WASHINGTON  President Obama vowed Wednesday night not to give up on his ambitious legislative agenda, using his first State of the Union address to chastise Republicans for working in lock-step against him and to warn Democrats to stiffen their political spines.

Mr. Obama appealed for an end to the “tired old battles” that have divided the country and stalled his efforts on Capitol Hill. He promised to focus intently on the issue of most immediate concern to the nation, jobs. And with his top priority, a health care overhaul, delayed in the wake of the recent Republican Senate victory in Massachusetts, he offered a pointed message to both parties.

“To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills,” Mr. Obama said in his nationally televised speech. “And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town  a supermajority  then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership.”

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. underscored that criticism, and the emotion behind it, on Thursday. He said that both he and the president were frustrated by "the obstructionist ways of the United States Senate on the part of the Republicans requiring 60 votes, a supermajority, for virtually every single solitary initiative we've had."