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Economic woes cloud first Obama State of the Union
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Economic woes cloud first Obama State of the Union
AFP - Thursday, January 28
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US President Barack Obama, seen here with LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant, will seek to rekindle the spirit of possibility and change that swept him to power in his first State of the Union speech of a presidency sagging under economic gloom.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - – Barack Obama will seek to rekindle the spirit of possibility and change that swept him to power on Wednesday in the first State of the Union speech of a presidency sagging under economic gloom.
With unemployment at 10 percent, a bulging government deficit at 1.4 trillion dollars, and his aspirations for a transformative administration threatened by Washington partisanship, Obama faces a political moment of truth.
Obama will step up in the House of Representatives at 9 pm (0200 GMT) and focus squarely on the pain of America's middle class and on job creation, the key to long-term recovery, and his own personal political prospects.
"In this speech, what he'll discuss more than anything is getting our economy moving again," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Obama will also send a signal to Americans worried about government debt being piled up for future generations, by promising a three-year freeze on non-discretionary spending, which could harm his ambitious reform plans.
The New York Times reported that Obama will announce the creation of a bipartisan panel to press for tax increases and spending cuts to deal with ballooning deficits. A similar proposal died in the Senate for lack of common ground.
Aides have also signaled that Obama will make clear he has not lowered his sights and is determined to enact generational reforms, including his signature health care initiative, now in limbo in Congress.
Obama is also likely to spell out initiatives for immigration reform, cap-and-trade global warming legislation, wide-ranging education reform and regulatory rules to halt risky business practices on Wall Street.
Also expected is a promise to improve US protections against bio-terror attacks, for tax breaks to ease the way to college or retirement for Americans, and a framework for the US role in rebuilding earthquake-hit Haiti.
But given the poisoned political climate in the run-up to mid-term congressional polls in November, and some panic in Obama's Democratic Party, prospects for these initiatives look uncertain.
A poll published Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal found that 51 percent of Americans believe Obama has devoted too little attention on the economy, and 44 percent think he has spent too much on health care, which a plurality believes is "not a good a idea."
The State of the Union is not just the president's best annual chance to speak unfiltered to Americans, but it is also closely watched around the world.
A month after a thwarted attack to bring down a packed US airliner on Christmas Day, Obama will argue that his administration has made important progress against terrorism in Africa and the Middle East.
He may highlight the lack of recent US deaths in Iraq and his vow to get combat soldiers home by the end of August, but he must also bolster public support for his troop surge in Afghanistan.
One year into his presidency, Obama's political brand seems to have lost its luster, as has the idea that a fresh face, with new ideas could steer the US ship of state in a new direction.
His promise to seek bipartisan solutions has foundered: partly due to a strategy of total opposition on behalf of Republicans.
And the haunting political legacy that the president inherited from president George W. Bush -- a collapsed economy, two wars and multiple security threats, has weakened the reforming zeal of his presidency.
Obama has already failed to live up to one of his most prominent promises: closing the camp for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Polls show that Obama remains popular among Americans -- but confidence in his policies is fading: the president's approval ratings are at 50 or below in most opinion surveys.
"I don't doubt that at times he'll be feisty," Gibbs said, but he denied that Obama needed to use the pageantry of the prime-time State of the Union speech to "reset" or "reboot" his presidency.
Obama also has been hurt by the loss of late liberal lion Edward Kennedy's seat in the Senate, which allowed Republicans to snatch away the Democratic supermajority and potentially block his reform agenda.
"We were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people," Obama told ABC News last week.
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