Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

With a State of the Union address, the president seeks to exert leadership by setting the nation on a path, outlining an agenda, and using the art of persuasion to achieve his policy goals. One means that a president uses to signal his legislative agenda to Congress and the American public is the State of the Union address (SUA). While the policies mentioned in this speech do no encompass the whole of the president's legislative agenda, the policies mentioned indicate the items which the administration has chosen to highlight publicly before both Congress and the rest of the country. The …