Jonah: I think many of us would be less down on the SOTU as a form of political communication if presidents tried to innovate it. Must they all be 60+ minutes and include heroes in the balcony, stock phrases such as “the state of the union is [euphemism],” applause that’s the equivalent of a bad sitcom’s canned laughter, the obnoxious hand-shaking and back-slapping walk up the aisle, etc.?

I agree with you that we’re not ever going back to written tracts. But how about a SOTU that’s 15 minutes long and delivered outside of Washington, D.C.? It’s a change I could believe in.