Key areas missing from Obama's SOTU

[Thanas]

Source

President Obama ran through a number of priorities and promises Tuesday night – on the economy, education, Tunisia and more in between – but a handful of key items didn’t make the cut for his hour-long speech: Guantanamo Bay, the Middle East, climate change and gun control.

Though he declared “America’s standing has been restored,” Obama didn’t mention once his administration’s efforts to find peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

And after the shooting rampage in Tucson, lawmakers and activists said Obama should address gun control in his remarks; the White House even hinted in the days before the speech that he would touch on it. But the president steered clear of the hot-button issue in the chamber, even as he recognized that the Tucson shooting was a reminder that “each of us is a part of something greater — something more consequential than party or political preference.”

Closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay was a key part of Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008; the prison remains open and has proven difficult to shutter. For the second year in a row, closing the prison for terror detainees was not a part of his State of the Union address.

Finally, on the day that the White House announced the resignation of Carol Browner, his climate change adviser, Obama didn’t say a single word about global warming

[Mr Bean]

Why is this a separate thread from the existing SoTU commentary? Are we going to have separate threads on the Republican response, day after coverage and poll results as well?
See 2010's
http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 2&t=140107

[Thanas]

The other thread is little more than a line-by-line chat. I might punt it or not, depending on how it shapes up. If it does manage to turn around, I'll merge the threads.