WASHINGTON — Based on some recent previews, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address next Tuesday will aim for the tricky balance of claiming credit for promises he has kept while tacitly acknowledging that he needs to do more.
This year’s report to Congress will come against the the backdrop of a sluggish jobs market and a restive American electorate eager for more signs of progress, and in speeches, Obama has begun to re-embrace his 2008 theme of change by linking his accomplishments to the idea.
The president has been using the refrain “Change is” … to catalog a list of actions — including rescuing the auto industry and ending the war in Iraq — that he hopes will increase his re-election chances.
“We’ve begun to see what change looks like,” Obama told hundreds of supporters in Chicago last week.
White House aides said the president’s national address before Congress will draw heavily on the themes he laid out last month in Osawatomie, Kan.
The president’s strategy aims to neutralize his biggest vulnerabilities: the sluggish economy and high unemployment rate.
The Washington Post
