The 2014 State of the Union address.
President Obama will head to the Capitol Tuesday night for the State of the Union address, and unlike most years, he's already told us about several of the big policies he's going to propose.
Tax breaks for middle- and low-income families.
Free community college.
Broadband access.
Paid sick leave and family leave. Not only has Obama extensively previewed his major policy proposals, the White House will be making
heavy use of social media to continue getting the message out to people who might not sit down and watch the whole State of the Union address.
Obama goes into tonight with an improving economy and rising popularity, and he clearly plans to strike a positive tone on the economy, referring to an American "comeback" as he pushes for policies that would strengthen that comeback.
But rising popularity doesn't mean he won't face opposition. Even Politico prefaced a barrage of Republicans complaining with this:
In fact, GOP lawmakers are already complaining what they won’t hear in the president’s speech — or what they think they won’t hear — and dusting off the “Obama had a real chance to reach out today but didn’t” line. It will surely be heavily used in the hours and days following Tuesday’s speech.
This is hilarious coming from people who've made obstruction their specialty for
years and who attacked the president as he repeatedly tried to reach out over the years, only to now attack him because he got the message and stopped trying quite so hard. As the media hashes and rehashes the State of the Union, and as Republicans flood the airwaves with their talking points, remember: It's free community college and tax breaks for middle- and low-income families vs. deporting millions of people and taking health care from millions of people.