I was partially successful in predicting President Obama would cover cyber
security and faster Internet, free community college, terrorism, and foreign
relations with Russia and the Ukraine in his state of the union address. These
topics were not as major as I thought. My prediction of North Korea being
included in the foreign relations was not included with Russia and the Ukraine.
I should have considered including economic growth, new taxes, foreign
relations with Cuba, ISIS and a more in-depth prediction on education.
The president tended to spend a bit more time on the topics I had not
considered than my predicted ones. This is probably because he had discussed
cyber security and free community college and the others more in detail prior
to the address.
The president covered a bit more time on
terrorism than any of my predicted topics. He said that the nation stands
united with others around the world that have been targeted by terrorists and
would continue to hunt them down and dismantle their networks. He then went on
to discuss on how to deal with ISIS, calling on Congress to united and pass a
resolution to use force against the terrorist organization of ISIS.
The president
spent a few minutes on foreign relations with Russian and the Ukraine, saying
that the nation stands strong with our allies and ready to resolve. He then
went into discussing relations with Cuba. This I should have considered as a
prediction as now Cuban immigrants can send more money back to their families
and tourists can travel there without a passport, and has the goal to
completely shut down Guantanamo Bay as it costs the nation $3 million a prison
to house them.
He also was basic on cyber security urging
Congress to pass legislation “to better to better meet the evolving threat of
cyber attacks, combat identity theft, and protect our children's
information."
Overall the president spent the most time covering economic growth and broke it
down into subcategories such as job growth and changes, gas prices, energy and
oil dependency, educational score increase. Nearly 700,000 veterans and
military spouses got new jobs; the president proposed increase in minimum wage,
child care reform with a new tax cut up to $3,000 a year a child, paid sick
leave, and more benefits to better the middle class and economy. The president
also reviewed how the nation has become less dependent on foreign oil and
energy, resulting in lower gas prices, and that the nation had the highest math
and reading scores on record for young students.
Upon reviewing
the state of the union address and my notes, I should have conducted more
research into what topics would be covered in the address. This would have
enabled me to make more detailed predictions as to what topics would be covered
and what ones would either be minor or major. Also, I should have made more
observations in the changing “world” around me, such as the decreasing gas
prices and non-passport travels to Cuba to aid in my predictions. Yet, the fact
that the president did not comment on the nation’s relationship with North
Korea did strike me as odd because they have been blamed for the recent online
hacks to Sony Picture’s site and email system. There was no mention of if
anything will be done to investigate or rectify the attacks, etc. I was sure
the president would have mentioned more than what he did on cyber security and
foreign relations. Next time, however, I will be completely successful, not
partially.
Grade: 80/100
Grade: 80/100
