Event has become such an important night. Wasnt always so . Was it always so . Betty president sent their message and writing. It was not a big event like this. Televisionbegan coverage and that made it a big in event and a national event. Since the 1940s it has been a major public event. Host it is mandated by the 2,stitution, in article section three. The president should from time to time. John adams delivered his in person. Oft tradition continued sending a written message. Radio came along and president Calvin Coolidge was the first to use it. The first president ial broadcast 47. In 19 was it a Television Audience that made that decision . Had on theevelt first evening broadcast by radio. It did not have quite the same impact. 1960 Lyndon Johnson understood the power of media. In 1960 five he decided to take the state of the Union Address which had always been given admitted day around high noon every day and he put it into primetime viewing and gave it to a primetime viewing audience. That tripled quat and quadrupled his audience and prompted the opposition to get organized as well. Clicks continuing with technology, george w. Bush was the First White House webcast although cspan had been webcasting since 1997 on our website. The white house has done it by the internet since 2002. George w. Bush had the first hd state of the Union Address. In the obama years it has become hightech, very much digitally oriented. How did social media change the state of them union of the union . Betty we often hear things about the Television Audience shrinking but as the Television Audience diminishes the other audience is growing. Through thet it internet by streaming, by twitter, social media sites, facebook, that type of stuff. That has expanded the audience to such a degree that it is probably reaching a broader array of people now that than it has ever before. Season the other tradition began in 1982 when president reagan invited guests to sit in the gate chamber. His first guest was lenny skutnik. Betty there had been a terrible airplane crash in washington, planeand air florida crashed into the bridge going into the potomac river. He was the man who had died dived into the water to see people and helped pull people to safety. President reagan that knowledge temp as a true American Hero and he invited him to sit in the gallery of the House Chamber for the state of the Union Address. He acknowledged him and recognized him during the process of the address. It started a new tradition and now pretty much every year we have president ial visitors in the gallery and they are skutniks because it began with that hero. Betty the first lady will have 23 guests in an empty seat. The empty seat is to signify victims of gun violence in the United States so that will be a theme in the president s address tonight. It has been interesting watching how the president s use these for political purposes. They are often striking a chord for a number of the provisions in the speech. Also the speaker of the house announced he would invite guests and put the list out. His list includes antipoverty activists and he has two nuns joining him, members of the Little Sisters of the poor who are challenging the afford will care act. What message should we get from how they are using their seats . Betty you are correct. These visitors have multiple purposes for being there and one is to connect the American People to the policies that are being proposed so often there is a direct connection between between the visitors in the gallery and the proposals the president is putting forward. They are there as important symbolic connections to the American People. They are there to help the American People think that they too could be sitting in that gallery. It could be their experience highlighted by the president. In this case the speaker of the house. Has a political statement in the case of speaker ryan. He is looking for a way to change or alter or resent the Affordable Care act so he is using it as a public statement. Susan this is before a joint session of congress. What is the significance and are there certain roles in play . Eddie there certainly are. We have joint sessions in joint meetings. Joint meetings or when foreign speakers come to address the houses and it is an informal and unofficial meeting of congress. Joint sessions is a time when both houses of congress remain in session. They remain in official legislative session and they come together to hear the president and they do it as a joint body. They are specific there are specific rules that go along with that, there are rules that govern how they act in joint session, and it is recorded, it is part of the official recording of congress and so it is an official act of congress, not just a symbolic act or a ceremonial act. Susan there might be several joint sessions but this one, the state of the union, has become the marquee event for the congress. It always kicks off the new session in early january. Ofre are 535 members congress. There is a limited number of seats in that chamber. How are the seats allocated . They are so coveted on a night like this. Betty they are coveted. Most mirrors get one ticket in addition to a seat and that goes to a spouse or family member. There are limited seats so nobly probably a couple thousand people can fit into the House Chamber. They can put them anywhere they can fit them. They will sit on steps, stand in the back, find every spot for people. It is a closely guarded process to keep the seats limited to members of congress and their ypecial guests and specificall designated visitors that are guests of the president , guests of the speaker, guests of the Vice President , the guests of the majority leader. Susan the house is divided partisan wise, the democrats and sit on another. Is there a partisan divide, do they sit on opposite sides or is there a mixture . Required toare not sit on opposite sides. They segregate themselves into party because they tend to come in and sit by their friends and their colleagues that they know best and those tend to be party members. Ofically, you will see a mix both sides. You will see members of both parties sitting together. They have been a few times when specifically they have chosen to do a mix of seating so they are not divided by party. A strong Party Component to the way they sit in the chamber. Susan the state of the union setrally is the president s of legislative priorities. This is the final year of the obama presidency. We look back a bit over how president s use their final year and how they set the stage. It is not likely when they use the party that they will get their legislative agenda passed. How do president s tend to use this final speech . Betty since Franklin Roosevelts time we have only president s. Term president obama is the fifth. During their final year, their last two years of their final faced iny have Opposition Congress of some kind. President obama is in good company in that way. Final year in the the state of the union of the final year of to not only look at but to seek ways they can establish a legacy. They look for ways that they can prioritize the policy proposals that are most important to them, the things they want to achieve the most, and they will focus on that one or two policy proposals. Is that by narrowing the scope and focusing on particular things, they can get some minor achievement even in an Election Year which is a very difficult thing to do. Back inets look history and give you a glimpse of what Ronald Reagan had to say in 1988 as he was leaving and made his final address, final state of the Union Address. Lets listen. President reagan we have four basic objectives tonight. First, steps we can take to keep our economy strong and growing, to give our children a future of low inflation and full employment. Second, lets check our progress and attacking social problems where important gains have been made but which still need critical attention. I mean schools that work. Economic independence for the poor. Restoring respect for family life and family values. Our third objective tonight is global. Continuing a exciting economic and democratic revolutions we have seen around the world. Nationand finally, our has remained at peace for nearly a decade and a half. As we move toward our goals of world prosperity and world freedom, we must protect that peace and deter war by making sure the next president inherits what you and i have a moral obligation to give that president. Security that is unassailable and a National Defense that takes full advantage of new technology and is fully funded. [applause] susan president reagan laying out his four objectives in 1988. The white has gave some previews of what the president would say and said it would be a not traditional speech because of the fact that he was recognized his legislative agenda might not have a big chance. We were told he has been working on this speech since november with his chief speechwriter, cody keenan. 3 00 a. M. Emails were being exchanged between the president and the speechwriter. It has gone through six drafts area there is a parallel to Ronald Reagan. He has framed it in four questions. This is a capsule version. How do we give everyone in the country a fair shake . How do we make this technology that is coming so fast in our society work for us as a country . How do we make the country safer without being the world policeman . Have a political system that recognizes or encourages the best of us not playing on our fears . They will be the themes the president is striking. Betty that is interesting. When you look at other twoterm president s who have been in this situation, we have eisenhower in 1960 who gave a somewhat cautionary final state of the Union Address. It looked back. It was looking for legacy, but it was also very much couched in the cold war era so he was securityt a time when concerns were very important. You move up to 1988, reagans speech was interesting because he came into the address just before the clip that we saw here tonight, he comes into the address and says, this is my final year but we are still here, we are still working, we are going to keep going and he presented his for proposals. You move to bill clinton and he gives a fairly bold proposal at the end of his state of the Union Address. It seems president obama is giving a mix of those things. He is recognizing there will be limits. He is recognizing the realities of an electionyear environment but at the same time he is setting certain priorities and he is making sure that they will keep working toward achieving those priorities which are important to his presidency. From we have bill clinton 2000 and his final state of the Union Address. A theme for him was admonishing congress not to continue standing still. Lets listen in. President clinton this congress has been standing still on most on some of our most pressing parties. Lets begin tonight. Patik you to pass a real a s bill [applause] president clinton i ask you to pass commonsense gun safety legislation. [applause] you tont clinton i ask Pass Campaign finance reform. [applause] clinton i ask you to vote up or down on judicial nominations and other important appointees. [applause] president clinton and again, you, i implorek you to raise the minimum wage. [applause] susan we hear bill clinton really setting Challenging Congress on his legislative agenda. Tonight, president obama has a new ingredient, he has a brandnew speaker of the house, 45yearold that has said he wants to get things done, how does that change the dynamic . Betty it is still an unknown what is going to happen. We have the relationship between president obama and congress that has been very difficult in recent years but it has been difficult with very specific personalities, and now we have a new speaker of the house, he has an agenda of his own but he does not have a set way of being. And so it gives president obama an opportunity to come in and take advantage of this new environment and try to find a way to work with speaker brian and move things forward. Bill clinton still holds the record for giving the longest state of the Union Address. It was not that 2001 but 1995. 199 words. George washington has the shortest. Betty 1000 words. On average, most modern president s have given state of the Union Address is at 5000 words in length. S you mentioned the opposition response. The Republican Party will you making formal response to the address. Thatong it has tradition been around . That, then he did somewhat wily leader of the senate everett dirksen, he decided that president Lyndon Johnson was going to go prime time, he needs to get involved. He needed to make sure that the republican voice was heard as well so he joined with gerald ford and the planned for the 1966 annual message and the state of the Union Message to respond and they had an event in the Old Senate Chamber in the Capital Building. There was an audience there might and it was a highly publicized event and it was recorded and televised. It did not air the same night, it aired for five days later and a different times in different markets but it did get on the television and that began the opposition response. Each year, a member or members of the president s opposing party have given opposition responses. Susan over the 36 years that cspan has it around and televising these addresses they have experimented with the formats from yeartoyear, some successfully and some not successfully. Republicanch the response. Joining us to talk about the gop responder from his post inside the capital and statuary hal l is james arkin. The republicans have chosen the ofianamerican governor South Carolina, nikki haley. I wanted to get some history. In 1985, bill clinton was chosen to give the opposition response to president reagans state of the Union Address. He went on to run successfully for president of the United States. Have all the people selected had good fortunes after their selection for this role . James not quite. It is a mixed bag when you look at the official republican response. When you look at the First Response in 2009 was louisiana governor bobby jindal. That response was widely panned. He gave a very rushed and quick performance and most people thought he did not do very well. The new look at in 2011, paul ryan gave the response. He talked about Budget Priorities and talk about saving money and lowering the debt and , 2012, and the next year he was the Vice President ial nominee and now ryan is the speaker of the house and then you look at 2013, marco rubio had his famous water bottle moment where he reached for his and it water bottle showed up on social media but he is now one of the leading candidates for president and the Republican Party. There is an opportunity for the this to go very wrong for the people giving the response but you have seen some of the people come through that and really rise up in the ranks of the party. Susan what can you tell our audience about nikki haleys biography and can you speculate to why she was chosen . She started out in the state house in 2000 and became the governor in 2010 and she represents almost exact he what the Republican Party has looked for any response during the obama administration. She is young, she is a minority, she is a woman, and an indian american, the first woman and first minority governor of South Carolina. They look for both that and also for someone who is an up and, a rising star within the party. It is an opportunity to highly the bench, to show off people who might not be in the prime time in front of most americans, and she really represents that. Susan she released from her office a few of the themes that she will be striking. Many of them are traditional republican themes of opportunity, the debt, economics, but she is going to talk about the fact that she is a child of immigrants. We have a big immigration debate going on this in this country. What are the politics for her in that instance . James if you look at the excerpts of her speech that have been released she talks about opportunity and talks about people who want to live by American Values in you to come to america and work hard. Very strict a rebuttal of donald trump and some of the policies am a immigration policies that he has been talking about. She does not mention him by name but she is planning to say according to these absurd exits, not following the angriest voices in america in times of concern. That is a really seen as a direct rebuttal to some of these immigration policies coming from him. Pushspeech is trying to the Republican Party to open itself of up a little bit and start a bigger tent. Ofan how can she avoid some the pitfalls of the people you described who did not fare so well . James paul ryan offered her specific avoid advice, a cough drop in the back of her mouth which would have saved marco rubio when he had to reach for water. That was one piece of advice. About talking about the overall beliefs o