Key Takeaways From Barack Obama’s Last State of the Union Address

She continued, “Even worse, we are facing the most risky terrorist threat our nation has seen since September 11th, and this president appears either unwilling or unable to deal with it”.

Obama, 54, did not take direct aim at the Republican candidates who are vying to succeed him as president in this year’s election.

“When politicians insult Muslims, whether overseas or our fellow citizens, when a mosque is vandalised, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer”.

“We just need to call them what they are; killers and fanatics”, the President stated.

And he was waving away Texas Republican Sen.

Paul Ryan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, also reacted dismissively to Mr Obama’s remarks, saying “I can’t say I was disappointed by the president’s speech, but that’s because I wasn’t expecting much”. But he refused to call the fight against ISIS a fight against radical Islam.

“That doesn’t mean that you go around insulting people and thinking that that is clever, or that is being honest, or telling it straight”, he said. “I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa”.

“All the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air”, he said.

However, he added: “What is true – and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious – is that the economy has been changing in profound ways”.

Obama stopped in Papillion before the speech to visit the home of high school teacher Lisa Martin, who emailed the president a year ago about the world her son would grow up in.

Promised resolve in fighting terrorism and the Islamic State group, but dismissed “over-the-top claims that this is World War III”.

When Obama burst onto the national stage with his keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004, he talked of a United States of America, not a nation divided into red states and blue states. He says that’s the story IS wants to tell and the message it uses in propaganda to recruit. We must embrace the calling of the 21st century.

Urging the American people to “fix our politics”, Obama said his one of the few regrets of his presidency was that the relationship between the Democrats and Republicans had worsened. He did not acknowledge the First Lady or any of the guests invited to attend the speech. If we held the White House, taxes would be lower for working families, and we’d put the brakes on runaway spending and debt…