President Barack Obama will unveil a jobs-heavy agenda in his State of the Union address Wednesday, retooling his message more than his mission.
His goal: Get the economy, the confidence of voters and his own presidency on surer footing.
Obama will offer fresh details about how he wants to salvage an overhaul of health care, rein in the national debt and help businesses hire again. He will call for education reform and more money for schools, take responsibility for mistakes in his first year and follow up his speech with a dash to Florida to announce $8 billion in awards for high-speed rail.
Two themes will underpin the entire address — reassuring millions of Americans that he understands their struggles and convincing people that he is working to change Washington even as he finds himself working within its old political ways.
Yet for all the new wrinkles he offers, Obama’s moment will be measured largely by how well he reconnects with the public.
“In this political environment, what I haven’t always been successful at doing is breaking through the noise and speaking directly to the American people,” Obama told an interviewer last week.
Obama says he will not retreat from the big issues he campaigned on and tried to get done in his first year, when political momentum was strong. He will push for health care, regulation of Wall Street, energy and immigration reform, and continue the global fight against terrorists.
The address will take place at 8 p.m. CST. on major networks and many cable television news stations.
Information from the Associated Press contributed to this report.