Tonight, President Obama fulfills his constitutional duty to "give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." In other words, he's telling us how he believes the country is doing--and what he thinks the government should do to make the country better.
Some questions to ponder as you watch:
- What are President Obama's main points in this speech?
- What are the solutions to our economic problems, according to Obama?
- Is Obama being critical of other people and their ideas? If so, how?
- What parts of the speech get the most applause? Why do you think so?
- Does the speech sound more like a set of recommendations by the president, or like a campaign speech to help him get re-elected?
The speech starts at 9 tonight. You'll be able to see it on any major news network and NBC, ABC, and CBS. Here's a link from the White House website if you want to watch it online: http://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2012.
To get extra credit, write a full paragraph giving your reactions to the speech. You may answer one or more of the questions above or write about something else that you found important or interesting in the speech. Your comment must have correct grammar and spelling. Not kidding about this, people. Run it through a spell-check first if you need to, and make sure you're capitalizing everything correctly!
Update: Thanks to everybody who stayed up to watch! I hope you noticed some familiar themes in the speech, similar to the things we heard from the president's speech in Osawatomie. Given our discussion of the United States as a world power today, eighth graders, I found this quote especially interesting too: "Yes, the world is changing; no, we can’t control every event. But America remains the one indispensable nation in world affairs – and as long as I’m President, I intend to keep it that way." Obama also shared his views on education reform, the economy, and the state of politics in Washington, D.C., among other things.
- What were the highlights of the speech, in your opinion?
- Did you disagree with Obama on anything? If so, what?
- Did you make any connections between Obama's speech and what we've learned in class?
