A Postcard from the White House.

By on January 24, 2012

"Having Wonderful Time in Lincoln Bedroom"

I have never seen much value in The State of the Union Address. It is the President’s one opportunity to get before Congress and give a speech. Supposedly it is a time to preview new initiatives he (or she someday) wants and will press for. Allegedly we are ‘informed’ by this event.

The current State of the Union format owes a lot to Ronald Reagan. He really perfected the event and turned it into the presidential infomercial we know today. He loaded it with heart-tugging references to icons of the time and placed patriotic Americans in the box with the First Lady and other dignitaries so the cameras could catch them. Reagan brought Hollywood knowhow to Foggy Bottom communications and made them slicker and better.

In recent years however, the SOTUA has become a talk marathon about things the President might well have jotted down on a postcard and mailed to us. There has always been an element of buzzword bingo to the verbiage. The postcard format would make that risk unnecessary. And as much as I admire Captain Solly Sollenberger and others, what he is he really going to contribute to the current job situation?

At worst  the SOTUA is an empty bore. At best it is studded with memorable catch-phrases few remember a month later. Often the President launches a trial initiative from the address only to have it sink to the bottom of the Potomac. Last year’s event was memorable only for the President scolding the Supreme Court and Justice Samuel Alito looking hot under the collar.

I like the idea of the Judiciary and the Legislators having to get together in one room once a year, but this format accomplishes nothing. The Court looks like it is slumming. Congress mostly sits around on its dignity. The President’s loyalists pop up like jacks-in-the-boxes if their man says something they should be for. The party out of the White House looks like it had been sucking horseradishes in the Congressional cloak room.

I do like the idea of the President having to signal what he in tends to do in the year to come. I am less enamored of what he thinks he has done in the year just behind us. We usually know that in advance.

In the end, as I said, a postcard with bullet points would do just as well. It would force the President to come to the point quickly. He could put pictures of this year’s icons on the picture side of the card. Or he could put his birth certificate on it. Or his tax return summary. Or his consulting contract with Fanny Mae. We in turn would be spared the Supreme Court shuffling their robes and fidgeting in their seats. I’m sure  Justice Alito would like this as well.

Even the famous Reagan ‘morning-in-America’ SOTUA had less educational value than any rerun of ‘Jeopardy’ — and far less entertainment value come to think about it. I could always pin this postcard to the refrigerator and check it from time to time during a midnight raid to see how the commander-in-chief  is doing. And if it gave you access to a free health screening with your personal doctor, or even a discount, it would be even more valuable than anything that has come out of Congress for the American people in the past few years.

Tom Godfrey

About Tom Godfrey

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