Talk:State of the Union Address

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	State of the Union Address is part of WikiProject U.S. Congress, an attempt to build a comprehensive guide to the United States Congress.
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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the State of the Union Address article.
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I plan to make State of the Union a disambig page. It is also the name of a 1948 movie by Frank Capra. Jay 00:47, 15 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Done. Jay 04:26, 23 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Since you made the diambiguation, please go to "what links here" at "State of the Union" and fix all the links directed there to link them to here instead. --Jia ng 04:34, 23 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Since most pages pointing there were meant for here, I restored the redirect and created State of the Union (disambiguation) instead. Turns out there were several other possible meanings. --Minesweeper 12:36, 14 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Notice of recent vandalism

I noticed today that the massage "skate for life..." was added to the top of this page. I was unable to delete it and I would simply like to mention it. (23 January 2006, 9:41 PM EST) 69.123.6.10 03:11, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of opposing speakers?

Should there be a list of opposing responses? --Blue387 07:35, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

What government officials were absent from the 2006 state of the union speech in order to protect the presidential line of succession?

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson [1] Dave6 03:02, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Supreme Court Ovations?

Looks to me like some of the justices were standing & applauding during the speech. Isn't that against their rules? Aaronwinborn 02:27, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Seems like they don't applaud much. Perhaps they traditionally applaud only for vague ideals like democracy, God-bless-America etc. but not for policy related issues they might rule on.

They were applauding when Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was mentioned, but you are right, they normally do not applaud. There is not any "rule" but a matter of tradition to be impartial to policy and such.

They are only not allowed to applaud if it is to a political opinion.

[edit] add references to the address

1) can we import the speech to the wiki? (I mean legally, on grounds of copyright)

2) If so, can we get started on holding the president to book on some of his claims, referencing where neccessary, and creating a document to refer to at a later date for some of the future claims.

DavidMcKenzie 10:54, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] No requirement for SOTU

The article says, the requirement for the address is written into the United States Constitution.... Technically, that's not true. As quoted, the only requirement is that the President, give to Congress information of the State of the Union. It doesn't say it has to be an address. It could be a written report. He could send an email to speaker@house.congress.gov that says, "The country's great, ttyl" and meet the letter of the requirement. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:39, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Hee. I'd vote for the e-mail writing president just for saving me from having to listen to an hour-long speech. And for my own amusement, of course. ekedolphin 02:46, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The "well, duh!" sentence of the year award

Section 3, paragraph 5: 'Applause indicates support, while applause with a standing ovation indicates enthusiastic support.' Hee. As much as the sentence's obviousness amuses me, um, do we really need this sentence here? ekedolphin 02:45, 12 April 2006 (UTC)

It is a "duh" moment - but I do think that it is appropriate in this circumstance - as the degree of applause (applause by party, no applause as opposition, etc.) is mentioned. --Tim4christ17 03:31, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] State of the Union in Inauguration Years

The article does not make it clear how the address works in years in which a new president has just been sworn in. Presumably this is scheduled after the inauguration of the new president. Is he then to deliver an address on the State of the Union only days after being sworn in?

This page says that officially there are no State of the Union addresses in the inauguration year, but that the last 3 presidents have given speeches that have the same impact. Qutezuce 02:03, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Last written SOTU

According to the Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives [2], Reagan gave a SOTU in writing in 1989, while, according to [3], he gave none that year. Who's right? It would impact the veracity of "The last President to do this was Jimmy Carter in 1981," as well as the reliability of the latter source page. Calbaer 00:06, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Source re JCS applause?

Where's all the applause stuff come from? Any source? In particular re the Joint Chiefs. --Penta 19:30, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First Evening Address

According to this article, "Lyndon Johnson's address in 1965 was the first delivered in the evening." But according to Frank Freidel in his book Franklin D Roosevelt: A Rendezvous With Destiny (p 195), FDR delivered his State of the Union message to Congress on the evening of 6 January 1936, much to the distaste of Republican opponents. If this is the case, then the article needs to be edited. Gadsby West 16:44, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nancy Pelosi as Speaker

What will the Sergeant-at-Arms call out at the President's entrance for the 2007 SOTU? Surely not, "Mr. Speaker"..... co94 January 6, 2007

[edit] See also

I still don't think that the links to the "16 Words" and "Axis of Evil" articles are appropriate here. These would be appropriate in articles about George W. Bush, the war in Iraq, the war on terror, etc., but here, they present a POV problem. Perhaps a section on "Controversies" would solve the problem. I don't want to get into an editing tug-of-war, so I'd like to hear what others think. Mdeaton 23:18, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Having those links here would be like having links to the same articles in the article for President of the United States or even President. I've moved the links to the year-specific articles. I also added one of them to the GWB article which apparently didn't contain it yet. --Dachannien^Talk_Contrib 06:20, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] PAGE IS DEFCON 2 RATED

PAGE IS EXPECTED TO BE vandalsehed. Please make sure page is not! [Recent changes patroler]Dell970 02:15, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] link to drinkinggame

is this really necessary/notable/sensible? i think not. 84.129.172.67 19:20, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Standing ovation

This might be a bit off-topic, but one thing that strikes me as odd with every State of the Union Address, is the members of the legislative giving a standing ovation to the executive. But when did this practice start? Did this come about in response to the era of television, or has this been common practice throughout the centuries? A ecis^Bravado 11:44, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Belaboring the obvious

Cut:

The Constitution, however, does not require this information to be given directly to the people, only to Congress, nor is it required to be delivered in the form of a speech.
The practice of speaking on a public broadcast is a tradition that has developed throughout the country's history.

The quote above this, in the intro, speaks for itself. And since public broadcasts began only after the invention of radio, it's obviously a "developed" tradition. --Uncle Ed 19:06, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tying the shoe?

I'm having a hard time remembering, here: isn't there a tradition of the President stopping to tie his shoe before entering the chamber to give the speech? Or am I half-remembering something else? I can't seem to find any results for "state of the union"+"shoe" that seem helpful. -_- Kasreyn 08:37, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if there's a tradition, but Bartlet did it before one of his State of the Unions in the tv show The West Wing. --Jessikins (talk) 20:04, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Renaming article

Since the constitution does not require that the state of the union report be in the form of an address, and since the article discusses not only SOTU messages in the form of an address, but also SOTU messages in written form, perhaps this article should be renamed to "State of the Union."Bellczar (talk) 20:01, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] DISinvitation?

Out of sheer curiosity, was any US President NOT invited to give a State of the Union? --Jessikins (talk) 20:05, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 2006 was Bush's 5th SOTU Address

I believe the reference (toward the bottom of the article) to the 2006 SOTU address as Bush's "sixth" is incorrect, it should be "5th." As noted in the article, his address to a joint session of Congress in 2001 (shortly after his 1st inauguration) would not have been called a SOTU Address. See also the subsequent list of all of Bush's SOTU addresses, starting in 2002 (with 2006 being, again, the 5th). 24.7.12.86 (talk) 08:13, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image captions: teleprompter

Both closeup images of the two presidents have captions that mention the teleprompter. Is it necessary to mention that? It gives the impression that whoever wrote that caption is trying to emphasize it as a scripted speech, for whatever reason. ALTON .ıl 10:21, 28 February 2008 (UTC)