--- title: State of the Union 2016: Wonks and Advocates Weigh In description: Policy wonks respond to the president's final state of the union address canonical: https://time.com/4178398/state-of-the-union-2016-wonks-obama/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-13T04:49:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:04:29.448Z article:section: Politics og:title: State of the Union 2016: Wonks and Advocates Weigh In og:description: Policy wonks respond to the president's final state of the union address og:url: https://time.com/4178398/state-of-the-union-2016-wonks-obama/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fbcde80d058ba92/698878e98e060136bf4641b1/president-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama Delivers His Last State Of The Union Address To Joint Session Of Congress og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: State of the Union 2016: Wonks and Advocates Weigh In twitter:description: Policy wonks respond to the president's final state of the union address twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fbcde80d058ba92/698878e98e060136bf4641b1/president-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-9.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Policy Wonks and Advocates Critique Obama's State of the Union by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 13, 2016 4:49 AM UTC  President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill Jan. 12, 2016, in Washington. President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill Jan. 12, 2016, in Washington.Evan Vucci—Press Pool by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 13, 2016 4:49 AM UTC As the world tuned in to the President’s final State of the Union address, policy wonks and advocates parsed Obama’s words to see what he did (or did not) say about their specific cause. As usual, it provided a great opportunity for Obama’s friends to commit to supporting him as his presidency winds down, and gave his foes plenty to critique. Here’s a roundup of what they had to say: Gene Karpinski, President of the League of Conservation Voters --- > “” --- Danielle Pletka, Senior Vice President of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute --- > “” --- Neera Tanden, President of the Center for American Progress --- > “” --- Liz Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer of AFL-CIO --- > “” --- Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council --- > “” --- The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials --- > “” --- Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Action Fund --- > “” --- David McIntosh, President of the Club for Growth --- > “” --- Dan Gross, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence --- > “” --- Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund --- > “” --- Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter --- > “” --- Presidents speak so much about safety in terms of the foreign policy, but fail to candidly speak about safety re: domestic policy. [#SOTU](https://twitter.com/hashtag/SOTU?src=hash&ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) — deray (@deray) [January 13, 2016](https://twitter.com/deray/status/687122634941804544?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4178398/state-of-the-union-2016-wonks-obama/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4178398/state-of-the-union-2016-wonks-obama/"},"headline":"Policy Wonks and Advocates Critique Obama's State of the Union","datePublished":"2016-01-13T04:49:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:04:29.448Z","description":"Looking for their favored issue in the President's speech","url":"https://time.com/4178398/state-of-the-union-2016-wonks-obama/","keywords":["state of the union","Barack Obama","White House","policy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fbcde80d058ba92/698878e98e060136bf4641b1/president-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7fbcde80d058ba92/698878e98e060136bf4641b1/president-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-9.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Delivers His Last State Of The Union Address To Joint Session Of Congress","caption":"President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill Jan. 12, 2016, in Washington.","creditText":"Evan Vucci—Press Pool","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/state-of-the-union/","name":"state of the union"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4178398/state-of-the-union-2016-wonks-obama/","name":"Policy Wonks and Advocates Critique Obama's State of the Union"}}]}] ```