Circumstances

President Barack Obama's State of the Union address was delivered in January 2015 in front of the US Congress, two years before the end of Barack Obama’s last term in office.

A State of the Union speech is something which is required of every US President according to the country’s Constitution. These speeches are delivered annually (except the first year of the presidency) with the purpose of the President making an assessment of the situation in the country, proposing future legislative measures, and outlining national priorities.

On this particular occasion, Barack Obama's 2015 State of the Union address was marked by tensions between the mainly Republican Congress and the President (Barack Obama’s Democratic Party is the historical rival of the Republican Party). Before the speech, there were even proposals that Congress should not invite the President to speak after Barack Obama had passed an executive order on immigration reform, bypassing the Congress. In the US, it is generally expected that the president and the Congress work together to pass bills and legislation. The executive order was considered an abuse of power by some Republican members of Congress....