(Yahoo).President Obama will have a chance Wednesday to reintroduce himself to the nation when he delivers his first official State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress.
The prime-time speech, which will be aired on all major TV networks and cable stations, could hardly come at a more critical time for a president grappling with double-digit unemployment, sinking poll numbers and the possible collapse of his top domestic policy priority, an overhaul of the nation's health-care system.
"As often as the president has spoken over the past year, critics on the right and left have largely defined him," says University of Notre Dame American studies professor Robert Schmuhl. "For the State of the Union, he needs to redefine himself, who he is politically and what his core principles and policies are."
In Ohio on Friday, just three days after Democrats lost the 60th Senate vote that gave them an edge in pushing their agenda through Congress, Obama struck a decidedly populist tone.
Shunning a necktie for a midday town hall-style meeting in Elyria, Obama told the crowd again and again that he'll "never stop fighting" for them on issues from health care and jobs to education and accountability.
On Wednesday, however, the setting will be decidedly different: formal and steeped in history and tradition.
When he speaks to the nation from the House of Representatives' chamber, he will take "the biggest stage the president has" to speak to the people, says Michael Gerson, White House speechwriter for George W. Bush.
How he responds to last week's message from Massachusetts voters, who gave Republican Scott Brown the seat held by Sen. Edward Kennedy for nearly five decades, could set the political course for the next year and beyond.
"It's the moment when everybody's watching and when people take the measure of how he responds," Gerson says. The speech will tell voters and members of Congress, "this is the Obama strategy" after the Massachusetts election.
Inside the White House, the political strategy already has shifted. David Plouffe, who managed Obama's presidential campaign, has been tapped by the president to help Democrats stave off big losses in next fall's elections.
For Wednesday's speech, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says it was always the plan for Obama to focus mainly on jobs and the economy and there have been no major rewrites of the speech to account for Tuesday's election. On Sunday, senior White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN's State of the Union that the nation will hear Obama's "ideas about additional steps that we can take to help create and stir hiring around the country."
Others say there ought to be some readjustment, in tone and substance from a president whose approval rating is now at 48% in Gallup's daily tracking poll.
Dee Dee Myers, former president Bill Clinton's first White House press secretary, says Obama needs to "show some contrition" and let voters know that "he gets it" on health care and frustration with the slow pace of the economic rebound. She says Obama should acknowledge that the Democrats went about overhauling health care "in a way that left people with more questions than comfort."
At the same time, she says, he's got to show some spunk — without being artificially populist, a mantle not in keeping with his personality. Too often, "Obama seems like he tries to talk everyone into what he believes — and that's part of why we elected him, because he's a calm, reasonable guy — but behind that, there has to be some fight. You have to be able to take a few punches and throw a few punches."
Wayne Fields, an English professor at Washington University in St. Louis and author of Union of Words: A History of Presidential Eloquence, says Obama is at his best when he explains difficult issues as a teacher would.
"The crucial thing for him, first of all, is to be calm," Fields says. "He needs to make it clear he's not shaken by all of this." After setting that tone, he should remind people that the nation's "problems are hard and complicated and the responses are experimental."
The prime-time speech, which will be aired on all major TV networks and cable stations, could hardly come at a more critical time for a president grappling with double-digit unemployment, sinking poll numbers and the possible collapse of his top domestic policy priority, an overhaul of the nation's health-care system.
"As often as the president has spoken over the past year, critics on the right and left have largely defined him," says University of Notre Dame American studies professor Robert Schmuhl. "For the State of the Union, he needs to redefine himself, who he is politically and what his core principles and policies are."
In Ohio on Friday, just three days after Democrats lost the 60th Senate vote that gave them an edge in pushing their agenda through Congress, Obama struck a decidedly populist tone.
Shunning a necktie for a midday town hall-style meeting in Elyria, Obama told the crowd again and again that he'll "never stop fighting" for them on issues from health care and jobs to education and accountability.
On Wednesday, however, the setting will be decidedly different: formal and steeped in history and tradition.
When he speaks to the nation from the House of Representatives' chamber, he will take "the biggest stage the president has" to speak to the people, says Michael Gerson, White House speechwriter for George W. Bush.
How he responds to last week's message from Massachusetts voters, who gave Republican Scott Brown the seat held by Sen. Edward Kennedy for nearly five decades, could set the political course for the next year and beyond.
"It's the moment when everybody's watching and when people take the measure of how he responds," Gerson says. The speech will tell voters and members of Congress, "this is the Obama strategy" after the Massachusetts election.
Inside the White House, the political strategy already has shifted. David Plouffe, who managed Obama's presidential campaign, has been tapped by the president to help Democrats stave off big losses in next fall's elections.
For Wednesday's speech, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says it was always the plan for Obama to focus mainly on jobs and the economy and there have been no major rewrites of the speech to account for Tuesday's election. On Sunday, senior White House adviser David Axelrod told CNN's State of the Union that the nation will hear Obama's "ideas about additional steps that we can take to help create and stir hiring around the country."
Others say there ought to be some readjustment, in tone and substance from a president whose approval rating is now at 48% in Gallup's daily tracking poll.
Dee Dee Myers, former president Bill Clinton's first White House press secretary, says Obama needs to "show some contrition" and let voters know that "he gets it" on health care and frustration with the slow pace of the economic rebound. She says Obama should acknowledge that the Democrats went about overhauling health care "in a way that left people with more questions than comfort."
At the same time, she says, he's got to show some spunk — without being artificially populist, a mantle not in keeping with his personality. Too often, "Obama seems like he tries to talk everyone into what he believes — and that's part of why we elected him, because he's a calm, reasonable guy — but behind that, there has to be some fight. You have to be able to take a few punches and throw a few punches."
Wayne Fields, an English professor at Washington University in St. Louis and author of Union of Words: A History of Presidential Eloquence, says Obama is at his best when he explains difficult issues as a teacher would.
"The crucial thing for him, first of all, is to be calm," Fields says. "He needs to make it clear he's not shaken by all of this." After setting that tone, he should remind people that the nation's "problems are hard and complicated and the responses are experimental."
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