In a State of the Union address to a newly divided Congress, Mr. Obama outlined what he called a plan to ?win the future? ? a blueprint for spending in critical areas like education, high-speed rail, clean-energy technology and high-speed Internet to help the United States weather the unsettling impact of globalization and the challenge from emerging powers like China and India.
?The rules have changed,? he said.
But at the same time he proposed budget-cutting measures, including a five-year freeze in spending on some domestic programs that he said would reduce the deficit by $400 billion over 10 years.
Drawing a stark contrast between himself and Republicans, who are advocating immediate and deep cuts in spending, Mr. Obama laid out a philosophy of a government that could be more efficient but would still be necessary if the nation was to address fundamental challenges at home and abroad.
?We need to out-innovate, outeducate and outbuild the rest of the world,? he said. ?We have to make America the best place on earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit and reform our government. That?s how our people will prosper.?
Just weeks after the shooting in Tucson that claimed six lives and left Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, gravely injured, Mr. Obama received a reception that was muted and civil.
There were no boos or a shout of ?You lie!? as in speeches past. Many Republicans and Democrats sat side by side ? the first time anyone here can remember such mixing ? and nearly all wore black-and-white lapel ribbons in honor of the dead and injured. Ms. Giffords?s colleagues held a seat open for her.
The president?s speech, lasting slightly more than an hour, lacked the loft of the inspirational address he delivered in Tucson days after the shooting. But it seemed intended to elevate his presidency above the bare-knuckled legislative gamesmanship that has defined the first two years of his term.
Reaching out to Republicans who have vowed to end the pet projects known as ?earmarks,? Mr. Obama pledged to veto any bill that contained them. He tried to defuse partisan anger over his health care measure with humor, saying he had ?heard rumors? of concerns over the bill, and he reiterated his pledge to fix a tax provision in the measure that both parties regard as burdensome to businesses.
He drew sustained applause when he declared that colleges should open their doors to military recruiters and R.O.T.C. programs now that ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell,? the policy barring gay men and lesbians from serving openly, has been repealed.
And he tried to charm Republicans by weaving the new House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, into his narrative about American greatness, citing Mr. Boehner?s rise from ?someone who began by sweeping the floors of his father?s Cincinnati bar? as an example of ?a country where anything is possible.?
Still, the good will lasted only so long. Moments after Mr. Obama finished speaking, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, delivered the official Republican response, in which he criticized Mr. Obama as doing too little to attack the deficit.
And Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who delivered her own Republican critique with the backing of the Tea Party wing, complained that instead of creating ?a leaner, smarter government,? Mr. Obama had created ?a bureaucracy that tells us which light bulbs to buy.?
The president sought to use Tuesday night?s address to shed the tag of big-government liberal that Republicans have placed on him, and to reclaim the mantle of a pragmatic, postpartisan leader that he used to ride to the presidency in 2008.
With one eye toward his 2012 re-election campaign, Mr. Obama offered a rosy economic vision. The president who once emphasized the problems he had inherited from his predecessor was instead looking forward and making the case that the nation had at long last emerged from economic crisis.
?Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back,? Mr. Obama said. ?Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.?