For all the numbers that will be bandied around by Barack Obama during his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday, one of the most revealing – the television ratings - will be published the morning after the event.
Mr Obama's fifth State of the Union will focus on inequality and the cost of living crisis that is uppermost in the minds of millions of those ordinary Americans, but if the trend of recent years continues, fewer of them than ever will bother to tune in to listen.
The increasingly flaccid viewing figures – from a high of 52.3 million in 2009 down to 33.3 million last year – reflect the ebbing of Mr Obama's personal star power and the reality of his political impotence since losing control of Congress in 2010.
With presidential prospects for 2016 already exerting magnetic pull over the political conversation and Congress fixated on the upcoming mid-term elections, this year's speech will be much more a wish-list than a "to-do" list.
Mr Obama will expound on America's great predicament: over the last 20 years the cost of maintaining the four pillars of a middle class life – housing, education, healthcare and retirement – have increased far more sharply than wages, and it will be a long haul back. » | Peter Foster | Saturday, January 25, 2014
