``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.''
Abraham Lincoln's Second Annual Message
December 1, 1862
As President Barack Obama prepares for his third State of the Union address on Tuesday night during an election year no less, he is reportedly planning to lay the foundation of a new economy, one that is ``built to last.’’
Hoping to strike a populist chord and rally the middle class discouraged by his handling of the battered economy, the president is expected to champion a restructuring of the tax code, which will make wealthier Americans pay more taxes to help pay for spending proposals aimed at creating new jobs. Mr. Obama is also likely to take a hard line on China, particularly the way it manipulates its currency for trade advantages, another bitter subject among a majority of Americans.
Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana will deliver the response to the president’s address.
For those who might wonder exactly how many of the grand traditions associated with the State of the Union address first got started, what follows is a brief historical overview of the annual address that began 222 years ago.
• Article II, Section 3, clause 1 of the United States Constitution authorizes the State of the Union Message, which states: “He [the President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information on the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.
• The State of the Union address is customarily delivered in the House chamber of the Capitol, before a joint session of Congress.
• George Washington delivered the first State of the Union Address on January 8, 1790.
• President Thomas Jefferson altered the procedure with his first annual message (December 8, 1801) by having his private secretary delivering copies of the message to both houses of Congress to be read by clerks in the House and Senate. Jefferson believed the addresses delivered orally by his predecessors was too British or aristocratic, likening it to the monarch’s speech from the Throne and out of step with a republic.
• Between 1801 and 1913, then, U.S. Presidents would typically send annual reports as a formal written letter to Congress, which contained information about the state of the nation, including a list of policy recommendations.
• Beginning in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson broke with tradition when he delivered the 1913 Annual Message in the House chamber before a joint session of Congress.
• Calvin Coolidge became the first President to broadcast the annual address on radio.
• President Herbert Hoover made no personal appearances before Congress.
• Franklin Roosevelt first inaugurated the term “State of the Union,” which became the popular name of the speech from his presidency forward. Prior to FDR, The message was simply known as “the President’s Annual Message to Congress.’’
• FDR additionally ushered in the modern tradition of reciting the collective words “we” and “our” with greater frequency than his predecessors.
• Harry Truman’s 1947 State of the Union address was televised for the first time.
• Beginning in 1965, as way of attracting a larger audience, President Lyndon Johnson began delivering the State of the Union address in prime time. Previously, the annual addresses were delivered during the day.
• Prior to the ratification of the 20th amendment (January 23, 1933), which changed the timing for the new terms of Senators and Representatives to January 3, the annual message was routinely delivered in December.
• Since 1934, the President’s annual message has been delivered between January 3rd through February 2nd.
• Aside from reserved places for leadership, seats in the chamber are not assigned to Members. Anytime during the day, House Members may claim a seat for the evening’s address on the condition they remain physically in the seat to secure their place for the speech.
• At the January 25, 2011, State of the Union, Members of Congress broke from tradition and sat next to Members of the opposing party. In previous years, Members sat with affiliates of their own party. This historic departure was brought about at the urging of Senator Mark Udall of Colorado who wrote a letter to Members, encouraging them to cross the aisle.
• In keeping with a longstanding custom and to ensure the continuity of government, one cabinet secretary does not attend the State of the Union speech.
• After September 11, 2001, congressional leadership began requiring two Members from each house of Congress, representing both parties, to remain absent from the Capitol during the President’s speech.
• Seating in the gallery is restricted to ticket holders and is managed by the House Sergeant at Arms. Each Member of Congress receives one chamber ticket, with a specific reserved seat, for the address. Congressional leadership and the White House meanwhile receive multiple tickets.
• Ronald Reagan in 1982 began the tradition of inviting guests, who performed an act of heroism or achieved a significant milestone, to join the First Lady in the gallery. At the appropriate time, the president will acknowledge the guest sitting with the First Lady while noting their individual contribution. Presidential speechwriters typically refer to these guests as “Lenny Skutniks” in reference to the first guest highlighted by Reagan in 1982.
• President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell message, broadcast to the nation on January 17, 1961, is remembered most for its warnings against the “military-industrial complex.”
• During his 1995 State of the Union address, Bill Clinton introduced the concept of a “New Covenant” as a way of invoking the twin themes of “opportunity and responsibility” with the current policy challenges facing his administration.
• Of the five Presidents since 1965 who gave State of the Union postelection addresses, the average State of the Union legislative success rate was 51.4 percent, approximately eight percentage points higher than the overall average. The success rate falls for second-term addresses to 38.6 percent.
• According to recent analysis by the Congressional Research Service, of State of the Union addresses from 1946 to 2003, every 50 words a President devoted to an issue resulted in a 2 percent increase in the public identifying that problem as the most important in the nation.
• During a presidential election year, about 13 percent of State of the Union addresses deal with past achievements, scholarly studies have shown, while policy proposals rise to an average of 36 requests, mostly likely to demonstrate an ambitious agenda if reelected to a second term.
• The practice of a rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union address began in 1966 when Senator Everett Dirksen (R-IL) and Representative Gerald Ford (RMI) delivered the Republican reply to President Lyndon Johnson.
• In 1995, Republican Governor Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey became the first non- Congressional elected official to deliver the opposition response, while Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) in 2007 was the first freshman Member of Congress to provide the opposition response to the State of the Union address.
• The opposing party often responds directly to specific proposals contained in the President’s State of the Union address. Excerpts of the State of the Union address are released hours before the president’s address. Such a practice, allows the opposition enough time to change its response by adding specific counter punches to the President’s proposals.
• FDR holds the record for the most State of the Union Messages delivered — 12 — of which 10 were personal appearances before Congress; President Zachary Taylor submitted only one written annual message, in 1849; while two Presidents did not serve long enough to submit an annual message: William Henry Harrison, who died in 1841, 32 days after his inauguration, and James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881 and served only 199 days.
• President George W. Bush’s 2002 address was the first to be made available as a live web cast on the Web from the White House website, and the 2004 address was the first to be broadcast in high definition television.
• President Reagan delivered a televised farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office on January 11, 1989, a practice followed by President Clinton on January 18, 2001.
-Bill Lucey
January 23, 2012
[email protected]
Source: Congressional Research Service; the American Presidency Project
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Web Sites to Keep in Mind
C-Span Video Archive of State of the Union Addresses:
Words Presidents have used in their State of the Union Addresses: (SpeechWars.com)
The American Presidency Project
2012 State of the Union (WhiteHouse.gov)
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