1996 State of the Union Address: Trivia

    1996 State of the Union Address: Trivia

      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 sounded too sexist. Since it was the '90s, maybe they should have just ended it with the gender-neutral "Psych!" (Source)

      An episode of The West Wing has the fictional President Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) rehearsing the line "the era of big government is over" while preparing to give the State of the Union. Sheen, whose character was based on Clinton, even got invited to the White House, where he probably got some performance notes from the Big Dog. (Source)

      Bill Clinton holds the record for giving the longest State of the Union Address ever, during the last year of his second term (2000). The never-ending speech, which lasted almost an hour and a half, is said to have inspired Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. (Source)

      Prior to the 1996 State of the Union, Bill Clinton had met with Newt Gingrich to ask what he wanted to hear during the speech. Gingrich replied with, "Thank you and good night." Prior to taking the podium, Clinton handed the Speaker of the House a personal note. Can you guess what it said? Hint: it was not "What's your number?" (Source)

      Bill Clinton called on the TV industry to implement the "V-Chip," a piece of technology designed to help parents censor inappropriate programs (let's be honest, they were mostly concerned about Baywatch). By the early 2000s, many TVs had V-Chips, but very few parents actually used them. The parents might have been the ones that needed re-programming. (Source)