'Don't bow to election-year cynicism' Obama tells America

Barack Obama has urged Americans to rekindle their belief in the promise of change that first carried him to the White House, declaring that the country must not allow election-year fear and division to put economic and security progress at risk.

“All the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air,” the president said in his final State of the Union address. “So is all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker.”