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Cancel the State of the Union
Townhall.com ^ | January 18, 2015 | Steve Chapman

Posted on 01/18/2015 7:41:29 AM PST by Kaslin

Mid-January is the time to ask the annual question: Are we ready for a big, noisy, overhyped prime-time production that has outgrown its simple origins and usually leaves us feeling both gorged and disappointed? If not, you may want to skip the State of the Union address and prepare for something humbler, like the Super Bowl.

President Barack Obama has been doing his best to make a low-news event a no-news event, by traveling the country unveiling the sort of programs presidents normally use the speech to unveil: free community college, paid job leaves, universal broadband access and more. By the time he actually ascends the House dais on Tuesday evening, we will already know pretty much everything he's going to say.

Too bad he isn't canceling the whole exercise. It would not be unprecedented. Richard Nixon decided to stay home in 1973, and that decision was not listed in the articles of impeachment. Dwight Eisenhower, recovering from a heart attack, elected not to appear in 1956, and both he and the country survived.

Not showing up on Capitol Hill used to be the norm. The Constitution says the president "shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union," but it doesn't specify the means of communication.

George Washington and John Adams delivered the address in person, but Thomas Jefferson sent written messages instead. The change, according to the Congressional Research Service, "was intended to simplify a ceremony that he believed to be an aristocratic imitation of the British monarch's Speech from the Throne, and thus unsuitable to a republic."

His successors followed that commendable example of restraint for more than a century. It was the notably unrestrained Woodrow Wilson who had the grand idea of visiting the Capitol to dazzle Congress with his radiance.

But it took another champion of the imperial presidency, Franklin Roosevelt, to cement this as the consistent practice. Lyndon Johnson, no shrinking violet, moved the show to the evening to get a bigger TV audience.

Republicans are also happy to exploit the occasion to the hilt: Ronald Reagan began the tradition of inviting and paying tribute to ordinary citizens who have done admirable things. There have been so many of those guests that there's a book about them.

The public appetite for the whole spectacle, however, is less than before. Since Obama's first one, the TV audience has shrunk every year. The 2014 viewer count was 33.3 million, down from 52.4 million in 2009. Laying out his agenda in advance is not likely to boost this year's Nielsen rating.

There will always be those citizens who will tune in hoping to see Obama clutching a Koran or Joe Biden throwing a spitball at John Boehner. Or -- who knows? -- maybe some livid House member will interrupt the president to bellow, "You lie!"

_But most people who watch most likely will do so out of a heavy sense of civic duty rather than any urgent interest or any expectation that they'll learn much.

Presidents, of course, love these occasions for letting them occupy the undisputed center of attention, basking in waves of applause. The occasion dramatizes the theme of the 2008 book "The Cult of the Presidency," by Cato Institute analyst Gene Healy: the chief executive as "the great leader of the Progressives' dreams, Herbert Croly's 'Thor wielding with power and effect a sledge hammer in the cause of national righteousness.'"

The State of the Union address has grown in step with presidential presumption. It's a conspicuous symptom of a dangerous malady: We expect too much of our presidents and limit them too little.

Whether this event is still worth their time, however, is doubtful. If there was ever a time that direct exposure to presidential eloquence could melt the hearts of hostile legislators, it has passed. Even the public seems to have acquired immunity.

The effort often backfires. "In a 2013 analysis of SOTU polling," Healy has noted, "Gallup found that 'most presidents have shown an average decrease in approval of one or more points between the last poll conducted before the State of the Union and the first one conducted afterward.'"

Obama might be surprised to learn that killing it off would have no downside. When Calvin Coolidge woke up from his daily White House nap, he would puckishly ask an aide: "Is the country still there?" It always was.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: 0bama; bhosotu; onthehill; sotu
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To: Kaslin

Everyone should show up then all through the speech use their iPods or doodle on a piece of paper like John Kerry does!!


61 posted on 01/18/2015 10:14:03 AM PST by jacob allen
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To: txrefugee

BRILLIANT!

I think I will do that this tuesday night!

62 posted on 01/18/2015 10:19:33 AM PST by jimjohn (You don't get the kind of government you want, or the kind you need. You get the kind you deserve.)
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To: wayoverontheright
He won’t back out of speaking, he’s oblivious to how he is now perceived.

Amen. IMHO, he's reached the point he no longer cares how he's perceived. Just so long as he can continue his crusade to turn the US into a Turd World Country.

63 posted on 01/18/2015 10:35:52 AM PST by upchuck (Entrenched incumbency is the disease. Fresh blood is the cure.)
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To: wayoverontheright

Hear, hear. Drinks are on me.


64 posted on 01/18/2015 10:40:20 AM PST by Senator Goldwater
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To: Chuckster

Ouch !


65 posted on 01/18/2015 10:48:41 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: Kaslin

Now that his approvals are so low, with only the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Sharpton still loving’ him—I WANT him to show up.


66 posted on 01/18/2015 12:30:53 PM PST by Mamzelle
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To: Mamzelle

I don’t care if he shows up or not, I have better things to do than watching his stupid grin and listening to his lies


67 posted on 01/18/2015 1:13:24 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Ezekiel
You had the wrong link. This is the the correct one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_of_Kings_%28statue%29

68 posted on 01/18/2015 1:16:26 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

Thanks much. Looks like I missed the last character with the copy/paste.


69 posted on 01/18/2015 1:24:09 PM PST by Ezekiel (All who mourn the destruction of America merit the celebration of her rebirth.)
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To: wayoverontheright

Obama doesn’t give speeches, he gives lectures. He is so stupid he can’t fathom anyone understanding his position without a condescending, blathering lecture. Big Eared Idiot that he is.


70 posted on 01/18/2015 5:21:32 PM PST by subterfuge (Minneseeota: the laughingstock of the nation - for lots of reasons!)
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To: sickoflibs

Chances SOTU is canceled, 0%. (boy is this a popular subject)

Chances her majesty is the next POTUS, 0%. (post 2)

Chances Obama has a coup and stays in office past 2017, 0%. (post 7)

If this is thread for whimsy, maybe I’ll hit that lotto Jackpot, 1 in 258,890,850. 0.0000000038626317% chance. I like them odds!


71 posted on 01/18/2015 6:06:36 PM PST by Impy (They pull a knife, you pull a gun. That's the CHICAGO WAY, and that's how you beat the rats!)
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To: Impy

Fantasy Island as usual


72 posted on 01/18/2015 6:28:26 PM PST by sickoflibs (King Obama : 'The debate is over. The time for talk is over. Just follow my commands you serfs""')
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To: Kaslin
I can do it in one line.
The state of the Union is a total disaster. Nya, Nya, Nya!

73 posted on 01/18/2015 8:03:09 PM PST by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: Kaslin
I can do it in one line.
The state of the Union is a total disaster. Nya, Nya, Nya!

74 posted on 01/18/2015 8:03:10 PM PST by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: Carl Vehse

Good idea


75 posted on 01/19/2015 7:26:39 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: BenLurkin

Amen


76 posted on 01/19/2015 7:29:52 AM PST by Vaduz
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