State of the Union Preview revised!

1-26-2011
Laura Hatfield
President Barack Obama will give his second State of the Union address Tuesday and will probably make the economy, health care and the war the center of his speech.
The economy is in a poor state even though the economy is in recovery. With unemployment being a big issue in the United States, Obama will discuss job creation. The United States as a whole has been in a great amount of debt. Due to the economy gas prices has skyrocketed, hitting all time highs. Much like Acting Governor, Early Ray Tomblin, President Obama will discuss the unemployment issue and more than likely promise more job creation.
The president may also introduce a more concrete plan for the budget deficit. The drastic economic decline has created the major deficits we have seen for the past few years.
President Obama will discuss his successes, and a major example of this is the Health Care reform. Last year health care was a big topic of interest. At the time of the State of the Union address last year, the reform had not yet been passed so he will definitely talk about how health care has helped others and how they will continue to work toward making it better for the people. The bill, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was also passed through congress this year. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tellended a ban on gays serving openly in the military field. It has yet to be officially implemented but is still a big success for the president.
Although the economy and health care are important, I think the war will be the topic of the night. In last year’s State of the Union, Obama promised troops would be out of Iraq by August. The president will make a lot of the same promises about the war because the war is such a big issue for the county. He will also discuss the war in Afghanistan and possibly make additional promises to end the war. In last year’s State of the Union, his major discussion was about the war and nothing has changed since then. I think a lot of this year’s discussion will be a repeat of last year. Although he did bring troops out of Iraq, he stationed them in other destinations, which I think could possibly happen again.
His speech has the potential to be like several of his predecessors because of the shape of the economy but I think it will be most like John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
With the closeness in age between President Barack Obama and John F. Kennedy, I think Obama’s speech may be similar to Kennedy’s State of the Union speech in 1961. Kennedy said a lot about making peace with the world and with the war I think Obama will hope for the same goal. They are among the younger presidents, and Obama will continue to try to better the countryso this speech will be very important to his career, as it was for Kennedy.
During the time of Nixon’s State of the Union speech was also the time of the Vietnam War. In Nixon’s 1970 State of the Union address he discussed bringing the troops out of Vietnam, but it took much longer than expected much like what is happening with Obama right now. Nixon’s speech was dedicated to the war because it was of major concern to the people of the United States. Obama and Nixon share the same issues, therefore Obama may share some of his goals in the State of the Union address.
With the new majority of Republicans in the House and being a Democratic president, his speech will resemble Bill Clinton’s with some of the same ideas and hopes. When Clinton first came into office, there was a majority of Republicans. Clinton had the same challenges as Obama with getting the Republicans to work with the Democrats for the greater good of America. and may use Clinton’s uplifting and strong tone for his speech. The Republicans are trying to repeal the health care reform and Obama will have to keep his position and rise above it, much like Clinton did during his term as president.
President Obama is very well spoken and we will see this during the State of the Union address Tuesday.