How shocked will the uninformed be tonight after the President states the truth about the

[monmouth3]

state of the nation. Will anyone yell "Liar!?" Those who are glued to Fox are told one set of lies for who knows how long, and then when the actual story is told, the shock. Climate problems, stock market, education, raising the minimum wage, the continuing war in the Middle East and what he is doing about it... The unemployment rate and of course, the cursed ACA. The truth will be news to the uninformed and I'm wondering how the three responses will handle it. Perhaps they will ignore what the President said, I'm looking forward to it..

[femmocrat]

1. What makes you think he will tell the truth?

I'm not saying he will lie, but he could paint a more optimistic scenario than you are expecting. They usually do.

[bemildred]

2. Let's see what he says first. nt

[aristocles]

6. I agree. nt

[Uben]

3. Politicians say what favors them most...it's what they do.

Don't be surprised when the response is something akin to "Chicken Little". The sky is falling, and they didn't cause it. That about sums up the response from the other side of the aisle. They can't say anything good about it because they were against everything resembling change. They want 1980 again, and doggonit, they'll settle for nothing less. In so many words, of course.

[Warpy]

4. People love bullshit

and the ones who love right wing bullshit will skip the SOU and tune in for the Republican liefest after it.

[meadowlark5]

10. That's what I think

The nutjobs won't even bother listening to Obama's speech because they've been told and already believe it to be all liberal lies and propaganda.

They'll just tune in for the wingnut response afterwards.

[monmouth3]

5. With the ability to fact-check these days it would be foolish to blatantly lie, and why should he?

[liberal_at_heart]

7. So, what will he say about the TPP then?

[monmouth3]

8. I have no idea...

[Dash87]

9. I can never find worth in SoTU addresses.

I never find the SoTU worth watching. I'm not interested in what "should be." If Obama has a concrete plan for doing something with specifics, then I'll listen. That might bore the general audience, though. Plus, the frantic, extended clapping fits of the audience drive me crazy. Just shut up and let the man talk!

Every SoTU has at most 10 minutes of useful information. This isn't an attack on Obama - this is just the way SoTU speeches are, which is why I look for the recap after / at best use them for background noise until that President hits an interesting subject.

[freshwest]

11. The willfully ignorant don't have the patience to consider what is said. They'll buy what FNN sells.

[badtoworse]

12. What makes you think the uninformed will be watching?

How do you think they got that way?

[monmouth3]

13. They'll be watching so they can pick apart what he says. They got that way thru Fox, Rush and other

RW pundits..

[FarCenter]

14. It is a stupid ceremony - he should just email it to Congress

He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

— Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution

There is no constitutional requirement to appear before Congress and give a snoozer of a speech. Although Washington and Adams did so, Jefferson discontinued the practice in 1801, and it was only resumed in 1913 by Woodrow Wilson. However, it was not delivered in person on several occasions by multiple presidents since then, the last to mail it in being Carter in '81.

It is, of course, modeled on the Queen's address at the opening of Parliament.