North Dakota senators weigh in on Obama’s State of the Union speech

“It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency – that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better”, the president said. “It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world” – he also extended a hand to the other side of the aisle.

Obama will meet with a small group of people at a private home in the Cornhusker State’s biggest city before delivering a speech to a larger audience at the University of Nebraska, in Omaha.

Americans shouldn’t be seduced, Obama argued, by those “peddling fiction” about America’s economy in decline or American military strength waning.

The visits are part of an announced strategy by the White House for Obama to spend as much of his a year ago in office as possible to engage directly with America across the country.

“What surprised us most was how political the speech turned out to be”, said Singer.

Under the Obama administration, the United States has come to rival Saudi Arabia as a top oil producer.

In an election-year marquee event, Mr Obama hailed a period of “extraordinary change” laden with both opportunity and the risk of wider inequality.

Trump had his own rebuttal over Twitter, remarking: “The #SOTU speech is really boring, slow, lethargic – very hard to watch!”

“To call the president a boy, those of us who understand African-American history, that’s exactly what they called him, was a boy”, Turner stated.

One of the problems with Turner’s accusations is the clips shown by MSNBC at the beginning of the segment have Cruz saying, “Donald is right that China is running over President Obama like he is a child”, while Christie says in his clip, “The President wants to do things without working with his Congress. This guy’s a petulant child, that’s what he is”.

President Obama also cited a key ACA provision – one that created public health insurance exchanges – that assures availability of coverage to the uninsured.

“The president’s record has often fallen far short of his soaring words”, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in the Republican rebuttal.

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.

“The President made a compelling case about the progress that we’ve made, but the work that still lies ahead”, said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama vowed then that he was “firmly committed to reforming the system as president”.