Southern Californians share their thoughts about Obama's State of the Union Address

When President Obama addresses the nation on Wednesday night, he will try to recapture some of the popularity that helped him win office just a year ago. That’s a particularly tough task, considering his low approval ratings and his attempt to pass health care reform being stalled in Congress. However, Americans throughout the country will listen eagerly to find out about the President’s priorities in 2010.

Southern Californians who responded to questions posed by kpcc.org shared their expectations leading up to President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union speech, scheduled at 6 p.m. Pacific.

Artist Jynx MacTavish, from Bishop, Calif., plans to listen to the speech on radio. MacTavish says she has no hopes about what she might hear from the President, and that the speech will have “very little bearing on what happens in actuality.”

“I will have a large, dark hand-crafted micro-brew of some kind to dull the pain,” said MacTavish. “He will catalogue what he has done over the past year … there will be nothing we haven’t heard previously.”

Though she will try to listen to the speech in as neutral a manner as possible, Mac Tavish says, in Bishop, a largely rural, Republican community, people have already made up their minds about the speech, and they will “not be very impressed.”

“Overall I have been disappointed and I am prepared to be disappointed again,” she said.

Mark Pickard, an executive manager from Laguna Niguel said he would watch the speech from home with “a glass of wine in his hand,” which he will “refrain from throwing at the TV.”

Pickard, an Independent, says the government has injected so much uncertainty into the economy that small firms like his are hard pressed to find the capital that could help them grow.

“The equities markets have so many cross currents, it is impossible to read a trend, and investors hate that uncertainty,” said Pikard. “Money for new investment will stay on the sidelines until the government demonstrates it’s safe to invest.”

Like him, William Holmes, a U.S history teacher at a Long Beach school says he will be watching the speech from home with family and friends, over food and drink. He hopes the President will talk about “attainable goals” along with a “clear plan of action for obtaining those goals.”

Holmes plans to make the speech part of his lesson plan in school. He’s asking his students to watch the speech and pick out one thing that they believe will directly affect them or their family.

“We will have a group discussion talking about the issue(s) in class and then try to relate it to our study of the U.S. Constitution,” he said.

Like MacTavish, Pasadena-based Patricia Shapiro says she has been let down many times by the President.

“If I trusted him, I would hope he would talk about bringing down the government deficit and costs, and in health care, curbing lawsuit abuse, allowing insurance purchase across state lines, and taxing Cadillac health plans.”

She plans to listen to the highlights first and then decide whether to hear the entire speech online.