Standing before the nation and a
joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama delivered his fourth State of
the Union Address. In an earlier column I presented my predictions for his
speech, and while I successfully predicted some of his key points, he also hit
on some unexpected topics.
In
my first column I predicted Obama would intensely discuss gun control, and
Obama did just that. Surprisingly, Obama waited until the final 20 minutes of
his speech to discuss gun control, but when he did, it was emotionally charged
and was met with a mixture of tears and cheers from the audience. Obama said
the reform proposals deserved a vote in Congress whether or not they would
pass. He also made an emotion connection by saying the families of gun violence
victims deserved to have the proposals voted for.
Going
off his previous State of the Union Addresses, I made the prediction Obama
would address the topic of America’s education system, and he did. Obama
discussed education reform from preschool to college. He said it was crucial
for American children of all walks of life to have an equal opportunity to be
enrolled in preschool in order for them to have a fair start in their
educational lives.
Obama
also said the nation’s high schools must change and do a better job preparing students
for work or further education. This drew one of the largest ovations of the
speech, from both sides of the audience. While I successfully predicted Obama
would discuss education, I also thought he would talk about teachers as he had
in past SOTU addresses, however, he spent his time on education discussing the
actual quality of the education American children are receiving.
For
the past few months the topic of immigration has been a political hot bed,
which is exactly why I predicted Obama would speak about it. He has also
discussed the topic multiple times since stepping into office. Like he did for
gun control and education, Obama laid out specific plans for how he planned to
tackle the issue of immigration control.
Obama
said he plans to strengthen border patrol and create a more responsible way for
immigrants to earn citizenship. He wrapped up his discussion on immigration by
repeating “Let’s get it done,” multiple times while most of the crowd responded
with a standing ovation.
Obama
discussed American troops not just once, but twice during his SOTU address
making another prediction correct. Also as I predicted, Obama addressed women
now being allowed to be on the front line.
Obama
not only thanked the troops for their service as I anticipated, but he
announced that 34,000 troops will be returning home from Afghanistan during the
next year. He also declared by the end of next year, America’s war in
Afghanistan would be over.
In
addition to thanking troops for their selfless service, Obama also said the
government needs to provide better healthcare for active troops and veterans.
Shockingly
(and I say that sarcastically), I also correctly predicted Obama would say the
state of the union is strong. He not only said the state of the union is
strong, but bragged that during the past four years the nation had “cleared
away the rubble of crisis.”
While
I successfully predicted four components of his address, Obama also discussed
several topics that took me by surprise, including energy reform and how the
nation needs to do a better job preventing climate change.
Tax
reform was another major point during Obama’s SOTU address that I did not
predict. The entire time he discussed the topic, he repeatedly mentioned the
need for Congress to work together to make the necessary changes to improve the
tax codes.
Following
a theme from his inauguration speech, Obama spoke about women’s equality in his
SOTU address, which is another topic I failed to predict. The major part of
this was the need for equality of pay for both men and women.
Perhaps
the biggest surprise (at least to me) of Obama’s SOTU address was the time he
spent discussing the need to strengthen the nation’s cyber defense.
With
the exception of a few points, specifically cyber defense, Obama’s SOTU speech
was predicted by simply researching his previous four SOTU speeches, current
event and even his inauguration address just three weeks ago.
Huntington’s March 25 City Council saw citizens honored, ordnances
passed and tempers flared as the council met for their bimonthly meeting. 
While many of the council’s decisions did not sit well with
some of the citizens in attendance, the council made one that everyone in the
chamber agreed with. The council finalized plans for the cities first “Second
Chance Prom” this Friday night which gives special needs and underprivileged
citizens to attend a prom just for them free of charge at the Big Sandy Superstore
Arena. 
