Ross and Burbank to host Northwest Cable News State of the Union coverage

Ross and Burbank will be hosting NWCN’s coverage of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

97.3 KIRO FM hosts Dave Ross and Luke Burbank will be hosting Northwest Cable News’ coverage of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

President Obama is expected to reclaim the spotlight with a plea for economic fairness in his address.

“We’re taking a break from Republican debates to see what the President of the United States has to say tonight,” said Ross. “We’re very excited because tonight Luke and I will be doing commentary on the State of the Union address […] only we may not have to bother Luke, because Mitt Romney’s already weighed in.”

“Tonight, the President will make what is referred to as the State of the Union address, but make no mistake, what he’s really offering here is partisan planks for his reelection campaign,” said Romney.

Obama’s 6 p.m. PST address to a joint session of Congress and millions of television viewers will be the president’s biggest, best chance so far to offer a vision for a second term.

Listen to the president’s address and Republican response live on 97.3 KIRO FM or stream it here.

With economic anxiety showing through everywhere, the speech will focus on a vision for restoring the middle class, with Obama facing the tricky task of persuading voters to stick with him even as joblessness remains high at 8.5 percent. Obama can point to positive signs, including continued if sluggish growth; his argument will be that he is the one to restore economic equality for middle-class voters.

Implicit in the argument, even if he never names frontrunners Gingrich and Mitt Romney, is that they are on the other side.

Obama’s speech will come as Gingrich and Romney have transformed the Republican campaign into a real contest ahead of Florida’s crucial primary next week. And he’ll be speaking on the same day that Romney, a multimillionaire, released his tax returns, offering a vivid illustration of wealth that could play into Obama’s argument about the growing divide between rich and poor.

“His [Mitt Romney’s] problem is that he’s led a very different life than most of the people in America, and he has, I think, a relatability problem,” says Burbank. “You look at that guy and think, ‘Me and that guy, we do not live in the same world.'”

“His problem is not being rich, remember John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy. But poor folks loved them. Why? Because they were saying, ‘Here’s how we’re going to help you.’ And the Republican line is, ‘No, the government’s job is not to help you. The government’s job is to get out of your way so you can become an investment banker on your own,'” says Ross.

Obama will frame the campaign to come as a fight for fairness for those who are struggling to keep a job, a home or college savings and losing faith in how the country works.

The speech will feature the themes of manufacturing, clean energy, education and American values. The president is expected to urge higher taxes on the wealthy, propose ways to make college more affordable, offer new steps to tackle a debilitating housing crisis and push to help U.S. manufacturers expand hiring.

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor
The Associated Press contributed to this report.