Popp Culture The State of the Union has got me in a state of anxiety: So let's have a drink By Steve Popp - January 27th, 2010

What a week it has been in American politics.

Last Tuesday, Scott Brown, the former Cosmo model turned pick-up truck populist, scored a huge electoral upset in Massachusetts, winning Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat and turning it into “the people’s seat.” This gave Republicans 41 votes in the Senate, and gave agita to Democrats nationwide.

Then on Thursday, the Supreme Court upended precedent by ruling 5-4 that bans on corporate expenditures for political ads were a violation of free speech and therefore unconstitutional. Pundits on both sides of the aisle declared this a game-changer of a decision.

If that wasn’t enough, this Wednesday is State of the Union time in D.C.

I think I need a drink.

You see, the State of the Union runs a close second to Presidential Debates on my televised-political-events-that-make-me-nervous list. It is an event full of political implications and is steeped in history.

Some friends, however, have argued that my anxiety is misplaced. Predictable political posturing from both sides and frequent applause interruptions are hallmarks of the event and do not exactly make for must-see television. This is a banal American political tradition right? Even the authorization for the address, from Article II, section 3 of the Constitution, does so in spectacularly dry fashion.

So where’s the drama?

A history of high drama

For starters, President Thomas Jefferson thought the practice of personally giving a State of the Union address to Congress too dramatic of an endeavor. Jefferson believed that the in-person delivery of the speech, established by his predecessors Washington and Adams, was monarchical in form and fashion. So Jefferson sent a written response to Congress instead, thus checking the drama at the door and starting a tradition that would last until 1913. When Woodrow Wilson decided to deliver the message personally to Congress that year, he was the first to do so in over a 112 years.

Since then, State of the Union addresses have, on many occasions, signaled important moments in American political history:

•  In 1941, Roosevelt delivered his “Four Freedoms” speech. FDR asked Americans to “look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world…freedom of every person to worship God in his own way—everywhere in the world…freedom from want…and freedom from fear.”
•  In 1965, Lyndon Baines Johnson spoke of progress “toward the Great Society,” and laid out an ambitious domestic agenda.
•  In 1998, in the midst of the Lewinsky brouhaha, Bill Clinton reported to Americans that “these are good times for America,” and ignored the scandal altogether.
•  And in 2002, George W. Bush explained how Iran, Iraq, and North Korea, “and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.”

Yet despite those moments, and the historical significance of the event, State of the Union speeches still don’t garner the attention they probably should.

Here are three things to do to make the SOU more like must-see TV

1. If you just can’t feel the drama of the night, put yourself in Jon Favreau’s shoes. Not the writer/director Jon Favreau, but the 28-year-old Obama speechwriter who is the second youngest person ever to work as chief White House speechwriter.

With waning polls, a new Osama Bin Laden recording, a sputtering economy, and rising doubts about health care reform, it’s up to Favreau to help Obama strike the right tone on Wednesday. No pressure.

2. During the speech, if what Obama says sounds too good to be true (and there are no accusations shouted from South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson to the contrary) check out the Pulitzer Prize-winning site Politifact.com for great fact-checking resources.

3. And if the spectacle of the event is just too much, you can always play the State of the Union drinking game. My rules for this year would be:

• Every time Obama says “jobs,” drink.
• If Obama says “public option,” drink.
• If Obama says “unprecedented,” drink.
• If a Republican shouts out from the crowd, take two drinks.
• If the camera catches anyone in the audience tweeting, drink and tweet about it.
• If any pundit references “Pants on the Ground,” take two drinks and change the channel.
• And if you see Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in the glare of the klieg lights and on the rope line shaking Obama’s hand, finish your drink and get another.
   

• State of the Union, TV
• Barack Obama, Jon Favreau

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