Tuesday, February 12, 2013


Please post answers to these questions:
1. What major issues did the president cover in the latest State of the Union?
2. How well did you do predicting the president's topics in tonight's speech? Percentages ... right/wrong? Where did you go wrong? Or, how did you get it right?
3. Read the Reuters article on the Quinnipiac poll about what Americans were wanting hear before the speech. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50770947
4. Did the president discuss what Americans wanted to hear?

 
 

21 comments:

Dalton Hammonds said...

1. Major issues covered in the latest State of the Union included the economy, immigration and education.

2. Everything that I predicted would be mentioned was in the address, but there were many things that I didn't predict would be talked about by President Obama. I went wrong by not predicting the emphasis that was put on the economy and I was also wrong when it came to the topic of gay rights. I thought it would be discussed in greater detail.

3&4. After reading the Reuters article on the Quinnipiac poll, the president did discuss about what people wanted to hear about the most in the economy. The deficit was also addressed by the president. President Obama mentioned ways the deficit is being reduced as well as ways to continue to bring it down. Health care wasn't discussed as much as American's probably thought it would be. The president simply mentioned that the Affordable Health Care Act was already beginning to slow down the growth of health care costs. The president hit on everything Americans wanted to hear according to the Quinnipiac poll.

Rachel Ford said...
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Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

In his fourth State of the Union address, President Barak Obama mentioned several of the things I predicted he would in my previous blog and gave Americans a speech that was both what was expected and full of surprises.

Topics I predicted he would bring up included: American unity, the economy, the deficit and fiscal cliff, ending of George W. Bush’s tax breaks, health care, gay rights, immigration reform and gun rights.

Obama mentioned all but one of these topics in some way. The topic Obama did not discuss was Bush’s tax breaks coming to an end. Although, taxing was a topic he did speak about.

The economy was the most prevalent topic of the address. Obama spoke about the country’s deficit and his ideas of how to fix it. These were the topics Americans wanted to hear about the most according to NBC News.

Education was a major topic Obama discussed. His ideas ranged all the way from pre-school to higher education.

He stated that all American children should have the same opportunities to be successful, and it starts with pre-school. Another plan relating to education Obama discussed was altering the high school curriculum to better prepare students for higher education. Finally, he proposed the idea of making higher education more affordable so more Americans can take advantage of schooling and be more successful in life.

Health care and immigration reform combined took up a large chunk of Obama’s address. He elaborated his ideas for both topics, and urged Congress to follow behind him to make these ideas reality.

There was a small mention of gay rights and equality, but Obama did not spend time sharing details of his ideas concerning this. The mention was tied to women and gay military personnel.

Obama kept his theme of American unity from his inauguration speech from January 21, 2013. The theme was present in most of the topics Obama spoke about.

Finally, Obama closed with the topic of gun control. Because this is such a controversial topic right now, it made sense that he would leave this for the end, and leave his audience with an emotional reaction.

As I predicted, there were some surprises in Obama’s address.

One of of these included climate change. Obama stated that Americans should believe what science shows us, and live in a more efficient way that will help decrease destruction of the planet. He cited natural disasters, fires and other tragedies in the last 15 years and related them directly to climate change.

A second surprising topic was Obama's proposal to raise minimum wage amounts to $9.00 an hour.

Cyber attacks was another topic that surprisingly came up. Although, with the recent hacking of The New York Times, it may not have been quite as big of a shock for others as I personally thought it was.

Obama also unveiled his “Fix it First” plan to Congress and the country. Obama stressed the idea of fixing the country in all aspects possible.

Overall, I think Obama gave Americans the address they wanted to hear. He laid out his plan for the year clearly for Congress and the citizens of the United States. He also gave Americans new topics to think about as the new year pans out before us.

As a percentage, Obama spoke about 95 percent of the topics I guessed he would. However, I was only able to guess an estimate of 70 percent of his topics. There were some topics I did not see coming or I simply overlooked.

Obama's fourth State of the Union address was successful and gave Congress and American citizens much to anticipate this year.

Unknown said...

An Assessment of State of the Union Predictions

By Henry Culvyhouse

In my column entitled “State of the Union Predictions” I argued President Obama would advocate gun control, immigration reform and marriage equality in Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

In my analysis, I concluded Obama would support the bipartisan outline sponsored by John McCain (R-Ariz.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). I also wrote Obama would request Congress to act on the current gun control legislation sponsored by Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.). Finally, I theorized Obama would pressure the Supreme Court to rule in favor of the upcoming Supreme Court ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act.

Obama addressed all three of these subjects, but he devoted time to articulate his views on gun control and immigration reform. His comments on marriage equality were only in passing. First, I will discuss how Obama mentioned marriage equality, and then look at his statements on immigration reform and gun control, to see how they matched up with my predictions.

On marriage equality, Obama did not pressure the Supreme Court to rule against DOMA, like I predicted. Instead, he tied it his support of gay marriage, without explicitly stating it, in his argument to rejuvenate the middle class.

Obama said, “...it is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country, the idea that is you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like or who you love.” The italics are mine.

Obama did not directly support gay marriage in this statement. However, in order for this statement to logically stand, Obama indirectly advocated marriage equality. First, Obama argues the return to the middle class ideal of hard work and dedication will produce a comfortable economic standing. For heterosexual married couples, part of this economic standing is the sharing spouses’ benefits, inheritance and joint tax filings. In order for “who you love” to not matter in the “work and meet(ing) your responsibilities” which, according to Obama, is the premise of the middle class idea, marriage must be open to all.

However, in terms of my predictions, Obama did not mention the DOMA case, and in this regard, my educated guess was wrong.

On Immigration, Obama advocated strengthening border security, reforming the citizenship process and backing a bipartisan bill, being written from the before stated outline I mentioned earlier in this column. Obama mentioned background checks, paying taxes and penalties for illegally living in the United States and processing those in the legal process before processing those who are here illegally.

In this case, my predictions were right. Obama did not devote very much time to the subject, but what time he did, he hit every point I predicted in my previous column.

Samuel Speciale said...

1. The major issues Obama covered in the State of the Union were the economy, education, foreign policy, gun violence and immigration.

2. Obama discussed everything that I predicted, but he brought up a few issues I did not anticipate. Education, voter obstruction and withdrawal of troops were all issues I did not predict.

3 & 4. Obama did address the issues Americans wanted to hear about. The article said 35 percent of people viewed the economy as the most important topic and Obama spent the most time talking about it. Obama discussed the other issues that were listed in the article.

Unknown said...

On gun control, Obama suggested the Senate put up to a vote legislation banning the resale of guns to criminals, banning “weapons of war”, stricter background checks and banning high capacity magazines. “Weapons of war” should be interpreted as assault rifles, since they have been the standard issue for post WWII militaries.

The current legislation for banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines is the bill introduced by Sen. Feinstein. In a sense, Obama’s push for a vote is full support for the bill and therefore, my prediction was right.

In summary, I accurately predicted Obama’s comments on immigration reform and gun control, while I was wrong about his comments on gay marriage.

At the end of my column, I mentioned Obama would address national debt and deficit, Benghazi and the Middle East, Unemployment and women in combat roles. On these three marks, I can say I was right, although I was surprised in how much space Obama gave to the Middle East and how Obama took a tax reform, rather than tax raising stand on deficit reduction. He did not mention Benghazi by name, but advocated supporting allies and new democracies in the Middle East to curve terrorism. Finally, his economic plans, which include more education, building a larger manufacturing base, investments in green technology and addressing the country’s aging infrastructure, addressed the unemployment situation.

Obama's emphasis on the economy and deficit falls in line with a recent Quinipac poll on what Americans wanted to hear in the State of the Union address. The poll showed 20 percent of Americans answered the federal deficit as their top concern, 35 percent of Americans listed the economy as a concern and 12 percent answered gun control. In terms of addressing what the the American people wanted to hear, Obama answered these concerns effectively.

Rachel Ford said...

My full column will be emailed to you due to the length and character limit set by Blogger.

1) A number of topics were discussed throughout the speech including jobs, the economy, immigration reform, education reform and gun control, as well as a few surprise topics such as raising the federal minimum wage and cyber threats.

2) I predicted a surprise during the speech, and Obama gave me several. Overall, I think my predictions were about 75% accurate, with some topics being simply overlooked or just not thought of at all. I was correct when I predicted discussion of gun control, women's rights, immigration and gay rights, all of which were mentioned at least once, although some topics were discussed more in depth than others.
I did not predict the president would talk about education or cyber threats, especially as much as he did, dedicating several minutes of the evening to.

3) According to a survey conducted by Quinnipiac University, 35 percent of Americans wanted the economy to be discussed, and 15 percent of Americans said gun control was a top priority. The survey also said 12 percent of Americans were concerned about healthcare. These three topics were all heavily discussed during Obama’s speech.

4) Yes. Based on the above poll by Quinnipiac University, the president did address issues Americans wanted to hear.

Samuel Speciale said...
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Samuel Speciale said...
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Unknown said...

1. The major subjects discussed at President Barack Obama’s fourth State of the Union address were the economy, immigration, education, gun control and the environment.

2. I did not predict what would be discussed at the State of the Union address very effectively. I predicted that he would discuss gun control, the economy, unemployment and clean energy. All of these were discussed, but not in the order or to the degree I expected.

3. The Quinnipiac University survey said American citizens mainly wanted to hear about the economy and the deficit. Gun control and healthcare reform were also high in the rankings as far as American concern goes.

4. The president did discuss everything Americans wanted to hear. He focused heavily on the economy, and finished the speech by addressing gun control. Healthcare reform was a point mentioned in the address, but it was not a heavy focus.

Unknown said...

1. Major issues covered during the State of the Union included the economy, immigration, education, cyber hacking, gun control, women's rights and climate change.

2. Everything that I predicted was mentioned during the address, but there were many things that I did not predict. I did not predict cyber safety, the army and education.

3. After reading the Reuters article on the Quinnipiac poll, the president discussed the key points of the economy. The deficit was also a major point of his speech. Healthcare was a top concern among the poll yet Obama did not mention it in his speech.

4. According to the poll the president addressed the key issues that Americans wanted to hear. The main points were the economy, gun control and education.

Unknown said...

State of the Union
In President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, Obama returned to some unfinished business from his first term as president.
Standing before the world and a joint session of Congress, Obama delivered his fourth State of the Union address.
In an earlier column, I predicted that immigration would be a key point during this year's address.
I also predicted the president would speak on gun control, gay rights, equal pay for women, climate change and the economy.
While the president hit on all the topics I predicted, there were a few shockers that the president will have on his agenda.
The president announced that American forces will move into a supporting role and more troops will come home.
“Tonight, I can announce that over the next year, another 34,000 American troops will come home from Afghanistan,” Obama said.
By far, the surprise topic of this year's address is the growing threat of cyber attacks. Not many if any had this predicted as key point in the president's speech.
The president has called on Congress to face the rapidly-growing threat from cyber attacks.
Obama said that our enemies are seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions and our air traffic control systems.
“We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy,” Obama said.
During the 2012 presidential election, in response to former Massachusetts Gov. Romney’s statement of the U.S. having less naval ships, Obama said, “Well Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets.”
During Tuesday's address, Obama seemed to focus on bringing America's defenses into a 21st century standard.
I made the prediction Obama would address the topic of immigration reform. For the past few months, immigration reform has been a hot topic. For example, during this year's presidential campaigns, both nominees considered vital to go on Telemundo. Romney even had a fake tan to appeal to a more Hispanic demographic.
Obama laid out a specific plan for how he would deal with immigration reform. Obama said he plans to strengthen border patrol and create a more responsible way for immigrants to earn citizenship. The president catchphrase on this key point was simple but infectious.
“Let’s get it done,” Obama said multiple times, which drew one of the largest ovations of the speech, from both sides of Congress.
Yet the emotional climax of this year speech came during gun control with Obama saying yet another catch phrase, “They deserve a vote.”
Obama used the examples of Gabby Giffords, the families of Newton and the families of Aurora to personalize the issue.
Yet for me, the strongest voice of this speech was Haidya Pendleton. Pendleton was a 15-year-old girl who lost her life during the shooting less then a mile away from Obama’s house.
Even Obama struggled with the emotion during this portion of his speech. His eyes glazed over as he said, “Just three weeks ago, she was here, in Washington, with her classmates, performing for her country at my inauguration. And a week later, she was shot and killed.”
During the loudest standing ovation among Democrats, Obama repeated they deserve a vote. However, they deserve a vote only means to give gun control legislation a chance and that may be all the president will be able to do.
One thing is clear, it will not be easy for those who oppose the president's legislation on gun control.
Right now, Obama has time on his side, but the longer it takes to pass legislation, the less support he is going to find among a bipartisan bill.
While I predicted Immigration reform would be a significant topic, I was also surprised to find that the president touched upon reducing our nuclear arsenal and cyber hacking.

Unknown said...

The major issues that President Obama discussed in his State of the Union Address were education, foreign policy, healthcare, immigration and gun control.

He discussed everything that I predicted in my column. He briefly mentioned gay rights, he discussed healthcare, bringing home the troops, employment and gun control.

After reading the Reuters article, it is clear that Obama did indeed discuss what the people wanted to hear. He discussed the economy and what he was going to do about climate control. He also talked about the deficit.

Unknown said...

1. The major issues that President Obama discussed were jobs (unemployment), the current states of America’s economy, climate change, early childhood education funding, immigration, increasing America’s minimum wage to $9, Cyber Criminals, health care, women’s equality and gun control. However, his constant undertone was of cooperation between the parties and working together to make change in America.

2. I did relatively well predicting Obama’s topics. I was right about unemployment, economy, immigration, health care, gun control and (somewhat) gay rights. However I predicted that gay rights would be discussed much more than it was. However, some of his main topics did not make my list of predictions including the climate change and cyber crimes.

3. The president did address many of the topics that Americans most wanted to hear. He did talk some about the economy but said very little about the deficit. He did address the topic of gun control (an issue called for by about 15% of polled citizens). He dedicated a portion of his speech to immigration, an issue that he has mentioned in many of his previous State of the Union addresses. He had clear suggestions and plans for economic improvement including increased minimum wage and increasing job creations in America.

4. The president did address the issues that Americans did want to hear (the issues indicated by NBC’s poll anyway) and present clear and precise suggestions and improvements for issues such as immigration and unemployment.

Jarrod Clay said...

Actual column will follow

1) President Obama discussed several key topics including, gun control, education, tax reform, the economy, American troops, cyber defense, defense against Korea and Iran, energy, immigration, women’s equality and raising the minimum wage to nine dollars an hour.
2) I successfully predicted Obama would discuss gun control, education, American troops and immigration. He discussed each of those points in great detail. Everything I predicted was included in his speech, however, I did not predict many of the topics he discussed.
3&4) Americans wanted to hear about the economy, the federal deficit and they got their wish as Obama spent time discussing both topics. According to the Reuters poll, Americans also wanted to hear about gun control and healthcare, and again they got just what they wanted as Obama went into great detail about each. Obama spent more time on the economy and the nation budget/deficit than any other individual topic, which is fitting because according to the Reuters poll 53 percent of those polled said the economy was the main concern.

Dalton Hammonds said...

100% Prediction Success

PhillipsEdu said...

In the State of the Union address, Obama addressed the following issues: ending the war in Afghanistan, gun control, improvement in education (not to take funding away from education), a brief focus of woman’s rights, the deficit, and so on.
I was spot on with my predictions! 100 percent! My prediction included gun control and immigration laws but was not limited to the focus of improvement on education, the deficit, jobs, and education that were topics Obama discussed in all other State of the Union addresses.
In a way, every time the president addresses the nation he tells the public what they want to hear. Though in the article specifically, the people wanted to hear about gun control and Obama only touched on the matter briefly. They also wanted to hear about the deficit and that was the entire speech. Obama proposed ideas, like improving education, creating new jobs and raising the minimum wage, that were only simple goals for the bigger finish line of lowering the deficit.

twolfe9586 said...

1.Major issues for the State of the Union were the economy, education, gun control, and better polling procedures.

2. I predicted that he would discuss gun control, the economy and immigration. Obama mentioned all of these in the address, but not all of them were major topics. I would say I predicted 100%, but since some of the things I predicted weren't major topics I'd say I predicted 80% based on importance.

3.The article said that citizens were concerned about Health care, the economy.

4. I believe that Obama hit on everything America was concerned about.

Unknown said...

1. The major issues in which the President had covered included: the economic deficit, education planning for the youth, the immigration reform, bringing the troops back from Afghanistan, cyber bullying, health care, and of course gun control.

2. My predictions on what the president had covered and went over in his address were quite accurate. Except I failed to mention a few topics that included: “Fix-It-First” program, Combating Climate Change, and cyber bullying. I would say that I was 6 for 9 which would be below a 70%. I would say the percentage of my predictions would have to be a 67% overall. Not too good.

4. The President did talk about what the Americans wanted to hear, because they wanted to hear about gun control and the economic deficit.

Unknown said...

President Barack Obama delivered his fourth State of the Union address Monday night and shared his plan for the future of the United States of America. In my previous column I shared my predictions of what his likely key points would be. While I was able to correctly predict some, other topics he discussed caught me completely off guard.
My previous predictions of key talking points were immigration, the economy and gun control. While all of these were discussed at some point throughout the 59 minute and 58 second address, there were several surprises to me.
One topic that I was unable to predict was cyber security. I was caught off guard when this topic came up and was discussed in such great length. “We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy,” Obama said. “That’s why, earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyber defenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs and our privacy.” While the topic is important I was shocked that it was discussed before gun violence.
After the multiple shootings that occurred recently and public, as well as politicians, calling for increased regulation, I was surprised this subject was discussed so close to the end of the speech. Obama emphasized the topic of gun violence to be brought to a vote. “Hadiya’s parents, Nate and Cleo, are in this chamber tonight, along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote,” Obama said. “Gabby Giffords deserves a vote. The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote. The families of Oak Creek, and Tucson, and Blacksburg, and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence - they deserve a simple vote.” I thought this was a strong point of the address. Obama’s listing of several mass shootings that are still in American’s memories. With the list I thought that Obama really helped drive home the point that something needs to be done in order to prevent even more senseless mass shootings.
The war in Afghanistan also was a key point in the address. Obama said another 34,000 American troops would be coming home from Afghanistan. “And by the end of next year, our war in Afghanistan will be over,” Obama said. Obama’s bold statement led to a standing ovation by many. Obama also emphasized equal treatment for all service members as well as equal benefits for the families regardless of if they are gay or straight. Another point also discussed was women serving in combat. As well as investing in veteran’s benefits, education, job opportunities, families and healthcare.
Obama also announced an overhaul of the American school system. A redesign of America’s high schools was announced in order to better equip graduates for the demands of a high-tech economy. Also, Obama discussed the affordability of college and said colleges must do their part to keep costs down.
I think I did an okay job of predicting what the president would discuss. All three topics that I predicted were discussed throughout the address. My predictions were 100 percent discussed. There were other topics that I was unable to predict though for example, cyber security as well as the war in Afghanistan and the state of the military.
The article by NBC News said gun policy and healthcare were top concerns for voters as well as the economy and federal deficit. In my opinion, Obama somewhat discussed what America wanted to hear. Obama definitely spent time on gun policy and the economy. However when it came to healthcare, not a lot of time was spent discussing it compared to the other two topics.

In my opinion the 2013 State of the Union address touched on a variety of topics and was very well delivered.

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