Obama gives last State of the Union address

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama gives his final State of the Union address Wednesday morning (Jan 13, Singapore time), perhaps the last opportunity of his presidency to sway a national audience and frame the 2016 election.

The White House is promising an unorthodox speech, with Mr Obama eschewing the traditional checklist of legislative priorities.

Instead, aides said that America’s first black president will use a “singular moment” to define his place in the history books and stoke optimism about the future.

Mr Obama is unlikely to dwell on the 2016 election race for too long, but in embracing optimism, the White House hopes to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans.

Around 30 million viewers are expected to watch live, a nationwide audience that may only be matched in political terms during the Democratic nominating convention later this year.

Amazon is planning to air the speech on demand, the White House has joined Snapchat for the occasion and will use Genius — a program that started life as a font for rap lyrics — to annotate Mr Obama’s remarks.

Afterwards, Mr Obama will travel to Nebraska and Louisiana to sell his message and be interviewed by three YouTube celebrities.