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.
Connect:
