What should POTUS say during his SOTU?  Washington is a city of acronyms, so that sentence actually makes sense inside the DC beltway.   And that hits at the heart of the problem of every State of the Union (SOTU) address since George Washington first reported to Congress on January 8, 1790:  they’re insider laundry lists. 

Washington’s report was precisely such a list of America’s accomplishments in the year just finished, as well items done and not done by the Senate and the House, addressed specifically to them.  For example, Washington was pleased to see that North Carolina had approved the Constitution, but concerned that Congress get to work on several items, including military pay, a proper diplomatic corps, and this:  “the terms on which foreigners may be admitted to the rights of citizens should be speedily ascertained by a uniform rule of naturalization.” 

Come to think of it, Washington’s still waiting for that one. 

Presidents since television was invented have continued with the laundry list even though television as a medium is singularly unreceptive to long lists – and the nation-wide audience mostly uninterested. 

It’s a huge waste of an enormous opportunity.  Unfortunately, all signs are that POTUS will once again delivery a laundry-list SOTU, leaving the larger TV audience alternately bored and mystified. 

Here’s what he should do instead.  President Obama created an enormously successful narrative for his election campaign – remember hope and change? Yes, we can?  -- suggesting to the American people that it was time to renew their essential optimism and begin to go in a new direction from the Bush years. 

What’s happened since then has been dissected differently by partisans in both parties, but few would disagree with the idea that the optimistic story has gotten lost in the reality of governing during a very difficult couple of years in American – and world – history. 

So President Obama should begin a new, optimistic narrative line that allows Americans to hope once again.  He can’t literally do hope and change; that option was forever killed by Governor Palin’s mocking “how’s that hopey-changey thing working for ya?”  He needs a new story, one that will show us the way out of the thicket of despair we’re in and help us find our way to happier terrain.  He needs to address the issues that everyone is worried about – jobs, the deficit, taxes, the economy – without resorting to a laundry list of proposed programs that will be forgotten soon after the Republicans' response.   And he needs to show us how he can lead us through those issues to re-establish our confidence and America’s greatness. 

It’s a leader’s job to hold out a vision to unite people and create enthusiastic followers. This is a difficult time for many Americans, and we need a leader to point America in a new direction, one that renews us, strengthens us for the journey, and gives us hope.  But I’m afraid President Obama will do what every president has done since Washington and give us a laundry-list SOTU instead.  Too bad – it’s a waste of a fantastic TV audience.