State of the Union

Are you headed to a watch party for President Obama's State of the Union address tonight?  Need some slick numbers and facts to back you up in going toe to toe with your conservative fellow attendees?  Our friends over at ThinkProgress have compiled a must-see list of FACTS for you to have at your fingertips:

NINETEEN Facts You Ought to Know Ahead of Tonight’s Speech

• Since the last SOTU, the economy has created 1.9 million private sector jobs. [Source]

• The top 1 percent take home 24 percent of the nation’s income, up from about 9 percent in 1976. [Source]

• Private sector job creation under Obama in 2011 was larger than seven out of the eight years Bush was president. [Source]

• The top 1 percent of Americans own 40 percent of our country’s wealth while the bottom 80 percent owns only 7 percent. [Source]

• Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, 2.5 million young adults gained health insurance. [Source]

PoliticMo's Eli Yokley put together a Wordle word cloud from last night's SOTU address. I always find these neat, so here's Eli's cloud of the prepared remarks:

And here is a word cloud of the responses of more than 4,000 NPR listeners/readers to the SOTU speech:

 Five Things to Say about Clean Energy in Your Address

It is that time of year again. This Wednesday, January 27, 2010, the President will glide down the aisle in the House of Representatives, greeted by thunderous applause, and encounter the usually more dignified elected officials in a slightly teen-bopper, Beatles-esque-frenzy, practically climbing over each other to shake his hand.