The White House announced that President Barack Obama will visit Nashville as part of a national tour after Tuesday’s State of the Union address to drum up support for proposals he will outline in his annual address.
“With some action on all our parts, we can help more jobseekers find work, and more working Americans find the economic security they deserve,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said in an email. “That’s why, in the week following the speech, President Obama will travel to communities across the country — including Prince George’s County Maryland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Nashville, before returning to the White House to outline new efforts to help the long-term unemployed.”
Further details about the road trip were not immediately available.
U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper issued a statement welcoming the president and hoping “we will all treat him with Southern hospitality.”
When he returns to Washington, officials say Obama will outline new efforts to help the long-term unemployed.
Obama will also participate in a national “Google+ Hangout” three days after his address Tuesday night to Congress, according to an item on the technology company’s blog billing the event as the first-ever virtual presidential road trip.
“He’ll hop into Google+ Hangouts with people from across the United States to answer their questions and hear their thoughts about the topics he addressed in his speech,” the blog post says.
Users can post 60-second video questions for Obama on YouTube or Google+ using the hashtag #AskObama2014.
The president traditionally undertakes a whistlestop tour following his address, seeking to build momentum for his policy agenda. Last year, he visited Asheville, N.C., Atlanta, and Chicago after the speech.
Although Pfeiffer offered few clues to what the substance of his speech would be he did say that Obama would organize the address around the themes of “opportunity, action, and optimism.” He said that the president plans to “lay out a set of real, concrete, practical proposals to grow the economy, strengthen the middle class, and empower all who hope to join it.”
“The core idea is as American as they come: If you work hard and play by the rules, you should have the opportunity to succeed,” Pfeiffer wrote. “Your ability to get ahead should be based on your hard work and ambition and who you want to be, not just the raw circumstance of who you are when you’re born.”