The White House has said to expect an optimistic State of the Union address from President Barack Obama — a policy programme speech that will focus on economic justice and income equality. The public’s approval of the president lately has been polling at around 46 percent, an improvement over November, while 50 percent disapprove of him.

Historian Allan Lichtman saw things in terms of historical urgency: “What his base is looking to see is the old Obama, the inspirational Obama, the Obama of the soaring rhetoric. That’s what he needs to do.

“With respect to economic justice and income inequality, the gap between the wealthy and everybody else has now returned to the levels of 1929, at the eve of the Great Depression. All the gains of the middle to late decades of the 20th century have been wiped out. This is an enormous problem.”

United States Republicans score a mere 20 percent on the national confidence scale; they are very negative about the Democratic president.

Senator John McCain, the Republican 2008 presidential candidate and decorated Vietnam War veteran, said: “He doesn’t say a word about Syria. We just documented that 11,000 people were killed, murdered and tortured. There is no leadership. It’s a shameful chapter in American history.”

McCain, shot down while on a bombing mission in 1967, was tortured as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese and held until 1973.

Our Washington correspondent Stefan Grobe said: “With three more years in office, the president will start defining his legacy. By focusing on economic justice, he knows that he has a majority of Americans in his corner. But here’s what worries the White House: is America still listening to President Obama?”