Let’s be blunt.
After four years of class warfare does anyone expect anything
new or different in an Obama State of the Union?
Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?
Having done some of the work on a State of the Union, here’s the
procedure for those who have never had the opportunity.
This is a formal document of State. In centuries gone by, some
time after Jefferson, presidents ceased presenting these things in
person. It was, I believe, Woodrow Wilson who brought back the
notion of the president personally traveling to Capitol Hill to
speak to a Joint Session of Congress.
The call goes out to every Cabinet department and agency to send
in their wish list. It gets whittled down to reasonable lengths,
then funneled to POTUS speechwriters and staff to shape into the
current president’s agenda. And then made presentable for
television purposes.
By the time television at the State of the Union arrived it
began to be turned into a bit of a spectacle. JFK was the last
president to do one of these televised events in the middle of the
day. Somewhere during LBJ’s time this became the prime time event
we know today.
It was Ronald Reagan who began the idea of having somebody in
the gallery with the first lady who was relevant to a theme in the
president’s speech. As it happened, there was a horrific plane
crash in Washington shortly before Reagan’s 1982 State of the
Union. It was snowing blizzard-style and an Air Florida jet, too
much ice on its wings, lifted off from what is now, ironically,
Reagan Airport. Following the Potomac it quickly lost altitude and
slammed into the first span of the 14th Street Bridge,
falling into the frozen river between the first and second spans.
The plane was mostly submerged. This being downtown Washington DC
the TV cameras were almost instantly present. They were there to
record the actions of a passing driver and government employee by
the name of Lenny Skutnik. Jumping into the Potomac, with the
nation watching, he swam through the icy water to rescue a woman
who was too weak to grasp a lifeline dropped by a hovering rescue
helicopter. He got to the woman and was able to get her to shore –
saving her life.
A handful of days later he was seated next to First Lady Nancy
Reagan as the President looked up to him in the middle of his
speech and said:
“Just two weeks ago, in the midst of a terrible tragedy on the
Potomac, we saw again the spirit of American heroism at its finest
the heroism of dedicated rescue workers saving crash victims from
icy waters.
And we saw the heroism of one of our young Government employees,
Lenny Skutnik, who, when he saw a woman lose her grip on the
helicopter line, dived into the water and dragged her to
safety.”
The Congress rose as one and applauded him. From that moment
forward presidents have been finding somebody to put in the gallery
and salute as part of their message.
Who will it be tonight? A child or parent from Newtown,
Connecticut perhaps? To make the obvious point: personalizing a
demand for more gun control.
It will be someone, I suspect. Someone who illustrates a key
part of the Obama agenda.
And what will that agenda be?
One needs no crystal ball.
Some combination of class warfare, salted with gun control,
self-congratulations for health care, an entire platter of spending
proposals and claims that the spending is really – truly – already
under control thanks to, but of course, President Obama.
He will look to put the Republicans on the defensive.
And unless they get their act together?
He will succeed.
