Expectations for Obama’s State of the Union address
Concepcion Picciotto protests the United States government from a tent that faces the White House.
Jan. 27, 2010
Washington, D.C. — For Concepcion Picciotto, Wednesday night will the same as any other night.
Picciotto said she has never watched a presidential State of the Union address since 1981, when she first began protesting outside the White House.
President Barack Obama will deliver his first State of the Union address on Capitol Hill tonight. His speech is the focus of many Americans today.
The annual State of the Union speech marks the end to Obama’s first year in the Presidential Office. Many Americans acknowledge that this has been a difficult year for Obama, but Picciotto said he has not made enough of an effort for change.
Picciotto, an elderly woman who said she has long since “stopped counting” her age, has lived across from the White House for nearly 30 years. She is camped in a make-shift home, a plastic tent at the south end of Lafayette Park, surrounded by hand-painted rocks and printed posters that promote the message of her anti-war and anti-nuclear protests.
Although she is a soft-spoken and congenial woman toward visiting tourists and hungry squirrels, her attitude changed when she talked about President Obama.
Obama had once promised to withdraw American troops from the Middle East, she said. He has not kept his promise.
“(Obama) just follows Bush’s steps,” Picciotto said. “His campaign changed. We are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing has been changed.”
Picciotto has no plans to move away from her current location anytime soon.
Justin Calsoncin, a Marine visiting from Texas, said he will watch the president’s speech at a bar with a friend. He gave Obama “an ‘A’ for effort.”
“I give him credit for trying,” the 25-year-old said. “He has too much on his plate in the first year, (but) I give Obama credit for leaning away from the center.”
Calsoncin expected the president to talk about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the economy and the plan for a three-year freeze on a portion of the national budget. Calsoncin said he voted for McCain last year, but he supports the current president.
“I don’t have anything bad to say about him,” he said. “As a dude in uniform, he’s my boss, regardless.”
Diane Thompson, a legal secretary who works in D.C., is an Obama supporter, yet she has some issues she hopes he will address in his speech.
“I want to know why the new Massachusetts senator hasn’t been seated yet,” she said. Thompson also wants Obama to continue working on the economy, healthcare and education.
Considering all he has tried to work on in his first year, she said “he’s done OK,” but she hopes he will allow more government assistance to schools.
The 54-year-old African American is a mother of two. She has observed a positive change in her children’s interest in government and politics since the inauguration of the first black president.
“We debate issues,” Thompson, who is a Democrat, said. “(My kids) have just gotten interested in politics when Obama got into office.”
Thompson especially admires Michelle Obama, who she said is a role model for all mothers.
“I’m interested in what (Michelle) would say in a State of the Union address,” she said.
