It's been characterized as a type of political Super Bowl in the United States.The president's annual message to Congress and the opposing party's response, we're covering both in today's show. I'm Carl Azuz.Last night, U.S. President Joe Biden delivered his first annual message to a joint session of Congress.As we mentioned earlier this week, this wasn't technically a State of the Union address though it has many of the same elements and traditions.When a president does this for the first time,the thinking goes is that the leader hasn't been in office long enough to be an authority on the actual state of the union.So annual message is the term used to describe this kind of speech. It's still done in person.It's traditionally done in front of U.S. Senators and Representatives and their guests, members of the president's cabinet, members of the U.S. Supreme Court.The president doesn't just discuss the status of where things are,the speech is a chance for the leader to lay out a vision for the country in the year ahead.It's televised and shown online. It's covered in the news for days afterward.And all of this has grown out of sentence in the U.S. Constitution that says quote,"he shall from time to time, give to the Congress information on the state of the unionand recommend to their considerations such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient".According to the House of Representatives, President Biden's speech last night was the 98th time a U.S. leader delivered an address like this in person.We don't have a word count on it yet though these speeches can average around 5,000 to 6,000.The shortest was President George Washington's in 1790. It had fewer than 1,100 words.
