State of the Union Address

President Bush delivered his seventh state of the union address to the largest viewer ship since his 2003 address. Aside from the fact that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a woman; I don't know what we learned. The President's speech was preempted by a USA 30 minute interview and story there wasn't much anyone hadn't expected. It begs the question whether or not in an age of the Pod-casting, 24hr cable news, blogs and YouTube is the annual address relevant or even necessary?

Historical Basis

The State of the Union address was not always the formal affair that it resembles today. The fact of the matter is the founding fathers didn't even intend for it to be annual event. The constitution sets forth provisions for informing the congress (not the people):

"The President shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." Article II, Sec. 3, U.S. Constitution

It was the thought of the day that congress would be a part-time profession, convening only when necessary; therefore requiring occasion updates from the president. The first such address was January 8, 1790, delivered by George Washington.

Washington's focus was on the very concept of union itself. The experiment of American democracy was in its infancy. Aware of the need to prove the success of the "union of states," Washington included a significant detail in his speech. Instead of datelining his message with the name of the nation's capital at that time New York, Washington emphasized unity by writing "United States" on the speech's dateline.

Jefferson detailed his priorities in his first annual message in 1801 and sent copies of the written message to each house of Congress. The President's annual message, as it was then called, was not spoken by the President for the next 112 years. The message was often printed in full or as excerpts in newspapers for the American public to read.

Back to the Future

The first President to revive Washington's spoken precedent was Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Although controversial at the time, Wilson delivered his first annual message in person to both houses of Congress and outlined his legislative priorities.

The advent of radio and television, allowed the expansion of the President's audience to include the American people. Calvin Coolidge's 1923 speech was the first annual message broadcast on radio. Franklin Roosevelt began using the phrase "State of the Union" in 1935, and his successor, Harry Truman, set a precedent in 1947 when his State of the Union speech became the first to be broadcast on television.

Read My Lips: No New Details

The one theme regardless of delivery method or broadcast medium of the earlier addresses missing in the last few decades and certainly with Bush's seventh address was details. The State of the Union gives the President an opportunity to reflect on the past while presenting his hopes for the future to Congress, the American people and the world. However, Bush's speech was short on details and those ideas he did lay out for the future where know to most thanks to a previous USA Today story written from an exclusive interview with the President. The speech was much ado about nothing new.

A Case for Unity

The President's annual address also has the potential to be a backdrop for national unity. One can only imagine the feeling of American pride and shoulder to shoulder solidarity hearing James Monroe in 1823 discussed the centerpiece of his foreign policy (The Monroe Doctrine), which called on European countries to end western colonization; Lincoln expressing his desire for slave emancipation in 1862 while desperately trying to hold the union, or Franklin Roosevelt defining the now-famous four freedoms during his State of the Union message in 1941.

The State of the Union no longer delivers such lofty feelings of national unity as is evident by recent televised speeches. The President's address is always met with measured (and timed) applause and ovation from his own party and very little from the party of opposition. What is worse is bi-partisanship has reached such a level in Washington (and the nation) that the American people already knew when Speaker Pelosi and the democrats would cheer and when they would remain respectfully silent (even if it seemed at times the speaker herself was unclear).

The State of the Address

The annual address has become a speech filled with rhetoric we have usually heard days or weeks before due to leaks (often intentional) or interviews. We have been left with a speech that outline no new ideas and give few if any details about old ones. I don't usually advocate strict interpretation of the constitution, but in this case, maybe the framers had it right. Maybe we only need to be informed from time to time. In fact, maybe Jefferson had it right. Maybe future addresses can be mailed to congress and printed in USA Today for the rest of us to read at our leisure.