Barack Obama has implored Democrats and Republicans to rally behind his vision of economic revival for an anxious nation.
Pleading for unity in a newly divided government, he declared in his State of the Union address that: "We will move forward together or not at all."
The US president unveiled an agenda of carefully balanced political goals: a burst of spending on education, research, technology and transportation to make the nation more competitive, alongside pledges, in the strongest terms of his presidency, to cut the deficit and spending deemed wasteful to America.
Obama spoke to a television audience of millions and a Congress sobered by the assassination attempt against one if its own members, Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
Her seat sat empty, and many politicians of competing parties sat together in a show of support and civility, wearing black-and-white lapel ribbons, signifying the deaths in Tucson and the hopes of the survivors.
Yet differences were still evident, with Democrats standing to applaud his comments on health care and tax cuts while Republicans next to them sat mute.
In his best chance of the year to connect with the country, Obama devoted most of his hour-long prime-time address to the economy.
In the overarching theme of his speech, the president told politicians: "The future is ours to win."
Obama conceded that everything he asked for would prompt more partisan disputes but reminded the members of Congress that "no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater - something more consequential than party or political preference."
The president cast the challenges facing the United States as bigger than either party.
He said the nation was facing a new "Sputnik" moment, and he urged efforts to create a wave of innovation to create jobs and a vibrant economic future, just as the nation vigorously responded to the Soviets beating the US into space a half century ago.
