SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — President Obama on Wednesday came to the place where he began his historic campaign for the White House nine years ago to the day, to reckon with perhaps his presidency’s greatest failure: his unfulfilled promise to lift American politics above toxic partisan divisions.
Speaking to a raucous joint session of the Illinois General Assembly at the state Capitol, Obama said, “The tone of our politics hasn’t gotten better since I was inaugurated; in fact, it has gotten worse.’’
He continued: “One of my few regrets is my inability to reduce the polarization and meanness in our politics. I was able to be part of that here, and yet I couldn’t translate it the way I wanted to, to our politics in Washington.’’
The president’s address, delivered a few blocks from the Old State Capitol, where he declared his candidacy on Feb. 10, 2007, was an elaboration of the themes he sounded in his State of the Union address in January, when he said the nation’s prosperity, even its very survival, hinged on restoring some comity to the bitter, dysfunctional political culture in Washington.
“It turns folks off,’’ Obama said of the atmosphere in Washington. “It discourages them; it makes them cynical. And when that happens, more powerful and extreme voices fill the void.’’
The speech came at a crucial moment in the contest to succeed him, one day after primary voters in New Hampshire awarded thumping victories to Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who are challenging the orthodoxies of their parties.
Trump, with his harsh statements about Muslims and Hispanics, has contributed to the coarsening of the political dialogue that Obama laments.
The stinging defeat of Hillary Clinton is something of a rebuke for his administration, given that she was Obama’s first secretary of state and has defended his legacy.
Obama did not comment on the New Hampshire results but said politics must move from being “less of a spectacle and more of a battle of ideas.’’
This was the first stop in a six-day domestic swing for the president. He will attend fund-raisers in California on Thursday and host a meeting of leaders from the Association of Southeast Nations next week.
