“Obama Will Be Very Happy to Get Out of Office”: Local Reaction to SOTU Address

President Obama says the state of the union is “strong” during his final State of the Union address last night.

Local political experts say Obama’s speech was a very typical last State of the Union Address, mostly highlighting what he has done rather than what’s ahead.

One of the highlighted topics during last night’s state of the Union Address was foreign policy.

NDSU political science professor Thomas Ambrosio says Obama described his tactic for dealing with terrorist groups like ISIS; strategic patience.

“Which is basically we’re not going to overreact to problems, we’re going to take things at a slow pace, kind of slow and steady wins the race,” said Ambrosio.

Another highlight was his comments on supporting Syrian Refugees calling out the Republican Party for their anti–Muslim comments.

Ambrosio says during last night’s speech, Obama’s focus was more on writing his legacy then it was on policy.

“He talks about policy issues, but really it’s about trying to establish what his legacy is, and what he really wants it to be.”

One student at NDSU we spoke to agrees.

“You can definitely tell he was trying to leave his legacy. The way he was presenting things. He was talking very Obama like with his good presentation style,” Said Nicholas Miller of NDSU.

Others say different parts of the speech stuck out to them.

“I think what stood out to me the most was talking about how many jobs were created with green energy,” said Nick Samuelson of NDSU.

As Obama listed his accomplishments of ending war and creating more jobs political experts like Ambrosio say one thing is for sure.

“I think Obama will be very happy to get out of office, I think the day of the notarization was one of the happiest days of his life,” said Ambrosio.

Ambrosio says moving forward the next president will have to make some complicated decisions, making the presidential race more crucial than ever.