By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist, educator and 23-year investigative, legal and political journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
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CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-WASHINGTON, D.C.-President Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, delivered his seventh and final State of the Union address Tuesday night to a joint chamber of Congress and reflected on his seven years in office.
"The state of our union is strong," said Obama, adding that some 900 thousand new jobs have been created in the last two years, and saying that unemployment is down, gas prices are at an all-time low, and the economy under his presidency is the strongest in decades.
"The United States of America is the most powerful nation on earth, period," he said.
Voting rights, climate change, educational policy, equal pay for women, and immigration reform were among a litany of topics discussed by the president, in addition to the Iran Nuclear Deal, ISIS, criminal justice reform, and middle class economics.
The president's speech focused on four key issues- equal opportunity, technological advancements, national and homeland security, and bipartisan cooperation in Congress.
"How can we make our politics reflect what is best in us and not what is worse?" asked Obama, a Democrat.
Obama called for sophisticated clean energy legislation, a 21st century transportation system, and for Congress to authorize military force against ISIS.
"When you come after America, we come after you," said Obama.
The president's 58-minute State of the Union speech was the shortest of his presidency. But it was marked by the rhetoric and oratory brilliance that catapulted him to the nation's highest political office.
As to his signature universal healthcare, unofficially dubbed ObamaCare, he said that nearly 18 million people have coverage so far under the Affordable Care Act, and that health care inflation has slowed. And he acknowledged that the political divisiveness between Republicans and Democrats relative to his controversial health care measure is widespread.
He said that political indifference is hurting the country.
A Harvard Law School graduate and constitutional attorney who was swept into office in 2008 as a then junior senator representing the state of Illinois and won a second four-year term in 2012, the Democratic president also promoted an increase in the minimum wage, paid family leave, and a tax hike for the rich.
Obama advocated for peace in the Middle East and elsewhere, inclusion, and racial and religious tolerance, and said that community activists remain viable in the fight for equal opportunity and equal justice.
"Democracy breaks down when the average person feels his or her voice is not being heard," the president said.
Obama addressed No Child Left Behind legislation, stressed the necessity of high tech medical research and finding a cure for cancer, and thanked the nation's school teachers
He said that America is more respected abroad since he came aboard as president and that his number one priority is "protecting the American people and going after terrorists networks."
And Obama's message of hope and change that has been the hallmark of his presidency should guide the future of America, even after he leaves office, the president said.
"I believe in change because I believe in you, the American people," said Obama.
Polls show that the president's approval rating had jumped nine points to an average of 47 percent between the time that the Democrats lost control of the Senate in November 2014 and his sixth State of the Union in 2015.
Obama's job rating is currently at 43 percent, down four points from this time last year, and the lowest level since before the 2014 midterm elections. But he is nowhere near his predecessor, former president George W. Bush, a Republican whose declining approval ratings tumbled to a strikingly low 22 percent in his final year in office.
