State of The Union Address: Prediction Outcomes

Andrea Steele

JMC 414

Recap: State of the Union Address 2015

After looking back on my personal predictions of main issues that would be presented in President Barak Obama’s 6^th State Of the Union Address, I was pleased to see that I was at least half correct. While my predictions weren’t on point, I had a general idea of the things he would be discussing in this years address.

Education, Economy and Environment are usually the three big topics on the president’s list for his State Of the Union Address. These weren’t the only subjects he addressed, of course, he also spoke on immigration and National Security, two other large issues I predicted him speaking on.

I wasn’t sure of the exact emphasis in each topic that he would discuss, but I knew the general ideas in his speech. Education has always seemed to be an important issue for the president and I knew this would be a subject that he addressed.

While I had predicted the president discussing education, I had not foreseen exactly which area of education he would focus on. This SOTU, he primarily directed his focus on college and higher education. With more people attending to college and furthering their skills, Obama believes that we will be able to continue creating higher wage jobs.

With the continual rise in the economy, President Obama discussed solutions to families making ends meet with higher wages. I assumed he would examine this issue during his speech, however, I did not know how well he would tie in the economy with education. He smoothly brought both issues together to create a visible solution: higher education = higher wages.

From higher education and higher wages, the president also discussed the higher temperatures. I had hoped that the president would bring up the concern of the climate changes, and he did – quite well, actually.

Lastly, the president spoke a lot on equality throughout the entirety of his SOTU address. Especially being the day after we remember the great Martin Luther King Jr., the reminder to American people that we are one people was greatly needed. I greatly appreciated the presidents’ final words on agreeing to disagree on certain issues. Rather than looking on the Brightside, such as teen pregnancies and abortions nearing all-time lows, people continue to fight about who is right and who is wrong on issues such as these.

So looking back, I predicted the gist of what would be discussed. However, if I better followed politics, I think I would have done a better job at attempting to foresee the issues he would choose to bring up.

Of course, there were two things that I did foresee: first being the very put-together Michelle Obama. She is the Jackie O. of her day. The second being the president incorporating his wit as he neared the end of his speech when he stated: “I have no more campaigns to run. I know because I won both of them.”