It took a while, but President Trump’s second State of the Union address is finally here. …
1. The speeches don’t affect approval ratings much
State of the Union addresses are generally meant as laundry lists of legislation for Congress to pursue — not soaring examples of oratory like presidential acceptance speeches. So it makes sense that, unlike political conventions, State of the Union addresses don’t produce a polling “bounce” for the president — but nor do they take much of a toll. In most cases, their political impact is close to nil. CONT.
Nathaniel Rakich, Geoffrey Skelley & Julia Azari, FiveThirtyEight