A majority of Americans do not expect President Obama’s State of the Union speech to alter their opinion of the country’s direction, according to a Marist poll conducted in the run up to Tuesday’s address.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they thought the address would not change their level of confidence in the direction the country is heading. Only 28% said they thought the speech would boost their confidence, while 8% said they expected to feel less confident following the speech. An additional 11% said they were unsure how the address would impact their view of the nation’s future.
Respondents were split starkly along partisan lines, with Democrats by far the the most likely to expect a confidence boost. Forty-one percent of Democrats said the speech would likely improve their outlook, versus 11% of Republicans and 16% of Independents who said the same. Meanwhile, 18% of Republicans predicted the speech would sour their outlook for the country, compared to 2% of Democrats and 6% of Independents.
The address comes at a crucial moment for Obama, as he settles into governing for the first time without Democratic control of both chambers of Congress. It also comes at a time of resurgence in the president’s approval ratings from the record lows they’d dipped to in the wake of the midterm elections. The current TPM Poll Average pegs his approval rating at 49.6% with a disapproval rating of 45.5%.
The Marist poll was conducted January 6-10 among 827 registered voters nationwide. It as a margin of error of 3.5%.
