State of the Union

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/2/2022
  

  GOP Response Shows Party May be Fighting the Last Battle as World Changes

  Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds's response to SOTU was heavy on recent culture war themes. Historian Eric Rauchway says that if Biden can repeat the performance of leadership by FDR in the face of the rising threat of fascism, these tactics might be irrelevant. 

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• SOURCE: PBS Newshour
  2/5/19
  

  Video of the Week 2: Michael Beschloss Analyzes Trump's State of the Union Address

  How will President Trump's 2019 State of the Union address fit into American history?

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  2/6/19
  

  Why did women in Congress wear white for Trump’s State of the Union address?

  The choice has historical significance.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  2/5/19
  

  George Washington’s first State of the Union address: Little pomp and no applause lines

  It was very different from the speech President Trump delivered and the political spectacle the event has become.

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• SOURCE: Time
  2/6/19
  

  President Trump Used the State of the Union to Call for an End to Investigations. So Did Nixon

  “I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough!”

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• 2/5/19
  

  State of the Union: How Can We Assess Donald Trump’s First Two Years in Office?

  by Michael Nelson

  For all his decline in effectiveness, Trump has not become less influential.

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• SOURCE: Salon
  1/24/19
  

  Donald Trump's SOTU fiasco: Historians say it's unprecedented

  Historians tell Salon that Trump's State of the Union implosion is completely "without precedent."

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/25/19
  

  The State of the Union shifts power to the president. Pelosi took it back.

  by Kathryn Cramer Brownell

  The shutdown upended the ‘bully pulpit’ Trump’s predecessors have used.

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• 1/24/19
  

  What Historians Are Saying: State of the Union 2019

  What historians are saying on Twitter about Pelosi, Trump, and the postponed State of the Union address.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/16/19
  

  State of the Union: What would Jefferson do?

  by Karen Tumulty

  Pelosi's proposal was not as radical as it might sound.

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• SOURCE: Politico
  1-30-18
  

  TV Gave Us the Modern State of the Union. Then It Killed It.

  by David Greenberg

  Today, the ritual seems to be waning in importance.

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• 1/30/18
  

  Trump's First State of the Union Address

  What historians are saying.

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• SOURCE: Iowa State Daily
  1-29-18
  

  How the State of the Union address has changed over time

  It wasn’t intended to be partisan.

• 
• SOURCE: The Brookings Institution
  1-16-15
  

  State of the Union Preview: Best (and Worst) Moments from History

  Although President George Washington gave the first one in person before Congress in 1790, the message was delivered in writing until the early part of the 20th Century—at which point President Woodrow Wilson revived the tradition that has lasted until today.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  

  When Lincoln's State of the Union Leaked

  by Burt Solomon

  Someone close to Lincoln gave excerpts to the press, and the new president scrambled to avoid a very public humiliation.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  1-18-15
  

  Mapping the State of the Union

  An interactive graphic shows the 1,410 different spots on the globe presidents have referenced in 224 speeches.

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• 1-27-14
  

  Enough With the State of the Union Already

  by Scot Faulkner

  The speech is a pointless exercise in Washington excess, and isn't even in the Constitution.

• SOURCE: National Review
  2-20-13
  

  Conrad Black: Two Cheers for Obama

  Conrad Black is the author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full, and the recently published A Matter of Principle. He can be reached at cbletters@gmail.com.

• SOURCE: NYT
  2-13-13
  

  Ted Widmer: From Obama, a Proudly Liberal Message

  Ted Widmer, assistant to the president for special projects at Brown University, is the editor of “Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy.” A former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, he was recently a consultant to the State Department.THE bright blue tie worn by President Obama to his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening was an accurate barometer of the weather. This was the most Democratic State of the Union in some time, not just in the range of government initiatives he proposed — the annual speech is usually a long laundry list — but because it set a new tone.Mr. Obama was looser than he has been in these previous annual messages to Congress — and unapologetic about his belief in government as an instrument to improve people’s lives. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, might have been right when he snorted, in the blur of televised commentary that followed, that it was the most liberal speech by a president to Congress since Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration.

• SOURCE: WaPo
  2-11-13
  

  Video mashup of 60 years of SOTU

  The Washington Post video team has created a video mashup of State of the Union addresses from the past sixty years -- check it out here.Further Reading:Important State of the Union Addresses in History