Here’s a nice, short history of the State of the Union address. My favorite part is about Clinton’s addresses:

[B]y his second term, his State of the Union appearances seemed to turn increasingly surreal with each passing year.

In 1997, he appeared in the House chamber at the same moment a California jury was handing down its verdict in the much-watched civil trial of O.J. Simpson, leading television networks to show the two events in riveting split-screen fashion. …

That little drama, of course, would prove minor compared to the psychodrama that awaited. In 1998, Mr. Clinton arrived on Capitol Hill for the speech just days after his affair with Monica Lewinsky was exposed, yet he went through his oratory with nary a mention of the scandal rapidly consuming his presidency. Then in 1999, he unveiled his policy agenda to the same House members who had just impeached him for covering up the affair in legal proceedings and the same senators who by day were conducting a trial to determine whether he should be evicted from office.

I totally remember these. That 1998 address was particularly gutsy. He was surrounded by all the Lewinsky drama, but he strode out confidently and he completely ignored it. The centerpiece of his address was his call to use the budget surplus (surplus!) to “save Social Security first.”

That man knew how to deliver a big speech in a moment of high drama.