Obama's Presidential Address to Congress

Obama makes his first speech to the joint session of Congress tonight, as he attempts to reassure the skeptics of the high government spending and his goal to cut the National deficit in half. The media is forecasting his speech as over-optimistic and a bit overzealous.

His current approval rating is at 59% and this speech will be viewed with scrutiny, which may possibly be a positive or negative things for his approval. 59% is not too bad since this is essentially his first month in Office. Now its time for the arrival of President Barack H. Obama...

He begins his address with the state of the economy, reflecting on those whom are living this crisis firsthand:



To Read President Obama's Speech in its entirety, click here for CNN

"We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United Stated of America will emerge stronger than before"

Obama received numerous breaks of standing ovations and applause during his address, and it seems to be a fairly bi-partisan reaction to his plan. I bet each of the members of Congress will have some killer quads and glutes after all of that sitting and standing. Especially Speaker of the House Pelosi.. I don't think she sat down for more than 2 minutes at a time. Of course there were some who disagreed with him, and I think that is important to have a check and balance within the House. **I love how the camera panned to Sen McCain when Obama mentioned those in the room who are skeptical of his plans**

President Obama urged Americans to commit to at least one year of higher education "Its not just quitting on yourself, but its quitting on your country" Amen to that President! Of all the things he talked about, this stood out to me. how can the economy truly improve? Studies show that competitiveness and quality of life have a direct relation with the focus of education within a country. I teach a class at a local community college, and we focused on the effects of quality of life and education on the manufacturing industry. It turns out that the US, though we spend more money on education, we spend less time in class throughout the year, and we are among the lowest scoring in mean achievement scores in mathematics and science literary. This leads to the US companies spending dollars on helping non-college trained employees learn basic writing, reading and math skills, while our competitors can spend money on skill training for their industry. HIGHER ED IS IMPORTANT!

What were your thoughts? Did Obama deliver? Was his speech believable? What part of the speech stood out to you? Leave Comments!