.
“Before I was saying, ‘What are you doing?’ I didn’t think he was assertive enough in certain areas. He was tonight,” Pla said.
“But Obama has to follow through and make sure he gets the health care bill passed.”
Others on the panel of New Yorkers were disappointed that Obama didn’t even mention the health-care battle until some 30 minutes into his speech.
“He’s definitely not making health care a top priority,” said public-relations executive Jon Robinson. “He waved the white flag.”
While Obama gave jobs and the economy top billing, the 16 people on the panel differed on whether he had a winning strategy.
Small-business owner Saeda Brown, a disillusioned Obama supporter, said the president won her back last night with his focus on jobs.
“I was very skeptical. I didn’t feel anything was getting done last year. But I feel better tonight,” Brown said.
“He made headway with me. He owned up to what we expect of him.”
But Wall Street managing director Joseph Fichera said the speech could have been more targeted.
“The president used a shotgun tonight. It was scattershot. What are the priorities?” he asked.
And financier Paul Burg slammed Obama for dumping on Wall Street bankers.
“He was waging class warfare against the banks. Don’t condemn an entire society of people who provide jobs. Let’s not condemn every banker. It was outrageous,” Burg said.
The panelists liked the president’s push for business tax cuts, but said he was too vague in explaining them.
Accountant Gary Millwick said Obama’s economic message was contradictory.
He noted that Obama, while touting business-tax relief, proposed raising taxes for people making more than $250,000 — many of them small-business owners.
“Those people are my clients — and they’re going to see tax hikes,” he said.
But Pla said Obama ably defended his financial agenda.
He said the president had to run up deficits with stimulus spending last year to prevent a financial catastrophe, and now can start to rein in the budget.
Meanwhile, the panelists complained that Obama gave fighting terrorism short shrift.
“He didn’t mention national security until the last seven minutes of the speech,” said David Kornfeld.