With unemployment at 10 percent, a bulging government deficit at 1.4 trillion dollars, and his aspirations for a transformative administration threatened by Washington partisanship, Obama faces a political moment of truth.

Obama will step up in the House of Representatives at 9:00 pm (0200 GMT) and focus squarely on the pain of the US middle class and on job creation, the key to long-term recovery, and his own personal political prospects.

"The president is going to explain why he thinks the American people are angry and frustrated," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told ABC, adding the president would seek to sketch "a hopeful track for our future."

Obama also will send a signal to Americans worried about government debt being piled up for future generations, by promising a three-year freeze on non-discretionary spending, which could harm his ambitious reform plans.

The New York Times reported that Obama will announce the creation of a bipartisan panel to press for tax increases and spending cuts to deal with ballooning deficits. A similar proposal died in the Senate Tuesday.

Aides have also signaled that Obama will make clear he has not lowered his sights and is determined to enact generational reforms, including his signature health care initiative, now in limbo in Congress.

The president spent the day tinkering with his speech and practicing for the big political test, and lunched with top television anchors who will interpret his remarks for their viewers later.

Asked by reporters what his message would be on health care, Obama smiled and said "it's a good one."

Obama is also likely to spell out initiatives for immigration reform, cap-and-trade global warming legislation, wide-ranging education reform and regulatory rules to halt risky business practices on Wall Street.

Also expected are promises to improve US protections against bio-terror attacks, for tax breaks to ease the way to college or retirement for Americans, and for a framework for the US role in rebuilding earthquake-hit Haiti.

Haiti's ambassador to the United States Raymond Joseph will be one of First Lady Michelle Obama's guests in her box in the House, along with Kimberly Munley, the policewoman who took down Major Nidal Hasan, who is charged with the Fort Hood massacre last November.

Given the poisoned political climate in the run-up to mid-term congressional polls in November, and some panic in Obama's Democratic Party, prospects for Obama's laundry list of initiatives look uncertain.

A Wall Street Journal poll Wednesday found that 51 percent of Americans believe Obama has devoted too little attention on the economy, and 44 percent think he has spent too much time on health care.

The State of the Union is not just the president's best annual chance to speak unfiltered to Americans, but it is also closely watched around the world.

A month after a thwarted attack to bring down a packed US airliner on Christmas Day, Obama will argue that his administration has made important progress against terrorism in Africa and the Middle East.

He may highlight the lack of recent US deaths in Iraq and his vow to get combat soldiers home by the end of August, but he must also bolster public support for his troop surge in Afghanistan.

One year into his presidency, Obama's political brand seems to have lost its luster, as has the notion that a fresh face with new ideas could steer the US ship of state in a new direction.

His promise to seek bipartisan solutions has foundered: partly due to a strategy of total opposition on behalf of Republicans.

And the haunting political legacy that the president inherited from president George W. Bush -- a collapsed economy, two wars and multiple security threats, has weakened the reforming zeal of his presidency.

Obama has already failed to live up to one of his most prominent promises: closing the camp for terror suspects in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba within a year.

Polls show that Obama remains popular among Americans -- but confidence in his policies is fading: the president's approval ratings are at 50 or below in most opinion surveys.

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