Obama predicts ‘relaxed, better’ SOTU

Headed into his sixth State of the Union address, President Obama is feeling more confident than in past years.

“After the sixth time, I suspect I’m a little more relaxed and a little better at it than I was the first time out,” Obama said in a new video preview published to the White House’s website and social media channels.

Obama says he’s still taken aback by the “pageantry” that surrounds the speech — and that he hopes members of Congress are as well.

“We get these positions for a finite amount of time,” Obama said, adding that he hoped lawmakers would feel an urgency to act.

The president said his speech Tuesday night would focus on ways to improve the middle class “now that we have fought our way through” the financial crisis. And he hinted that he was feeling emboldened after a lame duck session that saw him take major executive action on immigration and Cuba policy.

“Anybody who is a sports fan knows you have to play the whole game. … Over the next two years, we have the opportunity to not simply continue the momentum that was built last year but really capitalize on some of the long-term trends,” he said.

The president has been buoyed by his highest job approval numbers in a year and a half, according to a new poll released Monday by The Washington Post and ABC News.

The release of the video preview Monday by the White House is part of a larger social media campaign the administration hopes will amplify the content of the annual address.

Obama announced a proposal to provide two free years of community college in a Facebook video that quickly went viral. The White House bragged it was their most-watched Facebook video ever, garnering more than 8 million views. The plan to mandate a week’s worth of paid sick leave — and expand maternity and paternity leave for federal workers — was unveiled in a post to LinkedIn.

On Wednesday, senior administration officials will participate in “Big Block of Cheese Day” — a nod to the popular “West Wing” TV series. A video featuring press secretary Josh Earnest and stars of the show was trending nationally on Twitter for most of Friday

The day after his speech, the president will be interviewed by three YouTube stars — including a California teenager who offers fashion advice and a comedian known for videos like, “My pushup bra will help me get my man.”

“The president is trying to put his ideas in front of as many people as he can,” Earnest said. “And if he can go to an interesting venue where he may be able to attract the attention of some people that didn’t tune into the State of Union address, for example, then we certainly would welcome the opportunity to do that.”