Five Reasons To (Not) Watch the State of the Union Address
From a Wash Times preview of President Bush's sixth State of the Union Address and, arguably, his most important (especially not counting the other five, or the two yet to come):
The White House has made clear the speech will focus on five issues—the global war on terrorism, health care, education, immigration and energy—instead of a laundry list of policy initiatives used in previous addresses….
"The president is going to address the areas that are foremost concern for Americans," [press secretary Tony] Snow said. "When you have a Democratic Congress that came in two weeks ago saying, we want to get things done, we've got some offers that they're going to be pretty good for them."
Democrats, though, appear ready to oppose Mr. Bush at every turn. On Saturday, shortly after Mr. Bush proposed expanding health care coverage by putting incentives into the tax code for individuals to buy their own, Democratic leaders immediately opposed the plan….
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, said over the weekend as she announced her presidential candidacy that she "will spend [the next] two years doing everything in my power to limit the damage George W. Bush can do."
The fun begins at 9PM ET (and this time, I think even Nickelodeon is carrying the talk).
Of course, the best part of recent SOTUs–at least for 15 years or so, are the special guest stars who get a moment to stand up when recognized. Many are selected for such an honor, but few are chosen (?). In any case, even fewer are remembered.
Some Reason remembrances of SOTUs past here and here.
Gene Healy of Cato has a nice piece up about how the SOTU, once a humble exercise in info-sharing, metamorphosed into what one senator called a "cheap and tawdry imitation of English royalty." That's all here.
UPDATE: Howard Deutsch points us to The State of the Union Address Drinking Game 2007.
