When I heard that Democrats and Republicans, in a show of bipartisanship, were going to break with tradition and sit together during last night's State of the Union address, I wondered what that would do to the amount of applause that President Obama received. You may have heard about this whole sitting together thing. I hadn't until yesterday morning when I heard a replay of a clip of first-term Congressman Michael Grimm (R-NY) on a weekend news show. When asked about the plan to sit with members of the opposing party, he responded that "Shitting together is a good start." You read that right.
I have a tough time with the State of the Union address. I used to look forward to it. It was a good opportunity to hear the President lay out his agenda for the year and state his case for the legislation he wished to have enacted. Whether I agreed with the President or not, watching the State of the Union address helped me form my own opinions about the political issues of the day.
Unfortunately, in recent years, State of the Union addresses have become really hard to watch. The constant interruptions for applause kill me. It's like watching a bad sitcom with the laugh track repaced by an applause track. What is a laugh track really? It's a move by a network executive who either isn't confident that the show is actually funny or doesn't trust you to form your own opinion. It's the same thing with the State of the Union address. The party in power doesn't want to take any chances with you while you watch from home. Their constant applause appears to be their attempt to make you think that the President has good ideas rather than letting you decide for yourself.
And these applause interruptions have been getting worse. George Bush was interrupted by applause an average of 70 times during each of his State of the Union addresses. In his first two, Barack Obama averaged 75 applause interruptions.
You may not have been counting at home so here's the final tally for you. There were 76 applause interruptions last night. I'm not sure that shitting together was a good idea after all.