Although it’s been easy to stream the State of the Union for a few years now, the White House is adding even more options for this week’s “nontraditional” address.
Advertisement
According to the White House, Obama will do the live interviews this Friday, following Tuesday’s State of the Union.
Free community college: Obama unveiled what he called a “bold new plan” to “lower the cost of community college – to zero”. The speech comes less than three weeks before the Iowa caucuses kick off the voting for his successor, and one unspoken goal for Mr Obama is to set the table for Mrs Clinton.
Despite a rash of mass shootings during his tenure, Mr Obama has been unable to get Congress to pass gun control laws, settling instead for more modest executive actions, including steps announced last week to expand background checks for weapons purchases. It’s the last big speech many Americans will watch him deliver, and he wants to leave a good impression. A year later, the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour, where it’s been since July 2009. Many in the mortgage industry are eager to hear what the Obama Administration will have to say about the housing market-if he will address it at all. Afterwards, he’ll answer questions from the public live on the official White House YouTube channel.
Congress confrontation White House officials have signposted this year’s State of the Union address as pitting the American people against Congress. This is a theme that Obama has already played on.
Obama’s last State of the Union speech comes against the backdrop of a Republican-controlled Congress – and a presidential campaign in which the two parties’ argument is over whether to protect everything Obama has done or scrap it all. Among the guests sitting in first lady Michelle Obama’s box will be Edith Childs, an elderly woman from SC who first introduced Obama to the “Fired Up!”
Not for the first time during Obama’s seven years in the White House, he will lean heavily on his dazzling rhetorical skills to push forward his agenda.
Snapchat might be a powerful engagement tool, but the president could still be playing catch-up in the Internet relevance race.
“The president is going, I assume, to talk about the future and try to paint a rosy picture where one does not exist”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
Obama’s aides are previewing a sweeping address Tuesday, meant to lay out Obama’s long-term view of his presidency.
Advertisement
In past addresses, the White House has invited the family members of victims of gun violence to attend the speech in order to raise awareness for the issue and spur Congressional action, which has been stymied by Republican opposition.
