The State of the Union Address needs a new name

Today, it's an essentially meaningless speech. Let's call it the Presidential Sales Pitch instead

Tonight, the media and the political world will gather to focus on a political tradition rich in history — and almost utterly devoid of substance. President Barack Obama will bask in the attention of a joint session of Congress and fulfill his constitutional duty to report on the state of the union, mandated in Article II, Section 3, which requires a president to report to Congress "from time to time" on our national status. But today, we're a lot more likely to hear about a president’s political status, and his political grocery list, than we are about our own status as a nation.

The politicization of the State of the Union Address didn't start with President Obama, or George W. Bush, or Bill Clinton. For this particular tradition of the national sales pitch, we can thank Woodrow Wilson. George Washington and John Adams delivered their speeches to Congress in person, but the thoroughly small-R republican Thomas Jefferson thought the spectacle smacked too much of the tradition of a monarch opening a session of parliament, and sent a written report instead. Wilson resurrected the practice of delivering the speech personally to a joint session of Congress, and political sales pitches have never been the same.

By now, we have moved very far away from Jefferson's example. His first such written address reads much like a traditional status report, mainly focusing on the war in Tripoli and the need to allow for free enterprise with as little federal intervention as possible. In fact, here’s a passage you won’t find in many modern State of the Union speeches, if any at all:

"Among those who are dependent on Executive discretion I have begun the reduction of what was deemed unnecessary. The expenses of diplomatic agency have been considerably diminished. The inspectors of internal revenue who were found to obstruct the accountability of the institution have been discontinued. Several agencies created by Executive authorities, on salaries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should suggest the expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercises to legislative inspection and sanction."

We won't find this kind of governmental modesty in any of Jefferson's recent successors. Let's play a game and see if our readers can determine which party affiliation goes with the following excerpts from presidential addresses:

"Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. Since 2001, we have spent nearly $10 billion to develop cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable alternative energy sources. And we are on the threshold of incredible advances.

"So tonight I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative -- a 22-percent increase in clean-energy research - at the Department of Energy, to push for breakthroughs in two vital areas. To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clean, safe nuclear energy."