( CNN ) -- President Obama is set to deliver the first State of the Union Address of his new term . On Tuesday evening , he will step before a joint session of Congress and a nation in difficult times . Unemployment rose in January to 7.9 % . There are signs of economic progress , but millions of Americans are struggling to find a job while others are desperate to keep the one they have . Other kinds of economic challenges face many people . The Pew Research Center recently released a study showing the growing number of adults who are struggling to support grown children and their parents , the `` Sandwich Generation '' as they are called . The economy is just the tip of the iceberg . The issue of immigration needs to be resolved soon . Too many immigrants live in a state of constant uncertainty about their future , or that of their children . The tensions in this debate are heightened by the fact that state and local governments are struggling to find enough revenue to pay for crucial services such as education . The climate also remains in peril , as the wild weather patterns of the past year have shown . At the same time , Americans are still reeling from the deadly shooting incidents that have caused horrible bloodshed in movie theaters and schools and waiting to see what Washington does , or does not do , about guns . Then there are the countless foreign policy challenges we face . The State of the Union address gives President Obama a prime opportunity to lay out what he intends to do in the year ahead to guide the nation through these difficult challenges . Although there are limits to how much these speeches can change public opinion , especially in an age of partisan polarization where large segments of the electorate are hard to move , it still is a vital moment where he can help shape the agenda for the coming year and outline some key themes for public discussion . John King : Speech may do little to change Washington . It may be tempting to list a series of measures Obama wants Congress to pass , but the president should use this speech to do something more than provide a laundry list , and the historical record offers some guidance about how . The speech can offer a vision . In 1941 , President Franklin Roosevelt gave one of the most historic State of the Union addresses when he outlined the Four Freedoms . He delivered his speech on the brink of America becoming involved in World War II . With Europe and Asia in the middle of a major military crisis , FDR defined the four freedoms that he believed should be the foundation of the international system : the freedom of speech and expression , the freedom to worship God , the freedom from want and , finally , the freedom from fear . `` That is no vision of a distant millennium . It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation , '' FDR said . `` That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb . '' The speech was inspirational and offered a moral blueprint for the United States , both in its efforts at home and abroad for decades to come . If President Obama wants to sketch a set of legislative goals , he might look to President Johnson . In 1965 , LBJ was fresh off his landslide victory against Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater and he managed to outline a breathtaking agenda , offering proposals for government to expand its role in all walks of life , from education to health care to the environment . This was all part of the Great Society , a vision that Johnson had outlined a few months earlier at the University of Michigan but which came to life during the State of the Union address . `` The Great Society asks not how much , '' Johnson said , `` but how good ; not only how to create wealth but how to use it ; not only how fast we are going , but where we are headed . '' Sometimes the State of the Union address can be an opportunity for a president to take a risk , to set out an objective for the nation that might be controversial or might look impossible at the time , but which challenges Congress and the citizens to repair broken parts of society . In 1862 , President Abraham Lincoln , with America in the Civil War , insisted that the freedom of the slave was essential to the restoration of the union . `` We—even we here—hold the power , and bear the responsibility . In giving freedom to the slave , we assure freedom to the free—honorable alike in what we give , and what we preserve . '' The speech can also be a moment for honesty . One speech that often receives attention in top 10 lists is President Gerald Ford 's State of the Union address in 1975 . Ford is an unlikely candidate for any historic list , as he took over from Richard Nixon after his resignation and would n't be re-elected in 1976 . Ford governed in difficult economic times -- the nation was hit by the twin shock of inflation and unemployment , which came to be known as stagflation . When Ford went on the air , he was brutally honest . The state of the nation , he said , `` is not good . '' Ford proceeded to outline what Americans were facing . `` Millions of Americans are out of work . Recession and inflation are eroding the money of millions more . Prices are too high , and sales are too slow . '' While presidents usually like to use these speeches to make Americans feel good about where they are , President Obama might think about speaking straight to a nation frustrated with a new normal of stagnant growth , where politicians talk about economic improvement even as the workforce continually struggles with high rates of unemployment and economic insecurity . While Americans want a leader who can point a path forward , they also want to know that the person in the White House truly understands the pain many are suffering . In his first State of the Union address , delivered in January 2010 , President Obama stressed his promise to help the middle class and to fix the broken political process in Washington . `` We face a deficit of trust , '' he said . In his second address , delivered after the Republicans had taken over the House and in the wake of the horrific shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords , President Obama again appealed to the desire for unity . He also called on Congress to support a legislative package that would allow the United States to regain its competitive edge . In January 2012 , Obama , highlighted the differences between the parties—the choice Americans would face in the upcoming election -- by calling on Congress to support investments in education , infrastructure and clean energy . He warned that growing economic inequality threatened the future of the middle class . `` We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well , '' he said , `` while a growing number of Americans barely get by or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot , everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same set of rules . '' This time around , the president should think big , not necessarily about how much he wants to propose , but about the vision and ideas he wants to put forth to move the United States forward . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer .
Julian Zelizer : Obama delivers first State of the Union of second term . He says it 's an opportunity for president to sketch a broad vision for U.S . Speech comes at a time of continuing economic troubles in America , he says . Zelizer : Obama can follow in the footsteps of FDR and LBJ .