State of the Union Has Jumped the Shark

Blame Woodrow Wilson, who broke a century-old presidential tradition of delivering the State of the Union message only in writing. Blame Harry S. Truman, the first chief executive to make the address on television, or Lyndon B. Johnson, the first to do so in prime time. … Blame Lenny Skutnik, the plucky government office worker who rescued a freezing woman from the Potomac River after a plane crash and then became the first citizen-hero to be saluted by the president in the House gallery when Ronald Reagan honored him in 1982. … Blame the Democrats. Blame the Republicans. Blame social media, members of Congress, the wind or the weather. But the State of the Union — as political event, public theater, real-time town hall or self-help reality show — has jumped the shark.

— Todd Purdum, writing for Politico.

Republicans Still Don’t Understand Women

It’s hard for me to phrase this politely. Sometimes Republicans think that just putting a woman up front means somehow that women are going to feel good about the party. It is not about the messenger. It’s about the message. And until we figure that one out, while it’s nice that we have a woman as a spokesperson, if the message itself doesn’t get changed a bit, it’s not going to work.

— Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R), quoted by the Los Angeles Times, on Republicans picking a woman to rebut the State of the Union address.