I see that the State of the Union speech will "articulate a centrist vision" ("Speech key to Obama's future," Jan. 24). Of course, it is important to note that President Obama had the misfortune to follow possibly the worst administration in U.S. history. President George W. Bush, consciously or unconsciously, was responsible for bankrupting this country, for promoting torture, for engaging in illegal invasions and doing other acts of malfeasance. So many of my progressive colleagues voted for change in 2008.

Sadly, we soon discovered there would be little change as President Obama kept President Bush's Secretary of Defense and the heads of the intelligence agencies and retained elements of the previous administration's economic team. Surprise, we are in an economic crisis, the deficits mount and military spending is more than 50 percent of the federal budget.

I did not need to read the front-page article about President Obama's speech to know there would be no mention of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or the shadow wars in Pakistan or Yemen. Why bring up these nasty and unwinnable wars? Mr. Obama wants to be re-elected, and it seems he will be working with his new-found friends — Republican legislators. The result will be a continuation on the road to folly, no matter where the legislators sit during the State of the Union. Progressive ideas on renewable energy, living wage jobs, an end to the wars and income re-distribution will be ignored in favor of retrograde notions like clean coal and safe nuclear energy and insurance companies making medical decisions.

Max Obuszewski, Baltimore