White House Aides Keep Trying to Torch the State of the Union Address. Presidents Keep Getting in the Way.

In 1998, Jeff Shesol, a speechwriter in Bill Clinton’s White House, wrote an internal memo calling for a shorter, tighter speech that focused on one important idea. No one listened.

WASHINGTON — Now and then, a few intrepid White House speechwriters will wage a quiet battle to kill the State of the Union address as we know it — or at least shrink it so it’s no longer the stylized piece of theater it has become.

Worrying that the annual speech has grown stale, presidential aides over the years have sought to shake it up. They’ve considered pulling it out of the Capitol and moving it to heartland states, shortening it by two-thirds or sticking to just a single theme. But inertia would always take hold. No president wants to give up the pomp and ceremony, much less the millions of eyeballs trained on him, as he strides through the House chamber after the ringing eight-word cue: “Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States!”

The state of the union may be strong or getting stronger. But the state of State of the Union address is immutable. It’s not about to change.