Northwest Indiana Discussion

It is surprisingly difficult to write speeches for President Barack Obama, one of the most gifted orators in recent political history.

Yes, written words tend to sound better when he’s reciting them. But the sheer number of speeches he’s delivered and the magnitude of the moments in which they are given make it tough to be original and even harder to be memorable. The speech-writing process can be arduous and time consuming; it provokes self-doubt.

In his first interview since helping write the president’s second inaugural address, Jon Favreau, director of speechwriting for the White House, acknowledged grappling with all these challenges. The speech, which Favreau said would probably be one of the last he will write in his current post, was praised as crisp, bold and assertive -– a standout in Obama’s already rich canon of past addresses. But getting to that point was difficult.

“It was one of the hardest speeches I’ve written,” Favreau said.

And he’s written quite a few. Favreau has worked with Obama since 2005, helping his boss speak about his greatest triumphs, his public humiliations, dicey political topics and complex policy negotiations. The second inaugural address, an affirmation of sorts of the work they’ve done together, was conceived through a now familiar routine.

While the mainstream press routinely reports that President Obama is riding high and that Republicans are reeling, Gallup tells a rather different story about the popularity of our newly reelected president. Across Gallup’s entire history of presidential job-approval polling — dating back to 1945 — every president but one has had a higher job-approval rating in the January following his reelection than Obama has. No president has had a lower rating than Obama’s.

Gallup shows Obama’s average approval rating so far this January as being just 52 percent. President George W. Bush’s average approval rating in January 2005, immediately following his reelection, was also 52 percent. This can hardly be a source of satisfaction for Obama, who ran against Bush not once but twice — without Bush’s being on the ticket either time.

President Barack Obama will be speaking to a gloomy electorate when he delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Twice as many voters believe the country is weaker, rather than stronger, since Obama took office. In addition, by a 52-40 percent margin voters think the worst is yet to come on the economy. And more than eight in 10 disagree with the president’s notion that the government doesn’t have a spending problem.

These are some of the findings from the latest Fox News poll released Thursday.

During recent budget negotiations, Obama reportedly said he doesn’t believe the government has a spending problem. Most voters — 83 percent — disagree. That includes most Republicans (97 percent), independents (87 percent) and Democrats (69 percent).

In addition, out of 13 issues tested, more voters are “extremely” concerned about government spending than any other issue. Moreover, nearly all voters are either extremely (32 percent) or very concerned (52 percent) about spending.

Nearly half of voters — 48 percent — think the country is weaker and less powerful today than it was five years ago. That’s twice as many as the 24 percent who see the country as stronger and more powerful. Another 27 percent think it’s unchanged.

President Obama’s Tuesday State of the Union address had the fewest viewers of any State of the Union since 2000 and did nothing to boost his approval ratings.

According to data released by Nielsen on Thursday, nearly 33.5 million viewers tuned in to 16 different television networks for the address.

That’s the lowest since former President Bill Clinton’s final State of the Union pulled about 31.5 million in 2000. That address was only broadcast on seven channels.

The speech also failed to give the president a bump in his approval rating, according to Gallup’s three-day rolling average.

If you are referring to the payroll tax that lapsed...he didn't raise the tax it just reverted back to where it had been

As Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) entered the eighth hour of his filibuster of Obama CIA nominee John Brennan on Wednesday, he pleaded for an assurance from the White House that the Obama administration would not kill Americans on U.S. soil.

“I have a message here from, not from the White House, a message saying the White House hasn’t returned our phone calls,” he said holding up a piece of paper shortly before 8 p.m. “If anybody knows anybody at the White House and wants to call them, we are looking for an answer from the White House.”

Since the filibuster began, White House officials have twice responded to messages from POLITICO seeking comment: They have nothing to say.

Paul joked “Maybe they’re going to call me when the sequester’s over,” then added, “I really think that one of the courtesies that they ought to think about is, particularly if what they’re hearing is something that they don’t object to, why not end the debate by going ahead and letting us know?

“You’d think that would be a pretty easy answer for them.”