Get Ready for Tomorrow Night’s State of the Union [Livetweeting]!

Are you excited about tomorrow
night’s State of the Union, for the
Reason livetweeting of course? The address has something for
everyone: ritual pomp and circumstance for worshippers of the
state, cheer lines for the party in power, jeer lines for the party
not, and a slew of promises and claims, old and new, mostly broken
and untrue, to serve as a reminder of the base nature of political
discourse and action. The Obama White House spent the last few
weeks pushing tomorrow’s State of the Union as the start of a “year
of action.” Like a summer of recovery (or a winter of discontent?).
With midterm elections in November and both sides looking to
exploit any opportunity for political posturing or
self-aggrandizement, any “action” they can muster is almost certain
to be cringeworthy.

For those who can’t wait for Reason’s livetweeting of the State
of the Union address tomorrow, here are some readings on the ritual
gabbing:

• Matt Welch
  jerry rigged what could pass as 2012’s, this, or any year’s
  State of the Union address using one sentence from each of the
  annual addresses to joint sessions of Congress from 1961 to 2011.
  Twirl towards freedom!
• Last year John Stossel explained
  what President Obama should have said. It still applies, and the
  president will still ignore it.
• Scott Shackford’s 2013
  prediction on the big problems Obama was going to ignore in
  last year’s state of the union will be correct again this
  year.
• Matt Welch presents
  seven (only seven?) forgettable states of the union by second-term
  (lame-duckish) presidents.
• Obama for
  America Organizing for Action
  wanted to know what you wanted the president to say tomorrow
  night. He will certainly miss the opportunity again to
  tell young people he’s screwing them over big time.
• Obama is expected to gin up income inequality as the greatest
  problem of our time
  despite the good news.
• The president will be tempted to again insist America does big
  things. Peter Suderman explains why that’s not
  true.
• Last year saw
  two responses to the State of the Union: Sen. Marco Rubio
  (R-Fla.) for the GOP, and Sen. Rand
  Paul (R-Ky.)
  bringing the libertarianism with the semi-official “Tea Party”
  response. This year will see a response from Rep. Cathy McMorris
  Rodgers (R-Wash.) for the GOP, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) for the Tea
  Party, and Rand Paul for himself, in true libertarian fashion.
• Thomas Jefferson put a stop to delivering the state of the
  union in person because it was too reminiscent of the British
  monarch’s “speech from the throne.” Woodrow Wilson brought the
  practice back into fashion, and with it launched into full gear the
  project of the “imperial
  presidency.”

And here’s a Reason TV riff on President Obama’s doubletalk from
the 2010 address: