A BAD NIGHT FOR DEMS
But, as you can see, it wasn’t a good night for Bernie Sanders, Ms. Occasional Cortex, and all the other Dems including Pelosi who grimaced and refused to stand.
A SOTU is a speechwriter’s nightmare. It consists of a laundry list of the president’s (alleged) accomplishments, followed by wish list of the bills the president wants Congress to pass. It’s hard to weave a coherent, uplifting theme into that mishmash.
And SOTUs are too long. They last, typically, an hour or so. One of the first rules of the thumb I learned as a fledgling speechwriter was nobody is interesting after 20 minutes.
There are exceptions to every rule. President Trump spoke for 82 minutes, the longest SOTU since Bill Clinton spoke for 84 minutes in 2000. Clinton’s SOTU that year was excruciating. But, for me, time flew by Tuesday night.














