Wednesday, January 26, 2011

State Of The Union

I realize that the State of the Union address has some importance for marking the direction an administration desires to take and drawing attention to public policy questions of national concern. But I don't really understand why it has to be called the "State of the Union" address, or why there should be any expectation that the president will report on the state of America. Most of us live in America and we've more or less made up our own minds about what the state of the union is. Having the president say it's "strong" or "getting better" or "on fire" isn't going to impart any significant information that we don't have already.

3 comments:

Ron E. said...

It's called "State of the Union" because of Article II, Section 3 of the 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....

Neil Sinhababu said...

Thanks, Ron.

low-tech cyclist said...

Just like Ron E. said.

(You can thank me for the earworm later.)