White House promises ‘non-traditional’ State of the Union

President Barack Obama will hold a traditional year-end news conference today before leaving on a two-week family vacation to Hawaii, the White House said.

White House officials say the president plans to use his State of the Union speech to discuss long-term priorities, not legislative priorities.

Still, the White House is pushing back on the notion Obama will be a “lame duck” in his a year ago in office.

Earlier this year, Obama traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, to pay respects to the victims of a mass shooting at a church there.

According to an affidavit, Marquez told investigators he and Farook made plans to attack the library or cafeteria at Riverside Community College in California in late 2011. Obama has vacationed in Hawaii every year since taking office.

Obama met with his national security team at the Pentagon on Monday, instead of their usual location in the White House Situation Room.

And he also will spend time on the presidential campaign trail stumping for the Democratic nominee.

The failure to pass new gun control laws, in the face of repeated mass shootings, is widely considered the administration’s greatest disappointment, one official said. “I don’t think you should expect a huge, long list from the president of legislative to-dos, but I think he’s anxious to take kind of a big-picture approach to some of the challenges and opportunities that we face”, an official said.