THE SPEECH:  I am preparing for the president's State of the Union speech in my usual scholarly and professional manner.  First, I have the sleeping pills.  Next, in case they fail, I have my ear plugs.  Should they not do the trick, I possess an excellent wire cutter on a Swiss Army knife that can cut the cable cord to my TV.

Finally, there is medical intervention.  I can report to the emergency room at White Plains Hospital, complaining of near-terminal boredom.  I've done it before, with Obama.  They treated me with an immediate playing of Ronald Reagan declaring, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"  My recovery began.

The modern State of the Union speech is a joke.  It simply fulfils the Constitutional requirement that the president inform us from time to time about the state of the nation.  Long ago the speech wasn't even delivered in person.  It was written, and sent over to Congress by the lowest available messenger.  No one cared.

In the age of television, that old tradition is impossible.  The speech has become a regular spectacle, allowing TV commentators of every sort to give their blessed opinions on what every line really means.  These opinions, like the speech itself, will be forgotten by the next day.  Indeed, do you remember any State of the Union speech?  Can you quote a line?  Is any presidential utterance in the speech found on a building?  That tells the story.

What is the story of this State of the Union?  Well, I haven't read it so I don't yet know.  But the real story may well lie in the body language, in fact the very presence, of the two people behind the president as he speaks.  One will be the new speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, who will introduce him.  McCarthy, a Republican, wants to make his mark as the man who stops the Biden presidency and prepares the voting public for a Republican victory in 2024.

And next to McCarthy will be someone called the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, who wins no popularity contests.  It is not a coincidence that a great deal of material leaked to the press and printed this week told us that even her own Democratic Party is turning against her, with many feeling she is a liability going into the 2024 elections.  The president she serves is clearly frail.  If he runs again and is re-elected, the person in the vice-presidential office will almost certainly become president.  The prospect that it will be Kamala Harris horrifies millions of Americans. 

But can Harris, the first woman and first person of color to hold her office, be removed from the ticket?  That will be the question on many minds during the State of the Union, as she sits behind the president she hopes to succeed.  That will be the greatest drama in the room.  More yes may well be on her than on the chief executive.

February 7, 2023