Even in the era of declining television audiences, President Obama's State of the Union address is still the biggest audience he'll have all year. Historically, seventh-year State of the Union speeches have a short shelf life. Every one of the five lame-duck presidents (that is, presidents constitutionally barred from running again — Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama) has had opposition congresses, making the prospects for passing major parts of the president's agenda slim to none.
But on Tuesday Obama will try to use his speech to frame the debates for the next two years and set the table for the 2016 election.
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
