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The unstately State of the Union

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The State of the Union address has become a tiresome pageant, overstuffed with partisan grandstanding, special guests and a laundry list of sometimes half-baked policy proposals.

You want courage in politics? Give me a president brave enough to spare us the dull spectacle.

I know, the State of the Union is too entrenched as a media event, and presidents like it for the attention it brings them. We are stuck with it.

The State of the Union’s a bully pulpit. President Barack Obama used it Tuesday night to again call for economic fairness. He wants the wealthy to pay a greater share of taxes; he wants new thinking about energy and innovation and productivity; he wants Congress to work together for the greater good. There was a lot of pundit blather after Obama’s speech about how he set forth his platform for re-election and crafted an implicit contrast between himself and his Republican rival - whoever that might be.

The Constitution - Article II, Section 3 - requires the president “from time to time” to give “the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” But the Constitution says nothing about an annual address, or whether the State of the Union even needs to be in the form of a speech.


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