The hour-long address included just one reference to firearms, with Obama, who has doubled his efforts over gun control in the wake of mass shootings, saying America must work on “protecting our kids from gun violence”. But this was the first time Obama has left a seat empty since he took office in 2009, the New York Times reported. “Leadership means a wise application of military power, and rallying the world behind causes that are right”, Mr. Obama said, listing the new opening with Cuba, the nuclear deal with Iran, the Trans Pacific Partnership that would limit China and establish USA leadership in Asia as examples of his internationalism.
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In his final State of the Union address, President Obama called on Americans of all parties to put aside their differences and work together.
America has led a coalition of more than 60 countries to cut off ISIL’s financing, disrupt their plots, stop the flow of terrorist fighters, and stamp out their vicious ideology, he said.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: President Obama appealed for more compromise and common ground in his State of the Union address, but he quickly added, Americans don’t have to agree on everything.
In his speech, Obama did lament the inequality that persists in the United States.
Obama said that it was a matter of great regret in his presidency.
“We’re just as guilty as Democrats as Republicans are”.
Haley said Americans should resist “the siren call of the angriest voices” in how America treats immigrants. “We’ve made progress. But we need to make more”, Obama concluded in his own assessment of his economic record.
To the editor: I listened to a rational, soulful Obama Tuesday night and tried to imagine seeing Donald Trump on the same stage.
Haley confirmed Wednesday that Trump was one of the people she had in mind when she uttered those words. His final State of the Union address, scheduled for January 12, 2016, is a high-profile opportunity for the president to try to reassure the public about his national security stewardship after the terrorism attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. Vice President Joe Biden and then-House Speaker John Boehner of OH, listen in the background.
Others, like Ronald Singler, of Roseburg, said the speech highlighted much of the country’s positives.
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“She’s very weak on illegal immigration…and she certainly has no trouble asking me for campaign contributions because over the years she’s asked me for a hell of a lot of money in campaign contributions”, he said.
