Why 'Obama the Populist' in 2012? It garnered 52% youth turnout for Clinton's 1992 pres. campaign.

What am I expecting from tonight's SOTU? That's a terribly difficult question to answer, Wes, because I am so uncertain of where President Obama's message will land next. He had a tough few months to end the year on a pretty dismal note. But better economic news combined with a GOP nominating implosion have cushioned his politically vulnerable position.

If the Obama campaign understands the likely trajectory of the campaign, they will take tonight as an opportunity, as they truly must, to showcase the president's populism, a trajectory launched from his Kansas speech in early December. As the Guardian reported, Obama "reprises themes of Theodore Roosevelt, decrying the 'you're on your own' economics of Republicans." 

As I type, The Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight's SOTU will, in fact, frame the election around the middle class, which may prove to be a successful focal point of President Obama's re-election bid.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, in a speech that will amount to a nationally televised kickoff to his re-election campaign, intends to present the country with a populist economic vision in sharp contrast to his eventual Republican rival this November.

This is smart politics for the general electorate and specifically young voters, if you ask me. Before 2008, the most recent 50+% youth turnout (18-29 year-olds) was 1992, when President Clinton sold the recession-veering nation on the notion that he, too, felt their economic pain.



Now, Wes, you tell me: Who is the Obama, and who is the potential Romney in this picture? And how is this 99% versus 1% Obama argument, one that resonated across college campuses, complicated by a Gingrich nomination...or does the message of Democratic common man versus Republican elitist still ring true enough to young voters?