In A Speech Focused On Legacy, Obama Keeps Eye On 2016

President Obama spent about 11 minutes discussing the economy in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address and he did not shy away from celebrating the job growth and economic recovery that has happened during his time in office. “You can’t tell me the economy is doing well in West Virginia”, he said.

GOP leaders also complained that Obama didn’t use his State of the Union address to spell out a more effective strategy for dealing with threats around the world, including violence by Islamic extremists.

The most recent jobs report places the national unemployment rate at five percent and says the US added 292,000 jobs in December, but some economists say the unemployment rate is actually much higher and the country is experiencing slow growth.

Singler, who said he generally considers himself a Republican, did have a few qualms with the direction Obama hopes the country will go in during the next few years. By that standard, Obama’s speeches are among the simplest yet.

Economics inevitably becomes discussion on the president’s legacy, and what those terms have meant for the nation.

With presidential candidates including Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republican Marco Rubio in the audience, Obama structured his speech around four questions, the last of which was: “How can we make our politics reflect what’s best in us, and not what’s worst?” At another point, the president said, “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction”.

President Obama took his State of the Union themes on the road Wednesday, telling a crowd in Omaha, Neb., that it is “baloney” he has weakened America.

He’s correct…if you look at the data in the most favorable way possible for him. “We are training, arming, and supporting forces who are steadily reclaiming territory in Iraq and Syria”, he said.

He said America is experiencing “extraordinary change, and that’s always a little bit unsettling”.

“But as we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands”.

Overall the president’s last speech was one that I will remember into this presidential election season.

The president said that providing two years of community college at no cost was something that he would keep fighting to get started this year. “But we’ve been tested in the past, and our people have always risen to the challenge”.

New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen is pleased that President Obama is calling for more civil public debate. We also need benefits and protections that provide a basic measure of security.