Republicans Express Skepticism Following Obama's Address - East Idaho News
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Republicans Express Skepticism Following Obama’s Address

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Getty 012113 InaugurationObamaCapitolSteps?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1358847101551ABC News(WASHINGTON) — Given the statements made about President Obama’s second inaugural address, it appears that he won’t have an easy go of it with GOP lawmakers this term either.

Some prominent Republicans lawmakers criticized Obama’s inaugural address on Monday, saying he failed to reach out to their party.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, said afterwards, “This is the eighth [inauguration] that I’ve been to and always there’s been a portion of the speech where [the president says] ‘I reach out my hand because we need to work together.’  That wasn’t in this speech.”

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, remarked that Obama “wasn’t doing the kind of outreach that he needs to do if he wants to get things accomplished in a second term.”

Meanwhile, Maine Sen. Susan Collins gave the speech a mixed review, saying it sounded partisan on one hand but that she’ll give the president the benefit of the doubt that he’ll at least try to meet Republicans half-way.

However, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, an outspoken critic of the president during his first term, sounded genuinely surprised in a good way about the address.

While he heard a few things conservatives will outright reject, Gingrich added, “95 percent of the speech, I thought, was classically American, you know, emphasizing hard work and emphasizing self-reliance, emphasizing doing things together.”

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