Critic suggests White House cancel the State of the Union address - too ‘big, noisy, overhyped’

The flawless sound bites, the predictable applause - maybe it’s just too much. White House efforts to control media spin, audience reaction and the Democratic “brand” could backfire as a certain annual speech looms over the nation.

“Are we ready for a big, noisy, overhyped prime-time production that has outgrown its simple origins and usually leaves us feeling both gorged and disappointed? If not, you may want to skip the State of the Union address and prepare for something humbler, like the Super Bowl,” says Steve Chapman, a Chicago Tribune columnist, who notes that President Obama has already revealed much of his talking points to the public through recent appearances and statements.

“Cancel the State of the Union,” says Mr. Chapman - adding that two previous presidents skipped the January rite, which was historically intended to be a simple affair rather than an imitation of the grand “Speech from the Throne” delivered by the British monarchy of yore. The address is also losing its audience, dropping in recent years from 52 million to 22 million viewers according to Nielsen.

“The State of the Union address has grown in step with presidential presumption. It’s a conspicuous symptom of a dangerous malady: We expect too much of our presidents and limit them too little,” Mr. Chapman notes. “Whether this event is still worth their time, however, is doubtful. If there was ever a time that direct exposure to presidential eloquence could melt the hearts of hostile legislators, it has passed. Even the public seems to have acquired immunity.”

Meanwhile, there’s fun to be had. Now rumbling around the Twitterverse, a challenge to tweeting wags to summarize the address in just three words. A sampling from the collection accruing under the hashtag #StateoftheUnioninThreeWords:

“I am ironman” (conservative strategist Keith Appell), “Gimme your money” (Fox News host Jebediah Bila), “Tax, spend, repeat” (columnist Michelle Malkin), “Don’t blame Islam” (Media Research Center analyst Dan Gainor. The tweets multiplied by the hundreds - both pro- and anti-White House throughout the weekend.