Krauthammer on SOTU: 'So Many Old Chestnuts that Were Shown'

After the conclusion of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer offered his critique of the speech, noting there wasn’t a lot new. However, he expressed his concern over Obama’s remarks about the Iranian nuclear deal.

Transcript as follows:

there wasn’t a lot in the speech, of course, he’s playing a very weak hand. I was impressed by the fact that he delivered it with conviction, because again, there and wasn’t a lot in it. I would call it the chestnut speech, there were so many old chestnuts that were shown it was almost embarrassing. You know, he brought out stuff he tried last year and that went nowhere with minimum wage, with this idea of extending unemployment insurance. When he repeated Guantanamo, which is a cause he gave up on himself years ago, you knew that he sort of run out of ideas.

What I was surprised he didn’t do is to do an overarching theme, the one that actually worked for him in the 2012 election of this being the party of opportunity, he talked about it, but it was not an overarching theme, it’s as if he had pushed that button at the beginning as a way to remind people that that is the core idea, he has in terms of economics.

And as you said, I think the most important element of the speech with regard to foreign affairs was his insistence on the Iran negotiations saying he would veto a sanction the bill, and if you notice, that was the most tepid applause of the evening, there was tremendous support in the House and the Senate on both sides against that.

He did say one thing that Iran is eliminating its stockpile of enriched uranium, which is simply not true — turning it into an oxide, which is a chemical process which is reversible. So he’s — the very intent on doing this, and he tried to sell it, but not entirely correctly.