I don’t have a lot of information to share about the upcoming speech. The sparse excerpts released by the White House confirm that yes, the president’s going to talk about using his executive powers to create a “year of action.” In terms of thematics, the excerpt includes the word “opportunity” four times and “inequality” once. I was glad to see this nugget:
Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by — let alone get ahead. And too many still aren’t working at all.
It ain’t “you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns; you shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold!” But it’s a start.
On the local TV here, the pre-SOTU reporting is mostly about the weather. If Obama decides to shock the world with a fiery peroration, the stage is perfectly set.
