By Alexis Ferraris

President Obama’s began his State of the Union address by saying “the worst of the storm is over”. Throughout the speech he reused the words “jobs” and “bipartisanship” often. He said he is determined this year to help people like a woman who wrote to him who are “strained but hopeful...struggling but encouraged”. He spoke of the successes from 2009, but emphasized at length the need for a jobs bill that includes tax incentives for large and small businesses. However, he also said the job creation should focus on America’s small businesses.

One point discussed in President Obama’s speech should please college students and their parents. Obama said that a “world class education” is the best solution to poverty. He proposed to pass a bill to revive community colleges and give a $10,000 tax grant to families that are paying for four years of college. After students graduate from college, he would like for them to pay only 10% of their income to college loans. If after 20 years of this plan, their loans are still not paid, debt forgiveness would be implemented. If a student is in the field of human service, the forgiveness would be in effect after 10 years.

Minutes after Obama concluded his speech, the newly elected Virginia GOP Governor, Bob McDonnell, gave his response to the State of the Union. McDonnell agreed with Obama about the high priority for job creation; however, he did not agree with the president’s emphasis on the need for bipartisanship. Among other things the president and the Republicans agreed upon were the suggestions for nuclear power plants and offshore oil plants. There was criticism about the amount of jokes used during the speech. Many people felt he was sarcastic and the matters at hand were nothing to joke about. One Republican, Al Campbell, was offended that Obama said “Republican obstructionism was the reason that there is no health care reform bill passed yet. ” Campbell responded in his article that Obama had “chosen to ignore the simple fact that the Democrats had an unassailable majority...” in the government. A blogger who commented on this article at GermantownNOW said that he found Obama to be “condescending and contradicting...nothing but a salesman…”

On the other side of the spectrum, the Democrats were very pleased with the suggestions Obama made during his speech. Shortly after the speech ended, an anchor on MSNBC, a mostly Democratic news station, spent a few minutes discussing how he “forgot he was black” during the speech. Another Democrat said in a daily newspaper that Obama’s speech was “great..impressive.” The Baltimore Sun reported Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore stood with a “group of Democrats and chanted, ‘We’re number one!’ after Obama said that he would ‘not accept second place for the United States of America.’” Opinions remain torn as bloggers and journalists banter about the positives and negatives of President Obama’s speech.