Obama's state-of-the-union address much about state of his presidency
US president hopes to use state-of-the-union speech to rebound from last year's debacles and frame priorities in battling income inequality
In the sixth year of a battered presidency and confounded by recalcitrant Republicans, Barack Obama will try to fight off the curse of the second-term lame duck in his annual state-of-the-union address.
The US president will seize one of his diminishing windows tomorrow to command the domestic political stage and talk over the heads of lawmakers blocking his agenda to speak directly to the American people. Obama hopes to rebound from a disastrous 2013, scarred by Republican obstruction and self-inflicted wounds.
The annual speech will also help him navigate the political terrain ahead of November midterm elections.
"This is not a state-of-the- union speech exclusively. It is a state-of-the-Obama-administration speech," said Robert Lehrman, who wrote speeches for former vice-president Al Gore and is now a communications professor at American University in Washington.
Just a year after Obama laid out a liberal agenda pulsating with ambition, he risks it being stillborn due to the blocking tactics of Republicans who control the House of Representatives and can jam up the Senate.
Still, he is expected to air plans to raise the minimum wage, extend long-term unemployment benefits and quicken jobs growth. He will frame his priorities in a call to arms to battle rising income inequality, which he sees as the "defining challenge of our time". The theme is expected to anchor Obama's remaining three years in office and ultimately his legacy. He will launch a political swing this week to build pressure on Republicans.