U.S. Edition
(CNN) - It's down to the wire for President Obama.
White House aides say he's still writing what could arguably be the most important speech of his young presidency. Tuesday, Mr. Obama is working with lead speechwriter Jon Favreau and foreign policy speechwriter Ben Rhodes to craft his critical State of the Union Address.
White House spokesman Bill Burton says they've lost count of the multiple drafts which have gone into editing the address, but the tinkering continues. The White House writing team began crafting the speech back in November. The president became involved the following month, but now Mr. Obama is pouring through the pages with a fine tooth comb."There has been a lot of hard work on it in past couple of days," Burton said.
The president is writing part of it in long hand, as he did for his Nobel Peace Prize address, but most has been done on computer, aides say. As changes are still being made, Mr. Obama has not yet started practicing his delivery in the White House theater.
The president's proposal to freeze non-security discretionary spending for three years will be announced during his State of the Union. Burton says that initiative to reign in federal spending was written in the address before the Massachusetts special election that cost Democrats their 60-seat supermajority.
White House officials say the president will emphasize the importance of "creating good jobs, addressing the deficit, changing Washington, and fighting for middle class families." Burton says Mr. Obama will also talk about the need for health care reform, his top domestic priority, that got railroaded after the partys' Massachusetts loss.
Obama has lied so much we won't watch him anymore – he thinks we are dumb. Well we got his number now. His little nothing moves don't convince us. Jack C Wa
1.45 Trilion added to the national debt in 2009 1.35 Trillion to be added to the national debt in 2010 1.35 Trillion to be added to the national debt in 2011 1.35 Trillion to be added to the nationl debt in 2012
Are you kidding me. STOP SPENDING BARACK. You clowns complained about President Bush and I agreed the guy spent crazy and he let congress get away with it. He added 5 trillion to the national debt in "8" years.
Barack is adding 5.5 trillion in "4" years.... FOUR.
You are driving us into the ground and 10.2% unemployment. You are ruining the country. Stop everything else. Cut spending.
An entire year has gone by and wasted Stimulus, one goofy program after another and now he talks about jobs. He's a kook. We are already so sick of the fake. James J Co
It is time to get tough Obama! Enough of the appeasement of the hyocritical, arrogant, off-shore nation building Republicans.
It is time to throw the lies back in their face and get TOUGH! 80% of the American public wants nothing less.
Obama can go into his cave and stay there. He will go down as the worst Pres in American history "by far". Tim G Mn
Would that he had paid as much attention to the voice of the people in the last year as he now is to his personal spin on the State of the Union. Seems he only cares about one thing: getting another hollow "howdy, I'm fightin' for you" speech out to belay the public's outcry and try to convince them his administration is not a disaster.
It took one week for CNN to destry Mr. Obama.... what a shame!
this is going to be a tough speech. how does he convince the nation that he is still 'the one'? after a year where americans saw insane levels of spending, greater political polarization, failures to deliver on major promises, and 'hope' of 'change' all but virtually gone, the president needs to choose his words well. good thing is this is just his first year. he still has a lot of time to turn things around. his major obstacle if to recognize that most americans are really tired of the same old politics and are more towards the center, rather than the left or right. if there is one thing that would be a safe bet to make, one can expect lots of spin after the speech.
Maybe he can comment on why HIS government (not Bush's) has failed when it comes to preparing the nation for a biological attack.
Readt the bipartisain report by former Senators Graham and Talent. It is pretty pathetic.
I hope his teleprompter crashes. Heck he even had to use it to speak to a 6th grade class. Priceless.
On the day that Obama was elected the right started to whine and cry about it. That was why they have the teabaggers. The left is upset with Obama, for trying so hard to work with the obstructionists on the right. We would be happy for him to tell them to kiss it, know what I mean? Brown wasn't elected because of what Obama and the dems have done, but because of what they HAVEN'T done.
You can fool some of the people all of the time.
Oh barf, yet more rhetoric from the king of inaction. Obama will do what all Democrats do when they are facing challanges. He will move as far to the right as he possibly can without actually crawling up Mitch McConnell's rear end and becoming a lockstep republican. Democratic ideals will be abandoned and the democratic base and progressives will stay home in 2010 handing the legislature back to republicans for yet another 10 years of stagnation. Its really kind of a waste of time to even be involved in Democratic politics at the federal level.
I'm sure the speech will be a good one and then the 24/7 cable cycle will go to work to twist, ridicule, prey on whatever paranoia they know is lurking among the American public. By morning, people will be angry, paranoid, frustrated, confused, and will have heard that the President said something he never came close to saying.
Relatively few will actually watch it. They will wait for Rush, Hannity, and Beck to translate it for them and then they will bask in their anger. They thirst for that anger.
tough job explaining why he is a total diaster
I love you, Mr. President!
Right wing controlled media....
They reported all year and came down to advocate for right wing nuts!
He needs to be firm and draw a line in the sand and show he is solidly for the middle man and emphasize the enormity of the recent court ruling on corporate political contributions.----- Focusing on taking our country back from the corporate world can be a monumental political windfall if properly handled.
I just saw this on CNN front page but it has been on the net and just now made it to a major news agency. Of course the MSM doesn't post things like this very often. It is not good press to tell all the good stuff the stimulus is doing. They can't get the public hyped up on the stimulus plan, then they couldn't get the republicans back into office to steal, and promote hate and violence. That makes better copy.
Oh the thing the stimulus is doing, helping to stock food pantries. You know. Those places where all the Americans who are out of work and can't find any jobs, BECAUSE BUSH AND COMPANY SENT THEM OVERSEAS, find food to feed their families.
good luck on talking up health care reform.... although we need a version of it....and everybody agrees on that.... what you let get shoved though both houses is a travesty.....a waste of our tax dollars and congress' time.....
here's an idea for you....
try talking about jobs, sir..... that's what people care about....
you don't get it, do you?.....
Obama should explain his successes as well as his failures.
He successfully changed the war on terror to a nonmilitary judicial process. He Mirandized the Christmas Day bomber less than an hour after apprehension and arrest and refused to let military professionals interrogate him.
So, in effect, he has downgraded our ability to defend against terrorism. I seriously wonder if he considers this a success or a failure.
We’ve now seen three landslide Republican victories in three states that President Obama carried in 2008. From the tea parties to the town halls to the Massachusetts Miracle, Americans have tried to make their opposition to Washington’s big government agenda loud and clear. But the President has decided that this current discontent isn’t his fault, it’s ours. He seems to think we just don’t understand what’s going on because he hasn’t had the chance – in his 411 speeches and 158 interviews last year – to adequately explain his policies to us.....read the rest on FB -Sarah Palin
obama is grasping for straws... he has no plan no direction to take this country,,, the emperor has no clothes...
Why would it take 3 months to write a speech? I guess he has to fine tune his lies. And then he has to pratice his speech, kind of like an actor would do. Odumbo is such a tool. Why O Why did we hire this fool.
2010/2012 REAL Change is coming
Sorry but I have heard enough talk from Obama! Actions speak louder than words. We have been subjected to his agenda for the past 12 months and we reject it! He failed to keep so many promises made during his campaign that I will not believe one word he utters!!!