On Friday, three YouTube stars – Destin Sandlin, Ingrid Nilsen and Adande Thorne, aka Swoozie – will sit down for an interview with President Barack Obama.
Advertisement
“The last State of the Union is all about legacy”, said Dr. Jeremy Mayer, policy, government and worldwide affairs professor at George Mason University.
Barack Obama will hammer home his campaign for gun control with an empty-chair tribute to shooting victims during his final State of the Union address.
Sometimes a president will use the speech to appeal for unity or try to put lipstick on their own partisanship, but to me it always sounds hollow. He’ll also offer a renewed call for unfinished pieces of his agenda that already have a foothold in Congress, such as approval for his Asia-Pacific free trade pact and bipartisan efforts to overhaul the criminal justice system. Presidential spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama will have a lot to say about opportunities and challenges facing the U.S.in the years ahead.
It’s enough to make you wonder – why should we?
Gov. Dannel Malloy says it will be an honor for him to sit with first lady Michelle Obama during the president’s address.
While SOTUs have been broadcast live online since 2002, the Obama administration has evolved the process for the digital age including posting excerpts in near real-time on the White House’s Facebook and Twitter pages; GIFs on whitehouse.tumblr.com; and video snippets on its official Vine and Instagram accounts.
But the Obamas’ guests will also reflect what’s likely to be left undone or incomplete when the president leaves office. Despite a rash of mass shootings during his tenure, Obama has been unable to get Congress to pass gun-control legislation, settling instead for more modest executive actions, including steps announced last week to expand background checks for gun purchases.
Obama’s speech will accentuate the positives in the U.S. The message of hope echoes the positive message that the Democrat presidential campaigns have revolved around. Nikki Haley will issue the Republican response afterwards.
Advertisement
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace and Nancy Benac of The Associated Press; by Greg Jaffe and David Nakamura of The Washington Post; and by Mike Dorning and Margaret Talev of Bloomberg News.
