President Obama to deliver Oval Office address

The World

Tonight, President Barack Obama will deliver his first prime time address from the Oval Office. Like the State of the Union address, it’s an important part of the modern president’s conversation with the American people, and often marks a significant statement of policy.

We analyze this highly symbolic move with Adam Belmar, a former Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush. Adam tells us that for a president as media savvy as this one, it is no small gesture for Barack Obama to allow cameras in to the oval office tonight, because “in the television age, there is no more powerful image than the president sitting behind the Resolute desk of the oval office.”

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