I thought President Obama's State of the Union speech was excellent -- maybe his best one yet. But it's not important what I thought, since I already supported the president and the efforts of the Democratic Party. Far more important is how it was received by swing voters (those people who are in the middle, and have supported both Democrats and Republicans in the past). And there is some evidence that the president helped convince a lot of those voters -- both in their opinion of him, and their opinion of Democrats over Republicans.
Greenberg Quinlan Rossner Research (on behalf of Democracy Corps and Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund) gathered 61 white swing voters together to watch the president's speech on Tuesday night. They questioned those voters on their opinion of the president, and on their opinion of whether Democrats or Republicans could do better on several issues -- both before, and again after the speech.
When compared to the before speech numbers, the post-speech numbers showed a significant increase for the president and the Democrats (and that difference is clearly reflected in the charts above). It seems that the focus group liked what the president had to say, and if they liked it, there is a good chance that other moderates and Independents liked it also -- at least those that took the time to listen to the speech.
The president's approval numbers were already climbing before the State of the Union speech, and I wouldn't be surprised if those numbers climbed even more now. The president definitely helped himself (and other Democrats) with his speech.
