EthosThe State of the Union Address is a formal event. It's sort of like prom for old, rich, mostly white people.The president doesn't want to cause a stir on his (or her) biggest night of the year...

List of IssuesA trademark of most Bill Clinton speeches (right down to his more recent stumping for Hillary's presidential campaign) is numbering. He starts off with a short introduction and then l...

Presidential: Formal, conciliatory, argumentativeHave you ever turned the TV on during election season and heard some talking head pontificating about a candidate sounding "presidential?" Kind of l...

Political/Campaign Speech: Clear, organized, linearTake a look through the text of the 1996 State of the Union through stunner shades. Without looking at the actual words, you'll notice paragraphs...

Historians usually refer to State of the Union Addresses using a single formal title: "Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union." Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue...

Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of the 104th Congress, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans all across our land: Let me begin tonight by saying to our men and wom...

Our country is and always has been a great and good nation. But the best is yet to come if we all do our parts. Thank you. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. Thank you. (95....

(3) Base Camp In the era of TV news, the president uses the State of the Union Address to deliver his message to a wide audience—as in, not just the folks in Congress. The speeches tend to be wri...

In-Text ReferencesHistorical ReferencesRichard Nixon (61.2)Oklahoma City Bombing (75.2), (85.4)Haitian Revolution (69.2)Bosnian War (1.3), (71.1)Political ReferencesPell Grants (37.3)The Brady Bill...

The line "the era of big government is over" originally ended with "but the era of every man for himself must never begin." The speechwriters ended up removing the caveat because they thought it so...