Editor’s note: The following article was compiled before the State of the Union address was delivered. See the actual address on the White House’s website.
In his seventh and final State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama was predicted (as of press time Tuesday) to focus on his legacy as President and the unfinished business that remains rather than give the standard laundry list of policy goals.
The speech was also expected to affect the candidates running for office in 2016 by drawing certain issues into the national spotlight.
In a statement released Tuesday before the address, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said, “Last year the Republican Senate majority made a real difference by passing several pieces of bipartisan legislation that will help American families, including the first major education reform since 2002 that fixes No Child Left Behind. This record shows that if President
Obama focuses on what he agrees on with Congress instead of what we disagree on, there’s quite a bit we could get done in 2016. Presi-dent Obama has plenty of opportunities to work with the Republican majority to get things done that the American people want done.”
Below are visualizations showing statistics on number of words used, average reading difficulty, average length of speech, and viewership for past State of the Union addresses.
