Even the SOTU Is About Trump

President Barack Obama‘s final State of the Union address was met with deeply positive reviews, matching the best ratings for any of his State of the Union addresses, according to a CNN/ORC instant poll of those who watched the speech. “So is all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker”. “Let me tell you something – the United States of America is the most powerful nation on earth”. Obama said American leadership in the 21st century is not a choice between ignoring the rest of the world – except when USA kill terrorists; or occupying and rebuilding whatever society is unravelling.

Democrats called the President’s speech inspiring.

Finally, the president asked American citizens to continue to vote and exercise their rights and duties as members of a democracy.

While he did not criticise Republicans directly, he sharply, and at times sarcastically, struck back at rivals who challenged his economic and national security stewardship. He’d struggle to deny that many of them simply don’t feel he’s delivered. He was suggesting that he and the Republican-led Congress might get some stuff done in his final year, even with a big, loud presidential campaign raging in the background.

“Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages, they pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence”, Obama said.

While Tuesday’s speech was light on the lists of proposals typical in such addresses, Obama had some, even confronting a Congress largely hostile to his agenda.

With an expected audience of some 30 million viewers, the speech was Obama’s first of two chances to take Americans squarely by the shoulders and make his case for a Democratic successor.

“It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency - that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better”, he said in a moment of personal candor. “I have no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office”.

Specific problem areas identified by Obama: reducing barriers to voting, limiting the influence of money in politics, ending the drawing of congressional districts to benefit politicians’ interests.

Both Trump and Cruz, who are topping opinion polls weeks before the early nomination contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, have pledged to push the Republican Party in a more confrontational direction, and seek to undo much of what Obama has accomplished as president. Mr Biden’s 46-year-old son Beau died last year from brain cancer.

However, Obama was primarily concerned with looking at things that still needed to be done. On Monday, the White House launched a Snapchat account, posting exclusive behind-the-scene “stories”.

Despite his optimistic tone, the president’s address was overshadowed by the news that 10 American sailors had been detained by Iran. Instead, Obama was in full-on legacy mode, starting a victory lap that will likely characterize his a year ago in office. However, the State of the Union has suffered a major drop-off in viewers in recent years.

There only a brief mention of gun control in Obama’s speech.

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama delivered an impassioned defense of his record by painting a portrait of a country very much in its prime.

Former senator, secretary of state and first lady Hillary Clinton, for her part, drew some contrast with Republicans who she sees as wanting to pave over Obama’s accomplishments. “Ready to go!” chant that was a staple of his 2008 campaign.