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Why tonight is and isn't the State of the Union Address.

By tqa on February 24, 2009.

Tonight, President Obama is going to address a joint session of Congress. It's the same time of year that the State of the Union Address is given. It's the same format. It's expected that he will cover the same kind of topics that you see in the State of the Union. There's even going to be a speech in response from the opposing party - just like the State of the Union. But tonight's speech is not a State of the Union Address.

At least if you live in the United States. Internationally, the speech is at least occasionally being billed as The State of the Union. So what's the deal?

Traditionally, Presidents don't give a State of the Union speech during their first year in office. There's no rule that says that they can't, they just don't. Of course, there's not actually any rule that says that they ever need to give a State of the Union Address. It's a tradition, not a requirement. So, tonight's speech is not the State of the Union Address because traditionally Presidents do not deliver the traditional State of the Union Address during their first year in office.

Confused yet?

Here's what it comes down to: the President's obligations in this matter are given in Article 2, Section 3 of the United States Constitution:

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient

That's the entire obligation. Technically, the President could scrawl "Everything's cool, I don't need anything from you" on a post-it note, send it to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate, and he'd have met his Constitutional requirements. The pomp and circumstance of the State of the Union exists not because it's required (in fact, a lot of Presidents just sent Congress a written statement), but because it's fun to do.

So if you've got a feeling that all of the fuss over whether this is or isn't a State of the Union Address might be a little silly, I'd say "go with the feeling."

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"but because it's fun to do."

This must be some new definition of the world "fun" that I was previously unaware of.

Yeah, the Constitutional requirements are vague, so the speech is mainly political theatre--the prez lays out where he thinks things are going, tries to build support for his programs. Obama wants to do this now, I suppose, to rally support for his stimulus plan, and try to reassure everyone that he's on top of things in this crisis, because his man Geithner has done such a great job on that front so far. Not.