1. President Obama covers a wider variety of topics and issues in his 2014 State of the
Union address. Some are important issues that many people of the United States are probably
aware of today and know a least a few pieces of information on, but some issues and proposals
he talks about a lot of people may not have even thought of to be important. For me personally,
watching the State of the Union address made me realize there may be issues that don’t seem as
relevant today, but would help in the long run for the future.
As a college student, you don’t usually pay much attention to what is going on in
politics, but what we don’t realize is that we actually need to know these things because we are
the future of this country. I know for me I don’t pay much attention to what is going on in
politics as much as I did last year, or as much as I would like too. Watching the State of the
Union address made me realize there is so much going on right now in the United States and I
don’t have any idea what is really being done to improve the lives of everyone in the country.
President Obama had some strong points and some weak points in his State of the Union
address in my opinion. He started off very strong with a good opening, hitting key points such as
unemployment in the United States, citizens making a difference, college students along with
first generation college students and the college reality, expanding opportunities for American
families, raising minimum wage, the war and our soldiers, and one of the most shocking points
to me being closing the gender gap inequality giving equal pay for equal work to women. Most
of these issues and proposals seemed to receive positive feedback from the audience.
One thing I liked most about President Obama in this speech was that he was not afraid
to call out Congress and the Republican party for not being willing to compromise. As he talked
about the government shut down he says, “We are not doing right by the American people.” He

2. seems to understand that the people of American need a positive change to benefit all people. It
seems to me, that he wants to work toward what the people want, but in a way I did not hear
what his plan would be to actually make this happen. One of my favorite things that President
Obama does say is that he will “take steps whenever and wherever he can without legislation to
expand opportunities for more American families.”
President Obama gives plenty of examples of different people who have risen up to be
more than what previous people in their families have been showing that no matter who you are
or where you come from you can become successful, but in doing so he doesn’t seem to focus on
how to get to that point in life. There are a lot of ideas and proposals thrown out in this speech
which can seem at times to be slightly overwhelming. Also along with the proposals being made,
there is no given answer in how these things will actually produce change and make a better
America. Answers like, “How will these things be paid for/where is the money coming from?”
“Will these proposals cause higher prices in America and will they affect other aspects of our
lives?” and so on are not answered well in this speech.
Overall, I found the State of the Union speech to be very interesting. I learned many
things from this speech that I did not know of before, and many policies I hope to be implanted
in the United States. I hope that maybe some of these things can change the future and improve
the United States