US Lawmakers React to Obama Speech

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By Dan Robinson
Capitol Hil
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-25-voa9.cfm


Republicans and Democrats in Congress are reacting to President Barack Obama's speech, in which he warned Americans that the economy faces a "dire day of reckoning," but one the country can recover from.

Democrats reacted enthusiastically to the president's speech, praising both the messages President Obama tried to send to Americans and the oratory skills he employed in his first address to Congress.

In a VOA interview, Representative Neal Abercrombie from Hawaii had this reaction.

"He reaches the world, really," said Abercrombie. "His sense of confidence and his ability to take that sense of confidence and extend it to his listening audience is second or probably commensurate to that of President Roosevelt."

Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, says President Obama recognized the economic crisis Americans face and laid out steps he has taken and will take to deal with it.

Nadler also reacted to the president's statement that the United States will not employ torture in interrogations of suspected terrorists.

"It's a terrible comment, and it's pathetic, that we are in a situation where he had to say that. At the same I am certainly glad he said that," Nadler said. "We do not torture, and we are going to have to take various measures which I hope that this administration will join with us in Congress to take steps to make sure that no future president no future administration can do some of the things that unfortunately it is all too clear happened during the last administration."