Jamelle Bouie says that in his second State of the Union, Obama managed to speak about everything but joblessness and the nation’s employment crisis.
Here is what doesn’t matter about the State of the Union and its attendant spectacle: the instant polls of people who watch, the approval polls that follow, and — when it comes to public opinion — the actual content of the speech.
The first two are easy to explain; instant results are skewed by audience demographics (generally, the president’s supporters are those who tune in) and instant impressions are usually fleeting. What sounds good in the moment — “A joke about salmon? Hilarious!” — might sound ridiculous the next day. Likewise, since relatively few people watch the speech, its impact on presidential approval is negligible. Of the last five presidents, only one, Bill Clinton, saw a measurable bump in his approval rating following a State of the Union.