Obama Strikes Back at Republicans During Address; More to Come in Iowa Today, Political Watchers Say

A little over a dozen hours after U.S. President Barack Obama made his State of the Union address to the nation, he’s .

During his stop in Iowa today, the president will talk more about topics covered in his speech, which was packed with rhetoric for his 2012 election run and a counter-punch to some of the talking points heard leading up to the Iowa Caucus and elsewhere by GOP presidential hopefuls.

Dennis Goldford, Drake University political science professor, said the speech was laden with a “laundry list of policy prescriptions.” The president repeatedly called for Congress to put bills on his desk, and if they don't he has ammunition to blame the country's problems on them during his election run, Goldford said.

"I think he is going to set up Congress," he said.  "It is saying: Here’s all the things Congress will do, when or if they don’t do them. Then, in a Truman-esque style, he’ll run against Congress and say: Look, I wanted to do all these things and they wouldn’t do these things."

Chris Larimer, University of Northern Iowa associate professor of political science, agreed.

"He’s saying, "The economy is going to continue to improve with the steps we’ve laid out here tonight," Larimer said. "If we don’t, then it’s on Congress, not on my administration."

Goldford said the reason why so much of the speech was focused on these goals may not necessarily be to see these ideas fleshed out and passed in Congress, but to later attack Republicans in Congress for presumably voting these ideas down.

Goldford added that this served as an opportunity for Obama to talk about his plans for a potential second term. It still might be confusing why the president took this seemingly back handed approach, but Goldford said it's simply political strategy.

"It is the only strategy he has got," Goldford said. "The (presidential) race at best is a toss up."

Larimer said he felt that the tone of Obama’s discourse on the economy was overwhelmingly positive, an attempt to boost U.S. citizens' grim outlook on the future, in addition to boasting the accomplishments Obama's made, accomplishments that he feels helped the economy.

The big question that can completely nullify the impact of this effort is whether or not it is too late.

Goldford said the reason behind much of the bi-partisan rhetoric in the speech, in addition to plays to Republican held principals of reducing governmental excess, was to appeal to the independent voters that got him elected.

Those independents have largely swayed to the right since helping electing the president, so getting them back is likely his only way forward.

If he can.