State of the Union Address to Kick Off Obama’s Re-Election Campaign [Live Video]

Tonight, President Obama will give his State of the Union address. Obama is expected to focus on job creation while setting the stage for his 2012 re-election campaign.

A Democratic strategist told the NY Daily News:

“He’s a much better campaigner than he is a President. This will be a campaign speech.”

CNN expects Obama to challenge congress during the State of the Union in the hope of eliminating some of the road blocks he encountered during 2011. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that a divided congress made it hard to accomplish the President’s goals during 2011. Carney said:

“There are absolutely things that remain undone that need to be done (and Obama has a) fairly comprehensive list of proposals (that he wants to achieve in 2012)… If you got through a year and you achieved everything on your list then you probably didn’t aim high enough.”

Obama still has a few things on his to do list from last year (eliminating the Bush tax cuts, investing more in clean energy, funding new infrastructure) but Obama will add on to the list tonight. According to CNN, Obama will propose a tax code that will let the Bush tax cuts expire, he’ll propose more refinancing options for homeowners, ask for additional tax breaks for job creating companies, propose more clean energy incentives, and issue a call for millionaires to pay more taxes.

Obama will ask Republicans to cooperate during 2012 but a White House official told the NY Daily News that he isn’t expecting any favors. The official said:

“It took a long time for him to get the message, but now he understands the Republicans won’t do him any favors for as long as he’s President.”

The State of the Union Address will air live tonight at 9:oo p.m. EST.

After the State of the Union, Obama will head out on a three-day campaign that will bring him to Iowa, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Colorado.

Are you going to watch the State of the Union?