Washington: On Tuesday night Barack Obama will give his seventh State of the Union address, an institution of both high theatrics and, according to some observers, high farce.
As directed by the constitution the president must "from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."
This directive evolved into the annual address to both houses of Congress last century and has since evolved into one of the most significant events in the Washington, DC, political calendar.
In recent years that cloak of non-partisanship has slipped.
As Curt Smith, George H.W. Bush's main speechwriter, notes, as the president speaks one side of the packed house "sits on its hands" while the other is "up and down like a jack in the box."
"You want to talk about a non-partisan event," he says dryly, "turn the volume off and watch it."
Smith, now a senior lecturer at the University of Rochester, says he would not wish the task of writing the address on his worst enemy.
In his recollection the process begins in November or December when the names of the team assigned to write it leak, then the phone calls start from departmental officials.
"They all try to convince you that the future of Western Civilisation will crumble if their particular project is not mentioned in the State of the Union."
According to Smith a successful State of the Union quickly shapes and runs with a theme. Those that devolve into laundry lists of presidential achievements past and future are "quickly and mercifully forgotten."
President Obama's theme this year will be middle-class economics. He will seek to celebrate America's strong economy and sharply reduced unemployment, yet emphasise the stark and growing disparity between the middle class and the super rich.
"America's resurgence is real," he said during a video preview of the speech. "Our job now is to make sure that every America feels that they are part of our country's comeback."
The president will propose an increase in the capital gains tax for couples who earn over $US500,000 and strip a tax break from heirs of large inheritances.
Another proposed tax hike would be imposed on large financial institutions to discourage risky borrowing. The $US320 billion in increased revenue would be directed back to the middle class in tax breaks and credits.
"This proposal is probably the most impactful way we can address the manifest unfairness in our tax system," an unnamed administration official told the Huffington Post.
The problems is the proposals, along with another to make two-year technical school degrees free, stand nearly no chance of ever being instituted because the president now faces anti-tax Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
That point has not been lost in coverage.
"Is this for real?" CBS's Bob Schieffer asked the White House senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer in an interview. "Do you really think there's a chance that something like this could pass?"
Pfeiffer all but acknowledged that the President's proposals would not pass.
"Are they going to go on everything? Absolutely not, but I think we should have a debate in this country between middle-class economics and trickle-down economics and see if we can come to agreement."
And this is the point of the State of the Union. Obama might be facing a Republican Congress in the final two years of his presidency, but he has not yet given up on imposing his vision upon the nation and shows no sign of leaving the field a lame duck.
After a burst of energy in the last months of last year that saw him sign greenhouse agreements with China, make immigration reforms and move towards normalising diplomatic relations with Cuba, he returns to the new Congress with his disapproval and approval rating balanced at 48 percent – a respectable figure in this period of a presidency.
While he will call for unity and bipartisanship in the national interest on Tuesday night, his administration has all but given up on compromise with Congressional Republicans.
Instead Obama will use the State of the Union to frame the national debate in his favour as he prepares to defend his legacy from a Republican Congress which aims to roll back many of his changes.
