By MARSHA MERCER
On Tuesday night, President Barack Obama will ride
in his limo to the Capitol where, bathed in TV light, he will deliver his State
of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress.
Ho hum, you may say with 21st century
ennui. Big deal. We don’t think twice about presidents appearing before
Congress.
But nobody was blasé in April 1913 when President
Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress in person. It was shocking.
Presidents in those days didn’t deliver speeches to Congress.
They followed the model of Thomas Jefferson and sent carefully written reports.
The Constitution requires that a president “shall
from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union,
and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary
and expedient.” It’s silent on how the information should be delivered.
Presidents George Washington and John Adams gave annual
messages to Congress in person, but Jefferson ceased the practice. He found the
pomp and ceremony too reminiscent of the English monarch’s “speech from the
throne” to Parliament. The first two presidents had appeared with quite the
entourage -- their entire Cabinets and all their secretaries.
Jefferson apparently wasn’t a polished public speaker
and the Capitol wasn’t yet finished, so he was happy to give the speech a pass.
So were his successors.
Wilson, the Virginia-born former president of
Princeton University and former governor of New Jersey, was a gifted orator at
ease before crowds. He said when he broke with the tradition:
“I think that (a personal appearance) is the only
dignified way for the president to address Congress at the opening of a
session, instead of sending the address to be read perfunctorily in the clerk’s
familiar tone of voice. It is a precedent which, it is true, has been
discontinued a long time, but which is a very respectable precedent.”
Wilson gave a brief speech and made the trip simply,
driving to the Capitol with one Secret Service man. His male secretary followed
in his own car, The New York Times reported. Democrat Wilson was fortunate to
have Democrats in control of both houses of Congress.
After appearing in person before Congress a few
weeks after his inauguration, Wilson went back to Congress in June and August of
1913. He started weekly press conferences. That December, he gave his first annual
message to Congress – what we now call the State of the Union Address.
Subsequent presidents went back and forth between
written and oral State of the Union messages and some delivered both. Since
Reagan, presidents have delivered speeches. The first official televised
response by members of the opposing party came in 1966. In 2010, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell gave the official Republican response.
This will be Obama’s sixth State of the Union Address,
and he’s a lame duck. His legislative wish list will be dismissed as mostly
fantasy – if people watch at all.
Viewership of
Obama’s State of the Union speech last year dropped to its lowest level since
his first address. In 2009, about 52.4 million people tuned in to see Obama.
Last year, just 33.3 million watched. That was also the lowest viewership for
the State of the Union since Nielsen began keeping track in 1993. That year,
Bill Clinton’s first, 66.9 million people watched.
Presidents often hit the road to sell their
proposals after the State of the Union address. Obama has tried to build
interest in his speech by previewing his proposals. He quipped that with only
two years left in his term, he couldn’t wait for the speech to roll out his
ideas.
Traveling around the country, he announced an array
of proposals aimed at improving the lives of middle-class Americans. These
include making community colleges free, stepping up cybersecurity measures,
expanding broadband service, protecting the environment and allowing workers
paid family and sick leave.
The catch is that many of Obama’s proposals require
the approval of Congress. That will be no mean feat -- even after the president
stands before a joint session and makes his pitch in person.
© 2015 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.
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