Obama's speech fail to enthuse majority of Americans

Less than half of Americans who watched President Barack Obama's eloquent State of the Union address today reacted very positively to it, according to new poll.
While Obama emphasised that he was willing to bypass Congress and take executive action to accomplish his goals in his second innings, a CNN/ORC International survey indicated that only three in 10 said Obama should make unilateral changes to deal with major issues.
Forty-four per cent of speech watchers questioned in the poll had a very positive reaction, with 32 per cent saying they had a somewhat positive response and 22 per cent with a negative response.

The 44 per cent who said they had a very positive reaction is down from the 53 per cent who said the same thing following the President's 2013 State of the Union address.
The figure was slightly lower than the 48 per cent who said they had a very positive reaction to then President George W. Bush's State of the Union address in 2006, as he began his sixth year in the White House.
During his address, the President told lawmakers that "I'm eager to work with all of you. But America does not stand still, and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do."

But two-thirds of those questioned in the poll said that Obama should seek bipartisan compromise when dealing with major issues, with just 30 per cent advocating the President make unilateral changes.

Obama spent much of his speech outlining ideas to boost the economy, and unveiled a proposal for a new type of account that allows Americans to save for retirement. According to the poll, 59 per cent said Obama's plans would improve the economy, down 6 percentage points from last year's address.
Nearly seven in 10 said that the President's proposals would move the country in the right direction, CNN reported.

Nearly seven in 10 said it is likely that Obama's proposals would be effective at helping lower-income Americans join the middle class, but only 18 per cent said his proposals would be "very effective" in reaching that goal.
The CNN Poll was conducted by ORC International after Obama's address, with 371 adult Americans who watched the speech. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 5 percentage points.