State of the Union 2014: Excerpts from Obama's speech The White House released these excerpts from President Obama's 2014 State of the Union address on Tuesday. Graphic How presidential rhetoric in the State of the Union address has changed over the past 100 years State of the Union 2014 Wanna take a guess which president averaged the longest SOTU speech? The Fact Checker's annual round-up of what happened to President Obama's proposals in the last State of the Union. A flashback to the Post's coverage of the "13 State of the Union address -- 1913, that is. David Nakamura and David A. Fahrenthold In State of the Union, president will call for raise in minimum wage for new government contract workers As Prepared for Delivery That's what most Americans want - for all of us in this chamber to focus on their lives, their hopes, their aspirations. Read the full story here. Let's face it: that belief has suffered some serious blows. Over more than three decades, even before the Great Recession hit, massive shifts in technology and global competition had eliminated a lot of good, middle-class jobs, and weakened the economic foundations that families depend on. Today, after four years of economic growth, corporate profits and stock prices have rarely been higher, and those at the top have never done better. But average wages have barely budged. Inequality has deepened. Upward mobility has stalled. The cold, hard fact is that even in the midst of recovery, too many Americans are working more than ever just to get by - let alone get ahead. And too many still aren't working at all. Our job is to reverse these tides. It won't happen right away, and we won't agree on everything. But what I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class. But America does not stand still - and neither will I. So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do. Opportunity is who we are. And the defining project of our generation is to restore that promise.