News Analysis: Obama, Republicans have sharply different views on U.S. State of the Union

U.S. President Barack Obama kicked off the new year on a positive note, touting the various strides the country has taken under his leadership, and telling a story that contrasts sharply from the narrative espoused by Republicans.

The State of the Union speech Tuesday night was the U.S. president's chance to address the nation about his concerns and highlight the initiatives he will push over the next 12 months. The address came as Obama has one more year in office, and after seven years of bitter partisan rivalry.

"The United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world. We're in the middle of the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history. More than 14 million new jobs; the strongest two years of job growth since the 1990s; an unemployment rate cut in half," Obama spoke to the joint session of U.S. Congress.

Turning to foreign policy, he said fighting Islamic State (IS) radicals is the nation's foreign policy priority, although he downplayed the strength of the fanatical group, which has overrun vast swaths of turf in the Middle East and conducted terror attacks on the West.

The IS does not "threaten our national existence," Obama said, adding that "we don't need to build them up to show that we're serious."

Still, Republican presidential candidates battling it out for their party's nomination for the 2016 White House race tell a different story.

While the official unemployment rate is down, many economists said the labor force participation rate - a measure that shows how many people in the country are participating in the workforce - is down to a low not seen in decades.

Some economists said what the Obama administration has touted as a recovery from the economic downturn is in fact not a robust recovery and has fallen short of other strong recoveries from recessions in past decades.

The speech also came amid Republican Party (GOP) and critics' concerns that U.S. foreign policy is weak under the Obama administration, which they argue has emboldened terror groups such as the IS.

Other critics contend the U.S. air strikes against the IS are half-hearted at best and too few and infrequent compared to other U.S. air wars over the last 20 years, and noted that the speech contained no mention of recent deadly attacks in Paris and California.

Giving the official Republican response, Governor of South Carolina and rising GOP star Nikki Haley told the nation in a television address that the U.S. faces a dire threat from IS, and accused Obama of downplaying the problem.

Haley mentioned the "erosion" of public trust of leadership, but acknowledged that Republicans also play a role and need to fix it.

She also noted that there are many Americans who are angry and frustrated over the economy, which are still sluggish even years after the official recovery from the recession.

Experts said Obama's speech, which lacked specific proposals, seeks to set the agenda for the next president as the country is entering an election year.

"He did not lay out a traditional policy agenda but emphasized broad themes and objectives. He sought to set the agenda of the next president," Brookings Institution's senior fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.

"He painted a rosier picture than GOP candidates and showed how much progress has been made. At the same tune, he recognizes the economic anxiety that remains around the country and urged Congress to improve education for all," West said.

Christopher Galdieri, assistant professor at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, said much of the Obama speech "was an implicit rebuttal to Republican campaign rhetoric."

Galdieri told Xinua that Obama was "arguing that when it comes to the economy, America's place in the world, foreign policy, and civil rights, among other issues, things are much better than they were in 2009."

Dan Mahaffee, an analyst with the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, said that Obama's speech "wove together what he sees as the accomplishments in his time in office, as well as an attempt to bring perspective to the threats and challenges this nation faces."

"However there remains a lot of daylight between parties on that issue, and while he may lament a lack of bipartisanship in Washington, there are many Republicans and some independents who will not be reassured by what he said," Mahaffee told Xinhua.

Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, told Xinhua that Obama made "a very tough political speech attacking the style of politics his opponents practice and rejecting their narrative about the past eight years." Endi