Every year, the President of the United States addresses a joint session of Congress to deliver his State of the Union address. Required by the U.S. Constitution, the address is the president's chance to take stock of the current condition of the United States and lay out his political agenda for the new year. Presidents have long used new technology to share their message directly with the American people. Calvin Coolidge was the first president to broadcast the State of the Union over the radio in 1923, and President Truman made history in 1947 when he became the first to deliver his address to a live television audience.
This year's State of the Union speech will also make history. It will be the first time that citizens will have the opportunity to ask follow-up questions during the speech -- and to hear the president's response to those questions. On Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET, during our live broadcast of the State of the Union on Citizentube, we'll open up a Moderator series for you to submit your questions for the president in video or in text (if you have the time, we'd prefer video). Over the following few days, you'll be able to submit additional questions and vote on your favorites too. Then next week (we'll announce the exact timing soon), we'll bring some of your top-voted questions to the president in a YouTube interview from the White House, which we'll also broadcast live on Citizentube. As always, questions are subject to YouTube's Terms of Service.
Already, discussions on YouTube about the State of the Union have been lively. Tomorrow on our homepage, we'll spotlight the responses of four experts to your ideas on the State of the Union. Check out those clips in the lead-up to the speech, then tune in tomorrow night to ask the President your questions. We'll also feature the GOP response to the president's address, in what promises to be an engaging discussion on the direction of the country in 2010.
Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, recently watched "One Year In, a Closer Look at the Obama Presidency."
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