President Obama Reaches For Upbeat Outlook In Final State Of The Union

President Barack Obama will deliver a final State of the Union address Tuesday brimming with optimism - far more than most Americans possess.

 RadioOnFire will carry the speech live. Hear the speech tonight streaming at RadioOnFire.com

After six years of pitching ambitious proposals in his annual speech to Congress, Obama plans to take a rhetorical step back this year as he opens the final stretch of his presidency, in which he has less control over the nation's political agenda than ever before. By returning to the hopeful tenor of his two presidential campaigns, Obama also hopes to give voice to themes that Democrats can embrace in their campaigns to replace him and win back control of Congress.

"The president's optimism about the country is not because he isn't concerned about the future," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. "His optimism about the country is characterized by his confidence in the American people and our country to overcome those challenges, and just as importantly, to capitalize on the opportunities that exist."

But the country Obama has led for the last seven years doesn't always see it the same way.

Seven in 10 Americans said they see the U.S. heading in the wrong direction, according to an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll last month. That's a marked decline from just two months earlier, and an even steeper fall compared to the first year of Obama's presidency, when less than half said in July 2009 that the U.S. was heading down the wrong path.

Driving that pessimism across the country, polls show, are steep concerns about national security in the era of the Islamic State group and lingering trepidation among some about the quick pace of social change in the U.S.

On the other hand, while 2015 was a volatile year for Wall Street, Americans are by and large more confident about the economy than they were a few years ago.

While White House aides were careful to avoid describing Tuesday's speech as a victory lap, Obama planned to call attention to his administration's successes, both during the last year and throughout his two terms in office.

Over the past year, Obama has reached a nuclear deal with Iran, re-launched diplomatic relations with Cuba, secured a global climate pact and an Asia-Pacific trade deal, and negotiated a budget deal with the Republican-led Congress. Unemployment has fallen to 5 percent and renewed confidence in the economy led the Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates.

Source WBAL